Former Hotels.com President and Expedia Management Committee member joins Guestline Board
Guestline is delighted to announce the appointment of new company Chairman, David Roche. Roche joins Guestline, market leaders in cloud-hosted property management, distribution and digital marketing technologies for the hospitality industry, during an exciting expansion period for the company. Earlier this year, Guestline received investment from The Riverside Company, a global, mid-market private equity firm with extensive experience in its Software Industry Specialization.
Roche spent a decade at Hotels.com (a subsidiary of Expedia Inc.), initially building this business outside the US and then running the firm on a global basis. Under his leadership Hotels.com rose rapidly to become the world’s second largest hotel booking website. In his last years at Expedia, he was also President of Expedia Inc.’s global hotel supply group serving over 250,000 hotel partners and transacting $18bn in gross bookings.
He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the hospitality industry and is well-placed to advise and guide Guestline in their next phase of growth.
Phil Davidson, CEO of Guestline, commented, ‘We are delighted to announce the appointment of David Roche to the board of Guestline. David brings enormous skill and over 15 years’ experience in Hospitality Distribution to Guestline that will complement the existing team going forward. We will work closely with David to help us develop new innovations and expand into new markets both here and internationally.’
Over the last 12 months, Guestline has increased it customer base across the various markets in which it serves, namely hotel groups, independent hotels, serviced apartments and pub companies. New innovations such as the room rate comparison tool, Price Assure (part of the Guestline online booking platform), the growth of their digital marketing solutions and an increase in clients across the Asia-Pacific region has resulted in Guestline growing revenue by 20% and increasing their employee base by 15%.
Roche, added, ‘I am excited about the appointment and look forward to working with Phil and his team as we grow Guestline’s client base internationally and continue to develop intuitive and sophisticated distribution solutions for all levels of the accommodation market.’
Roche joined Expedia in 2003 responsible for Hotels.com and Expedia Affiliate Network for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Prior to joining Expedia, he founded companies in the marketing and digital media spheres and is currently a director of one of the world’s largest online travel firms.
Guestline’s systems are used in 20 countries across 5 continents and enables properties of all sizes to achieve maximum occupancy at the most profitable rate. Fully integrated and cloud hosted, the end-to-end property management and distribution solutions are easy to install and quick to deploy with low cost of ownership.
