Company Name:
WORLD HOTELS AG
Founded:
1970 as SRS – Steigenberger Reservation Service
Company Description:
WORLDHOTELS is the largest and most established Europe based global group for individual and independent hotels as well as regional hotel brands. The company's strong emphasis is on quality consistent properties with character and distinction.
Under the banner “UNIQUE HOTELS FOR UNIQUE PEOPLE”, WORLDHOTELS offers business and leisure travellers a wide choice of about 500 individual accommodation options in more than 300 destinations worldwide in three distinct Collections – Deluxe, First Class, and Comfort. WORLDHOTELS' guests also benefit from an extensive portfolio of partnerships, including frequent flyer programmes from 18 of the world's leading international airlines.
To its member hotels, WORLDHOTELS provides a wide range of sales, marketing, distribution technology and related services and enables hotels to be part of a globally recognised brand.
Primary Target Groups:
- Business and Leisure Travellers
- Conferences and Incentive Organisers
- Corporate Travel Managers
- Travel Agents
- Independent individual hotels and regional hotel brands
Classification:
WORLDHOTELS Deluxe Collection: 153 Hotels
WORLDHOTELS First Class Collection: 229 Hotels
WORLDHOTELS Comfort Collection: 60 Hotels
Chief Executive Officer:
Mr. Michael J. Ball
Management
Corporate Head Office Frankfurt/Main:
Michael J. Ball (Chief Executive Officer)
Stuart Walters (Chief Information Officer)
Sven Larsen (Chief Financial Officer)
Sabine Ullrich (Senior Director Marketing)
Regional Head Offices:
Vice President The Americas, Tom Griffiths, New York.
Vice President EMEA, TBA, Frankfurt/M.
Vice President Asia Pacific, Roland Jegge, Singapore.
Head office:
WORLDHOTELS AG · Herriotstrasse 1 · 60528 Frankfurt am Main · Germany
Phone: +49.69.660 56-0
Fax: +49.69.660 561-99
E-Mail: mail-us@worldhotels.com
The Americas regional office:
WORLDHOTELS AG · 152 West 57th Street, 28th floor · New York, NY 10019 · USA
Phone: +1.212.9560-200
Fax: +1.212.9562-555
E-Mail: Americas@worldhotels.com
Asia-Pacific regional office:
WORLDHOTELS AG · 19 China Street #02-01, Far East Square Singapore · 049561 · Singapore
Phone: +65.62.2755-35
Fax: +65.62.27.05-65
E-Mail: Asia@worldhotels.com
Airlines:
With 18 Airline Partners worldwide and over 240 million frequent travellers in total, WORLDHOTELS offer the largest network of frequent flyer partnerships of all hotel groups for independent hotels. Airline partners include Air China, Air France/KLM, American Airlines, Lufthansa, Thai Airways and United Airlines.
