Industry Hospitality Type of business Private | Founder John Davis | |
Founded Dallas, Texas (2012 (2012)) Key people Steve Sickel, Interim CEO Services Hotel Reservation metasearch engine Owners InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton Inc., Hyatt, Marriott International, Choice Hotels, Wyndham Worldwide | ||
Funny commercial hotel room key
Room Key is a hotel metasearch engine launched in January 2012. Room Key is a joint venture founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, and Wyndham Worldwide or their respective affiliates. There are over 75,000 hotels listed on Room Key, which span 159 countries and include over 100 brands.
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Room Key's founder, John Davis, previously founded Pegasus Solutions, the first hotel distribution switch technology which streamlined global distribution systems and Internet connectivity for hotels worldwide.
The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its interim CEO is Steve Sickel.
History
Room Key’s history traces to 2010 with talks between hoteliers. In 2011, Room Key acquired hotelicopter, a Charlottesville, VA-based firm, and its technology platform, which provided the technology foundation for Roomkey.com. Room Key launched its beta site and added Best Western International as its first commercial partner in January 2012. In March 2012, Room Key launched international websites in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Room Key added Preferred Hotel Group as a commercial partner in March 2012 and WorldHotels in April 2012. Room Key exited beta and fully launched in May 2012.
In September 2012, Room Key added La Quinta Inns & Suites, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and Leading Hotels of the World as commercial partners. Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group was added as a commercial partner in November 2012.
In September 2014, Davis stepped down as CEO of Room Key. Steve Sickel was named interim CEO.
Operations
Room Key is owned by its founding partners: Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, and Wyndham Worldwide or their respective affiliates. Along with its founding partners’ properties, Room Key’s website includes properties from commercial partners. Commercial partners do not have an ownership stake in Room Key. Room Key also has partnerships with several central reservation systems (CRS) including Sabre SynXis, Trust and TravelClick, which enable the listing of thousands of additional hotels on Room Key’s website.
When a Room Key user attempts to book a room with any of Room Key’s founding or commercial partners, the customer is directed to the partner’s site and books a room directly with the hotel.