HRS CEO Tobias Ragge Named Among 25 Most Influential Business Travel Executives by Business Travel News

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Business Travel News, a leading travel industry publication, named HRS CEO Tobias Ragge to its 25 Most Influential Business Travel Executives list for 2016. Noting HRS’ “significant inroads in the North American market” and several industry partnerships, BTN honored Mr. Ragge, along with other executive peers, in New York City earlier this week.

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This marks the second time BTN has included Mr. Ragge in its prestigious list of prominent executives; the publication honored Mr. Ragge in 2014.

Cologne-based HRS, the world’s largest corporate hotel content provider with more than 300,000 hotels in its portfolio, serves more than 3,000 multi-national corporate hotel programs. The company first began managing hotel sourcing and annual negotiations for North America-based companies in 2014, then followed with a team on the ground beginning in 2015. This year, HRS Americas tripled the number of corporations for which it is managing RFP season. HRS Americas’ clients cumulatively spend $800 million annually on lodging.

From a global perspective, HRS extended its leadership in the sourcing space in 2016. Contrasting against 2014 levels, the company will double the number of room nights it negotiates this RFP season to more than 12 million. HRS staff will solicit rates from more than 54,000 hotels on behalf of corporate clients, up from 27,000 two years ago. HRS extended a long-term global partnership with Concur and inked a new deal with FCM’s North American arm this year.

HRS also made notable investments to expand its range of business-grade hotels to corporate audiences. In May, HRS invested in Australia’s Lido Group, bringing 6,700 properties to the portfolio. The company added hundreds of U.S.-based independent hotels to its portfolio across the year. Indonesia’s TAUZIA hotel group, with more than 100 hotels, added its content to HRS in October.

Mr. Ragge, HRS’ CEO since 2008, credits his colleagues and HRS clients for putting him in position to earn this recognition. “Our team has grown steadily and smartly in recent years, and the success our clients are registering with their hotel programs is drawing attention to the benefits of our model,” said Ragge. “Greater transparency across all elements of the hotel acquisition and service process only helps corporate clients better manage their programs; it’s great to see BTN recognize the work our teams have done in America and other regions.”

HRS opened offices in Australia and Mumbai in 2016, and now has 26 offices and 1600 employees.

ABOUT HRS Americas

HRS grew its staff by 15 percent in 2015, and today employs 1,600 employees in 26 offices around the world, with Australia and Mumbai being the latest office additions. HRS Americas is based in New York City. HRS features 300,000 hotels in the global portfolio, including 180,000 independent hotels with no affiliation to a chain. With five million rooms in the global distribution systems (GDS) HRS is the largest hotel content provider in these systems. Numerous global companies in the Fortune 500 are among HRS’ corporate clients – including Google, China Mobile, Hitachi, Alibaba and Panasonic.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161207005996/en/

BrophyPR for HRS Americas
Michael Brophy, +1-214-356-4326

Source: HRS Americas

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