Amadeus, a leading global travel technology company, has announced a minority investment in hivr.ai through its strategic funding program Amadeus Ventures. hivr.ai, an innovative scale – up started in 2019, consolidates and automates meeting and group sales across the fragmented distribution landscape, including hotel websites, email, phone, and third-party venue finders. The technology enables hotels to streamline processes, shorten sales cycles, and significantly increase revenue from meetings and groups.
Meetings and groups account for over one-third of room nights worldwide. Yet, the sales process remains largely manual and resource-intensive, with hotels sending proposals often only after 48 to 96 hours. Due to slow response times, only 10-20% of meeting requests are converted into confirmed business, while as many as 70% of meeting planners never receive a proposal.
By leveraging hivr.ai’s AI-led solutions, hotels can automate manual workload and significantly accelerate the bidding process for meetings and groups. This enhances the meeting planner experience, and hotels’ chances of converting the business.
Felix Undeutsch, Chief Executive Officer, hivr.ai, says: “Our innovative, AI-led solutions empower convention sales teams to transform their workflows. In an era of understaffed reservation offices, hivr.ai automates time-consuming and manual back-office tasks. This includes data entry, complex availability checks, and repetitive follow-up emails and calls through our voice AI technology. Now convention sales teams can focus on what truly matters: crafting unique experiences for their meeting customers, rather than being weighed down by low-value administrative tasks.”
In addition to its investment, Amadeus is exploring commercial collaboration opportunities for the technology, bringing it to a hospitality-wide customer base. hivr.ai will develop an interface with Delphi, Amadeus’ industry-leading sales and catering solution, and will complement Amadeus’ MeetingBroker product. This integration will provide hoteliers with expanded channels, new connectivity options, and AI-powered automation capabilities.
Suzanna Chiu, Head of Amadeus Ventures, adds: “Through Amadeus Ventures we closely monitor trends across the hospitality ecosystem, with a focus on the rapidly evolving AI space. hivr.ai provides hoteliers with a practical use for this developing technology, offering solutions which can be seamlessly integrated into existing operations. The investment fits with our wider mission of bringing innovative solutions to our customers and improve their operational efficiency.”
Founded in 2020 by four former Expedia managers, hivr.ai is headquartered in Germany, with team members based in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Romania.
The terms of the transaction remain undisclosed.
