HOTEL ENGINE.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP

WHERE: Denver

WEB: www.hotelengine.com

FOUNDED: November 2014

INITIAL LIGHT BULB:

As the founder of Denver-based Travelers Haven, Elia Wallen built a business around long-term housing solutions for corporate clients. But most business travel involves shorter trips than Traveler Haven's 30- to 90-day focus, so he started a second company to focus on stays as short as a night based on customer demand.

The premise: Hotel Engine fills a gap in the booking market. "Small-to medium-sized businesses don't really have any negotiating power when it comes to hotel rates," says Wallen, Hotel Engine's CEO. "They're getting the same rates consumers are."

IN A NUTSHELL:

In lieu of B2C portals like Kayak and Expedia, Hotel Engine's B2B booking platform offers a "pathway to lower rates," Wallen says.

Available by request, an invitation allows companies to access Hotel Engine's free booking system and enjoy wholesale-level pricing. "We are on average 26 percent below public rates," he says.

It's not reinventing the wheel, he adds, but rather porting a proven model to a new market. "It's very similar to Hotels.com," Wallen says, noting that the business model is commission-based. "We make money per booking."

The market is responding in a big way. In three years, Hotel Engine grew its customer base to 12,000 businesses and 120,000 users and its staff to about 40 employees. Revenue grew 303 percent from 2015 to 2016 as business users and bookings grew by 475 percent and 563 percent, respectively.

After initially focusing on smaller businesses, Wallen realized Hotel Engine could be offered as a benefit to employees of large corporations. "We developed a perk page and a sales pitch, and it grew pretty quickly," he says. After launching this initiative in 2016, about 20 Fortune 100 companies are now customers, including Ford, Pepsi, General Mills and Tesla.

Denver-based Modern Market was an early customer. Before turning to Hotel Engine, the company was "rewriting our hotel policy every few months," says Rob McColgan, co-founder of the 26-location restaurant chain.

As Modern Market opened eateries outside of Colorado, traveling employees used consumer booking sites. "They had to...