ebookers brand
Introducing ebookers
ebookers is a leading European online travel specialist selling holidays to customers in 13 European countries - Finland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and the UK. We were founded in 1999 but have roots going back more than 20 years to humble beginnings in Earls Court, London.
Our easy-to-use Internet sites give customers the chance to be their own travel agents 24 hours a day. We sell a full range of travel products online and over the telephone via our call centres and retail outlets; products sold include flights, car hire, hotels, travel insurance and luxury breaks.
The majority of bookings are based on long-haul trips, involving travel outside of Europe.
Why do people shop with ebookers?
Customers come to ebookers for our travel expertise, range and value. ebookers is a travel company that has embraced the internet, not the other way round. Our call centre and website staff has the passion, expertise and knowledge of travel which is reflected in the way we do business.
Because ebookers has origins going back 20 years, we have developed close relationships with leading hotels and airlines, these relationships enable us to offer discount fares, known as "negotiated" fares to our customers. Travel suppliers give ebookers these fares as a way of selling their excess capacity without damaging their own brand and pricing structures by selling these cheaper fares themselves.
ebookers enables customers to book air travel on over 200 airlines available through our GDS providers and an additional 26 low cost carriers who do not participate in a GDS. In addition, we have negotiated fares with many airlines, which allow us to offer discounted airfares, both online and offline, to customers in each of the European countries in which ebookers operates.
Some more background on ebookers
ebookers was formed in 1999 by Dinesh Dhamija, but our origins go back over 20 years. In 1983 husband and wife team, Dinesh & Tani Dhamija set up Flightbookers Ltd, a London based travel agency selling flights out of a single kiosk in Earls Court, London. Flightbookers grew into one of the UK's biggest travel agencies and in 1996 established a website – ebookers.com, the first interactive travel website in the UK. This was so successful that in 1999 the internet arm was separated and the new company taken public with a flotation on NASDAQ in New York and Germany's Neuer Market.
The $61m raised at flotation was used to roll-out ebookers across Europe. In 2000, as testament to the success of the internet, ebookers bought Flightbookers its original parent for $15m reuniting the two companies.
February 2003 saw the acquisition of Travelbag holdings for £55m to form the ebookers group and just 2 years later the ebookers group was purchased by US Conglomerate Cendant Corporation for £209m. Today ebookers is part of Travelport's Orbitz Worldwide division.
