Hungarian Szallas.hu buys Polish online travel company Spanie.pl

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Sz-ll-s.hu-23
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One of the oldest online travel agency market players in Poland was taken over by the Hungarian Szallas.hu. The recently made transaction meant the acquisition of the Spanie.pl Group, which was founded in 2002. Last year Szallas.hu managed around 900,000 guest nights online in the Central and Eastern European region.

The Hungarian website Szallas.hu was founded in 2007.ย  Since 2012 it is dynamically expanding in the region supported by its financial investor PortfoLion and its aim is to become market leader among the online tourism agencies of the Central and Eastern European region. That is why the escalating presence in the foreign market is a significant element in the growth strategy of the group. โ€œWe saw great possibilities in the Polish market โ€“ this is where we achieved the most dynamic growth in the last years. We wanted to accelerate this pace so we had decided to acquire Spanie.pl. The transaction was financed in 100ย percent from internally generated fundsโ€ said Jรณzsef Szigetvรกri Jรณzsef, managing director of Szallas.hu.

The Spanie.pl Group was founded in 2002 and is nowadays a significant player of the online accommodation market in Poland. It is visited annually by 5ย million people who are eager to travel. The site offers almost 52,000ย domestic accommodation opportunities so it basically covers the whole Polish market. โ€œEverything is given at Spanie.pl to carry out a successful integration and to achieve our goal, namely to make the Szallas.hu Group market leader in Poland under the brand name Nocleg.plโ€ explained Jรณzsef Szigetvรกri. The managing director also mentioned that they are ready to take over further companies. “Meanwhile we are making efforts to strengthen our presence in other countries where Szallas.hu has a foreign representation, that is in Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia Checz Republic and Austria. Our aim is to become the biggest online tourism agency of Central and Eastern Europeโ€ stated Jรณzsef Szigetvรกri.

75ย million euros of mediated turnover in 2017

Szallas.hu increased its revenue by 30.9ย percent in 2017. The mediated turnover was above 75ย million euros. The number of accommodation available for booking reached 257,000, which means a growth of almost 20ย percent compared to 2016. A total number of 882,000 nights were โ€œcared for onlineโ€ by Szallas.hu. The Hungarian company showed an even more dynamic expansion on the international level: There was an increase of almost 50ย percent in the revenue realized abroad.

The improvement of existing services and the launching of new opportunities both contributed to the success of Szallas.hu. Apart from accommodation, the website also informs us about discounts of regional programmes. โ€œInnovation is the biggest value of our company. That is why we are constantly searching for and introducing new online touristic services while we are also endeavouring to improve our representation abroad. The results achieved so far were acknowledged by international competitions; for example Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Europe was won by Szallas.hu in 2014โ€ continued the managing director of Szallas.hu.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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