Car Rental:
Avis
Credit Card:
American Express
Media:
CNN International
Sales Services:
31 Sales and Reservation Offices staffed by more than 100 sales people
Worldwide Corporate Rate Programmes
Worldwide Consortia Contracting
Direct Mailings
Special Programmes and Promotions for Leisure Travellers
Road Shows and Fairs
3 dedicated global group desks working for the meeting product WORLDHOTELS.events
Marketing Services:
Public Relations and Advertorials
Direct Marketing
Print and online Newsletters to various target groups
Corporate Production
Advertising
Event & Fair Concepts
Marketing Partnerships
Online Image Platform WORLDHOTELS.mediaserve
Corporate Production Material:
Corporate Profile
Corporate branding material like flags, membership plates
Planning Guide
In room magazine “WORLDHOTELS Inside”
Hotel Directory
Posters/Flyers/Postcards/Give-aways/Banners/Adverts
Themed brochures and collaterals for specific target groups
Airline Partners tent cards
Distribution Services:
Global web based CRS TRUST Voyager and Reporting tool TRUST View
Seamless Next Generation connectivity to all major Global Distribution Systems
Master Chain Code EW – Exclusive WORLDHOTELS
Direct connections to more than 600,000 travel agent terminals worldwide and own dedicated web portal for Travel Agents, WORLDHOTELS.beconnected
Advanced IDS (Internet Distribution Systems) connections and web booking engine connections to internet portals and distribution partners
Specialist services in E-Commerce, Technology and Online Distribution
Worldwide toll free voice reservation service in 3 Global Communication Centres with over 40 phone numbers
Own online Booking Engine in 10 languages
Other Related Services:
Dedicated Hotel Account Management with consultancy on all service and revenue related topics
Own web-based account management and RFP software Nexus
WORLDHOTELS.academy offering dedicated training programmes for Member Hotels
Performing Excellence Programme to evaluate and increase the performance of hotels
WORLDHOTELS.rate scan, the rate scan tool that helps to monitor hotel rates in various internet channels
When the Steigenberger Reservation Service or SRS – the company that would later become WORLDHOTELS – was founded in 1970, its concept was simple: it was a network of likeminded unique hotels, making it easier for travellers to connect with otherwise inaccessible hotels on the other side of the world and enabling members to share customers and help each other to get business. All the member hotels kept their own character and individuality, but benefited from a centrally managed reservations system.
Back in 1970, SRS’s fledgling reservations department was responsible for handling a mere 16 Steigenberger hotels and 21 partner hotels, which were spread between Europe and Asia. However, within a few short months the new organisation had taken off and sister branches were running in Duisburg, Munich, Rome, Helsinki and – the first outside the Continent – Tokyo. By the end of the decade, SRS had grown to represent
almost 150 hotels in 120 locations around the world. Its hotel directory was now being published on an annual basis – and had become greatly sought after by the world’s more sophisticated globetrotters.
In the early days of SRS, every booking request was taken manually. A telex was sent to the hotels concerned, and they confirmed using the same method. It took the best part of a week to complete a reservation, from first telephone enquiry to final confirmation that customers had a bed wherever they were headed. It was not long, however, before the company stepped up into the realm of rapid response technology. In a first for the hospitality industry SRS went computerized and started processing about one fifth of all bookings by electronic means.
Advances in information technology were to revolutionize the travel industry and, in 1981, SRS became one of the pioneers of the newly vaunted Information Age: the company took the far-sighted decision to develop its own specifically dedicated computer reservations system TRUST (Transworld Reservation Utilisation Service Terminal). This allowed SRS to oversee a sophisticated data pool of hotel room capacities and to link this directly to travel agencies. The system was eventually connected to the world’s airlines’ Global Distribution Systems (GDS), a world-wide information resource for travel agents. Now travel agents from Boston to Bahrain could access information about each hotel, its rates and room availability, and make seamless bookings.
In 1985, SRS Hotels introduced quality standards for the evaluation of its members, which by then had increased to 170.
In 1993, SRS Hotels was the first international hotel sales, marketing and reservations organization to introduce a system of ranking its member hotels into three categories. Since then, guests at WORLDHOTELS have been able to identify the standards and facilities on offer at an individual property according to its classification.
In 1998 SRS incorporated the new brand name “WORLDHOTELS” and became SRS-WORLDHOTELS.
In 2005 the company established a Supervisory Board of member hotels and leading industry players and was consolidated as a public limited company (AG). The same year, it exercised another major re-branding: it dropped the SRS part of its name and became WORLDHOTELS, which perfectly and precisely exemplified the organization’s aims and core values.
In the 38 years since the first SRS telexes buzzed around the earth, much has changed. Yet WORLDHOTELS fundamental mission hasn’t changed in all this time. It is still to bring unique individuals and unique hotels together, and in doing so to allow independent and local hotel groups to survive and flourish in a globally competitive world.
Today, the WORLDHOTELS portfolio includes almost 500 colourful and unique hotels from all over the world; and it continues to steadily expand.
