Operations
HolidayCheck users can book travel, compare offers and rate their experience.
The company claims 2.5 million members and 8 million reviews, from an average of 24.13 million visits and 133 million page impressions per month (June 2017). [11] HolidayCheck also publishes an online travel magazine, Away. [12]
HolidayCheck also operates Zoover, a Dutch-language hotel review portal, as well as weather platform Meteovista and car rental comparison site MietwagenCheck.
The company was a founding member of the Association of New Tourism (VNT), an industry group of non-corporate travel agents promoting new distribution channels, latterly the Association of Internet Travel Distribution (VIR). [13]
Ownership and acquisitions
In July 2006, Hubert Burda Media Holding acquired 80 percent of the shares in HolidayCheck AG for €60 million, through its subsidiaries Burda Digital Ventures and Tomorrow Focus AG. Tomorrow Focus took a 51% share and Burda Digital Ventures took 29 %. [14]
In 2007 Burda Digital Ventures sold its shares to Tomorrow Focus AG. At the time, HolidayCheck was the market leader among German-speaking hotel and travel review sites, having Hotelcheck.de. [15] In 2008, HolidayCheck acquired rival portal Urlaub.com. [16]
In January 2009, Tomorrow Focus AG acquired a further 14 percent stake for €21.6 million, taking its stake to 94 percent of the company. [17] The founders sold their remaining 6 percent of the company in June 2013; Tomorrow Focus AG then became the sole owner.
The site's parent company made further investments in the travel sector in 2015, while selling several online publishing businesses at the time, including Focus Online and the Huffington Post. [18] The company changed its name from Tomorrow Focus AG to HolidayCheck Group AG in 2016. [19]
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Hubert Burda Media Holding is a German media group with headquarters in Offenburg. It originated as a small printing business, founded by Franz Burda Snr in Philippsburg, in 1903.
Hubert Burda is a German billionaire publisher. He is the owner, publisher and general partner of Hubert Burda Media, a global media company of more than 600 media products, including websites, print magazines and other brands. It operates in 20 countries, predominantly in Germany and the UK. Its brands include Focus, Bunte and Radio Times.
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Lars Hinrichs is a German entrepreneur and investor. Hinrichs is best known as the founder of XING, a Germany focused, but worldwide available, social networking website dedicated mostly to cultivating business contacts.
TUI Travel PLC was a British leisure travel group headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex. The company was formed on 3 September 2007 by the merger of First Choice Holidays PLC and the Tourism Division of TUI AG, which owned 56.4%. The company operated in 180 countries and claimed 30 million customers.
Christoph Gerlinger is a German venture capitalist and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and CEO of the former venture capital investor German Startups Group, which is publicly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was transformed into a Private Equity firm in late 2020. Prior to that he was a senior executive and entrepreneur in computer and online games companies since 1996. He was CEO of the MMO Games publisher Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, listed at Frankfurt stock exchange from 2006 until its takeover in 2010. Gerlinger was named one of Germany's most 50 interesting young entrepreneurs by a leading German business magazine.
