You have started recently in the marketing role at Venere. What are you bringing to Venere.com and what exciting new things are you planning to do in the next few months?

I have a broad background in Online travel, Marketing and E-Commerce and I believe the experiences I have gained over the past 11 years in the tourism- and hotel industry in different parts of Europe will enable me to have a real impact on the Venere-brand.

Venere.com has been a pioneer in the European hotel industry since the very beginning of the online travel revolution (going back to 1995) and I am planning on building on that great heritage of innovation and ‘true’ customer focus.

We are currently going through an ‘exploration’ phase and looking at our customers’ needs- and desires in more detail, which will then help us to focus our ‘innovative brains’ on those things that will have the biggest impact on their experiences. I strongly believe that ‘true’ customer-focused innovation doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘loud’ nor involve adapting the latest technology gadgets, but small incremental enhancements that just make their online buying experience a positive part of their whole travel journey are often worth much more.

There are no detailed plans we want to share here – just yet – but rest assured we won’t rest and continue providing a great service to our customers – whether it’s on the web, on the phone or on a mobile device. Stay tuned!

How do you feel about the Facebook and Twitter revolution? Do you think social media are going to have a big impact on the travel industry? How are you planning to further develop social media engagement for Venere?

Social media has already had a big impact on the Travel Industry – just think about the impact sites like Tripadvisor have had on the way we purchase travel today. Travelling is a very engaging and emotional activity and people love to talk about it afterwards and share their experiences.

Social media is a great enabler to make the sharing of those experiences even easier, more exciting and more valuable for others. Social media also enables people to let others ‘participate’ (at least partially) in your experiences while you’re going through them … just think about the number of people who now send regular photo- and status updates to their Facebook profiles while still ‘on the road’.

In the past people used to have to wait until their back from their trips to share those experiences – now it happens in real-time.

What is your favorite holiday destination? What is your best travel experience ever?

I don’t really have a particular destination, but I love holidays in the mountains (i.e. Alps) during Winter- and Spring and I prefer activity-type holidays (i.e. Water sports, Golf, mountain biking etc.) during the summer months.

One of my best travel experiences in the recent years was the wedding of a good friend of mine in India. It was a traditional Indian wedding that went on for several days and we were a great group of friends travelling together to the different venues throughout Rajasthan.

You are German and lived in London, UK, until recently. How do you like your new life in Italy? What do you like the most about living in Rome? Are you learning Italian?

The short answer is ‘I love it!’ I had a great time living in London for the past 10 years, but I felt it was time for a change and Rome has always been at the top of my list of favorite cities in the world.

The lifestyle is quite different here, but I feel I have already adapted to it fairly quickly – almost too quickly when I look at the way I am driving now – there is a chance I lose my license next time I am back in Germany

I have started to learn Italian as I think it is an important part of exploring a new culture, but thus far the progress has been a bit slower than I had hoped…

In his new role Hoffman will be responsible for spearheading the development of Venere.com, continuing its growth from a leading European enterprise into a global player in the hotel accommodation booking arena. He will work with a dynamic and experienced team based in Rome.

David Roche, President of Hotels.com Worldwide and Venere.com, comments, “It is a great coup for us to have brought Arthur onboard, he is an experienced travel professional with a proven track record in developing and growing businesses. His considerable experience will be highly beneficial to the Venere.com brand and we look forward to seeing it develop from strength to strength under his leadership.”

Hoffman brings with him a wealth of experience in the travel market. For the past five years he has held the position of Managing Director for Expedia Asia Pacific. In this role he has been responsible for overseeing all Expedia’s operations in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and India, as well as the continued growth of the Expedia brand across the APAC region.

Prior to joining Expedia, Hoffman was General Manager for Qantas Holidays, a role which saw him take responsibility for strategy, e-Commerce and IT for the brand. During his time at Quantas, Hoffman oversaw the development and implementation of a new IT platform, which included online booking tools for both the consumer and travel trade.

During his career Hoffman also served as a strategy consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton and Arthur Andersen. Hoffman holds an MA in Science from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Hoffman takes over the Managing Director role at Venere.com from Emmanuel de Rycker, who leaves the company to become the European Managing Director of Circles, a company recently acquired by Sodexho Alliance, based in London. Roche continues, “Emmanuel has made real progress in developing the Venere.com business and integrating it into Expedia after the acquisition last year, and he now passes on the baton to Arthur. We wish Emmanuel every success in his future endeavors.”

Hoffman will continue to serve as a Director on the board of eLong, Inc., the second largest online travel provider in China, of which Expedia, Inc. is a major shareholder.

