LateRooms celebrates 10 years of success

HOTEL booking website LateRooms.com, one of the North West’s biggest business success stories of recent years, celebrates its 10th birthday this evening.

The  company- created in 1999 as an off-shoot of Salford marketing firm  Walsh Simmonds – is now a multimillion pound international business employing 400.

This evening more than 300 staff and contacts from the business and leisure sectors are being entertained at an event at a secret location.

Now part of German holiday giant TUI Travel, LateRooms, has recently expanded into Australia and taken on the management of AsiaRooms – a travel website with staff in Singapore and Thailand.

LateRooms has seen huge growth under the ownership of first Paul, Steve and Tony Walsh, then private equity firm ECI Partners, followed by First Choice, which then merged with Thomson to create TUI.

It has undergone two major sales – the first in 2004 to ECI for £21m and then the £120m acquisition by First Choice in late 2006.

Managing director Chris Morris, who joined LateRooms five years ago after the ECI deal, told TheBusinessDesk:”The business has changed almost beyond all recognition since I joined. In 2004 we had 20 people and a few more in the call centre, now we have 400 people and seven offices around the world.

“The business has grown up but at its heart it is still very entrepreneurial. We are now very established with three brands, LateRooms, AsiaRooms and also Hotels London under our control.

“We have continued to perform well and grow the business and we thought we should celebrate our landmark year.

“In terms of being an online business we’re quite old school, and we wanted to do something for people who have supported LateRooms in the past 10 years.”