Engine Drives Growth from Bringing Controls to Unmanaged Programs

Engine

• Founder and CEO: Elia Wallen
• Headquarters: Denver
• Last Funding Round: 2024
• Valuation as of Last Funding Round: $2.1 billion

Over the previous decade, reserving platform Engine has grown from a company housing platform’s aspect mission right into a multi-billion enterprise aiming to bridge the hole between on-line journey businesses and journey administration firms for small and midsize journey packages. 

Corporate housing firm Travelers Haven launched Hotel Engine as a subsidiary in 2015 to help friends with lodge bookings, and it cut up off as its personal firm a couple of years later. Since then, the corporate has undergone three funding rounds—most just lately its $140 million Series C funding spherical in 2024, which raised its valuation to $2.1 billion—and speedy development in product and options. Travelers Haven founder Elia Wallen moved over to function the corporate’s CEO fulltime in 2020—Travelers Haven itself was acquired by furnished house rental supplier Blueground in 2023—and the corporate this month mentioned it has grown from 700 workers at the beginning of this 12 months to greater than 1,000 right this moment. 

Over its historical past, Engine has constructed direct partnerships with a lot of the largest lodge teams on the earth—together with Hilton, IHG, Wyndham, Choice, Hyatt, Best Western and Oyo—in addition to massive property administration teams in North America and studies unique charges obtainable at greater than 85,000 motels, in accordance with an organization spokesperson. The firm claims development of 23,000 vacationers becoming a member of per thirty days. 

As Wallen described it in an interview with “Fortune” last year, “the little brother became the big brother.” 

The Engine platform was constructed “to deliver the intuitive booking experience of most modern travel platforms but with a lot of the product features traditionally reserved for large managed travel programs,” Engine EVP of provide, product and technique Florent Silve mentioned.  Those options embody centralized billing, coverage controls, dashboards and reporting. Engine additionally negotiates with chains and straight with motels to supply particular charges with shoppers they’d not be capable of procure on their very own, he mentioned. 

Generally, Engine “doesn’t bump into the TMCs” with prospects, as its shoppers sometimes haven’t got TMC relationships, Silve mentioned. Some of its shoppers have migrated away from TMCs in favor of self-service, whereas others have by no means had any sort of instrument for journey administration for his or her firm, he mentioned. 

With that focus on clientele, the Covid-19 pandemic “was a turning point” for Engine’s development, in accordance with Silve. “Many of our customers had dedicated staffing pre-Covid, and then someone in HR or finance was told they were not going to rehire that travel manager, so now they had to do this on top of everything else,” he mentioned. 

Last 12 months, Engine dropped the “Hotel” from its title because it expanded its capabilities to supply flight and automotive rental bookings, as its prospects wished a “one-stop shop” for journey, Silve mentioned. As with its lodge content material, the flight and automotive content material comes from a wide range of sources, together with direct provider integrations, aggregators, GDSs and New Distribution Capability sources. 

Engine doesn’t require its company prospects to signal long-term contracts or decide to any spend minimums. It earns its revenues by transaction charges in addition to elective merchandise prospects can use in bookings. Among these merchandise is its “Flex” reserving possibility, wherein vacationers can change or cancel their lodge reservations with out penalty even when it is outdoors a lodge’s coverage window. It additionally sells a “FlexPro” possibility by which prospects can subscribe to that functionality on a month-to-month or annual foundation. 

In 2024, Flex and FlexProfessional bookings accounted for 40 p.c of its whole bookings and 70 p.c of whole buyer spending and contributed to $202 million in financial savings for purchasers, in accordance with Engine. It expanded the aptitude to flights this 12 months. 

Engine is also broadening its give attention to group journey, and it has services and products for its lodge companions, serving to them with gross sales and advertising and marketing efforts, and it additionally may help motels reply to group requests for proposals.

“We have full-stack solutions to help hotels reach and optimize their distribution within the ecosystem of SMBs,” Silve mentioned. “They have that with OTAs, but it’s a very different customer base.” 

The unmanaged SME market is considered as a profitable goal—American Express Global Business Travel, for instance, has estimated its worth at $834 billion globally—and Silve mentioned Engine has invested closely in gross sales efforts over time to learn the way finest to succeed in the decision-makers in that market and has opened gross sales hubs in Chicago and Tempe, Ariz., in addition to its headquarters metropolis of Denver. The firm additionally has workplaces in San Francisco and New York. 

“With the brand recognition improving, we have more self-serve and product-led growth, and we’re pushing for that direction, but for the most part, it remains with our sales efforts,” Silve mentioned. “A lot of companies have tried to go down-market and realized it’s not that easy, so that’s where we’re building something pretty special.”