Exciting news for hoteliers looking to optimize their distribution and receive more hotel reservations.

Expedia today is introducing the new Expedia Easy Manage program, a hotel partnership option with a commission model for qualifying hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa. These hotels can quickly and easily sign up to offer their hotel rooms on more than 70 Expedia and Hotels.com sites, as well as on Venere.com.

This great news also represents the integration of the Expedia and Venere.com hotel inventory following Expedia’s acquisition of Venere in 2008.

Hotels interested in learning more about working with Expedia and Venere.com, please visit joinexpedia.com.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your fabulous career?

Well, I’m not sure if you can call my career fabulous but it certainly has been interesting and a ton of fun. I was an Engineering major at college and planned to pursue a technical career. That is until I met my girlfriend in New York City and had to go there to be with her. There weren’t many technical jobs in New York, so joined an small Investment Bank called Allen & Company.

I advised a number of clients in the Media and Entertainment industries in the mergers and acquisitions area. It was a time of great consolidation in the area, and incredibly interesting and exciting. Barry Diller became a client of mine and asked me to join him in a new company that he was building, named Home Shopping Network. I joined as the head of strategic planning in 1998, the early heyday of the Internet.

Over the next 7 years we transformed the company from a small shopping network to a media and internet conglomerate, and bought the businesses that would form the base of what is now Expedia – Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com. In 2005 we decided to seperate the travel businesses from the rest of the portfolio – Expedia Inc. was born and I was lucky enough to be selected as the CEO.

What would you expect to be the next big thing in travel distribution?

I still think that there is a ton of potential in personalizing the travel experience for the traveler. Right now OLTAs [online travel agencies] pretty much treat every customer the same way – show them the same options, give them the same experience. With the wealth of data and tracking available, we should be able to provide a much more tailored experience to the traveler. Hopefully this can drive loyalty in a very competitive environment.

How will the new ownership of venere.com affect users and hotels? How will Venere and Expedia customers benefit from the new situation?

I think it will afford Venere the opportunity to make longer term bets on its future. We are interested in making Venere ten times bigger than it is now. That means many many more customers and hotels all over the world.

What makes Venere special and how do you see Venere’s future?

I love the site – I think Venere is the most distinctive hotel web site out there. There is a certain same-ness that has settled into the industry and I really like the unique look and feel and mapping that Venere has built. We were also very interested in Venere’s terrific inventory in Southern Europe and your success in building out your hotel supply.
I’d like to see Venere aggressively expand not only in its core European markets, but also into Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas.

What is your favorite travel destination?

Lake Como – I love being able to hike up in the beautiful hills and coming down to a great meal with great wine!

Rome has banned snacking near its famous monuments in the historical center, reports CNN.

The Canary Island of Lanzarote is ready to welcome flocks of tourists thanks to the new Almodóvar movie, starring Penelope Cruz, due to be released in early 2009. We can’t wait!

Tips on ideal travel insurance coverage can be found this week at news.com.au.

International news coverage of Venere’s acquisition by Expedia:

• Expedia finds its European Holy Grail, Forbes.com
• Advent sells travel web site to Expedia, Private Equity News
• Expedia buying European Hotels Site Venere, Washington Post
• Expedia acquires Venere but what does it mean?, Hotel Blogs
• Expedia promises independence for bed brands, Travolution

Venere was founded in 1995. Global private equity firm Advent International acquired a 60% controlling stake in the company in November 2006. The other 40% in stakes remained in the hands of Venere’s founders. Venere.com offers 29,000 hotels around the world, 26,000 of which in Europe. Venere.com is currently adding accommodation properties at a rate of more than 1,000 per month.

For Expedia Inc, global leader in online travel, the transaction will add more than 10,000 incremental hotels and other types of accommodation such as B&B and vacation rentals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to its worldwide lodging offering.

Dara Khosrowshahi, President and CEO of Expedia, Inc.:

Acquiring Venere will bring a well-known, respected European consumer brand to the Expedia portfolio. Additionally, it will immediately expand our supply footprint in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and enable Expedia to diversify our business model approach to hotel partners worldwide.

Marco Ficarra, CEO of Venere Net S.p.A.:

We are thrilled at the prospect of becoming part of Expedia because our dedication to offering superior service to travelers via our extensive network of hotels and Bed and Breakfasts is a great fit with the most respected group of brands in travel. In addition, our team of passionate travel professionals located in Rome, London and Paris will complement Expedia’s global team, as we continue to provide hotels new ways to optimize their distribution mix.