{"id":4296,"date":"2020-09-03T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T07:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.hotelrunner.com\/?p=4296"},"modified":"2020-09-03T07:00:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T07:00:55","slug":"hotelrunner-acquires-rate-shopping-and-comparison-platform-ratefor-in-strategic-growth-move","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/news\/acquisitions-investments\/hotelrunner-acquires-rate-shopping-and-comparison-platform-ratefor-in-strategic-growth-move\/","title":{"rendered":"HotelRunner acquires rate shopping and comparison platform RateFor in strategic growth move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listed by <\/span>WIRED<\/b> magazine as one of <\/span>Europe\u2019s 100 Hottest Startups<\/b> two years in a row, VC-backed travel tech startup\u00a0<\/span>HotelRunner<\/b><\/a>\u00a0has today announced that it has acquired rate analysis, shopping and comparison platform <\/span>RateFor<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a global sales management and distribution platform for online travel agents (OTAs), hotels and payment providers to \u2018find, contract, connect, and transact with each other\u2019, HotelRunner is the first peer to peer networked marketplace for the travel sector with over 40,000 accommodation providers registered on the platform in 193 countries. The move to purchase RateFor forms part of its <\/span>big data strategy – to offer a complete tech stack for hotels<\/b>, including property management, online direct bookings, channel management and rate intelligence and comparison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded in Turkey by <\/span>Mesut Mert<\/b> and <\/span>Alican Soysal<\/b> in 2018 and already being used by numerous travel agencies and hotels, RateFor is known for its ability to report property rates across a number of online sales channels on just one screen. Post-acquisition, it means that HotelRunner’s accommodation partners will be able to optimise their rates by analysing the rates of competing properties in their region and be able to view which rooms of their property are sold, on which platform and at what rate in real-time, and ensure rate parity. Conversely, agencies too will benefit since they\u2019ll be able to perform data-based competitive analysis by monitoring the rates of the properties they follow on other agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founding partner Mesut Mert at RateFor said: \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to be joining the HotelRunner team \u2013 another step in our ambitious growth plans! Together with our market-leading offerings and technology strengths, we see great potential to deliver a unique and broader offering to OTAs, hotels and payment providers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alican Soysal added: \u201cAs we merge with HotelRunner\u2019s scalable and reliable technological infrastructure, we believe the RateFor platform will grow rapidly. Exciting times ahead!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Founders and Managing Partners of HotelRunner, <\/span>Arden Agopyan<\/b> and <\/span>Ali Beklen<\/b> commented on the acquisition: Agopyan said: \u201cDespite the enormous challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued with our investment and innovations plan and are on track to achieve \u2013 and exceed \u2013 our financial targets. As such, we\u2019ll be making further business acquisitions in the upcoming period to accelerate our global growth and move closer to our goal of becoming the data-driven driving force for the travel industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Beklen concluded: \u201cWe\u2019re delighted that the founders of RateFor have joined our expanding team and the RateFor platform will continue its operations within HotelRunner. Our goal is to take both ourselves and the currently stagnant tourism ecosystem one step further through strategic moves. The long-term relationships we have with business partners and the industry\u2019s trust in us, play an important role in our growth and we\u2019re committed to creating innovative products and services that increase their revenues with fewer costs and no additional fees.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","news_type":[439],"class_list":["post-4296","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_type-acquisitions-investments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotelrunner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_type?post=4296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}