Pros
People are multicultural and mostly really nice. There are free drinks and coffee/tea dotted around the really cool office that features ping-pong tables, foosball, game arcades, F1 simulators, a really nice terrace etc. There is an event every week, be it a terrace BBQ, breakfast, someone's birthday... If you are lucky, you will travel to the other offices and fully get to know how your team works. There are some very smart people working at Hotels.com and you are able to learn a lot from working alongside them. The CEO is truly the center stone of this company. Johan is friendly, approachable and has huge charisma. Yet he is able to make himself heard when necessary.
Cons
The brand is very fragmented, resulting in 4 different brands depending on the regions, making cross-collaboration difficult. Most of the time everything comes from NA, which is slightly ironic since London is supposed to be the HQ. One of the worst things is lack of resources. We are meant to make great things happen with a fraction of the people, budget and time of other companies. When working, we are running around putting out fires and reacting to things rather than taking the time to actively sit back and think out a proper plan. All the positives are highlighted and distorted to impress upper management. Nobody stops to speak about learnings or fails. You are given the impression that you are heard when you speak up about a pressing issue , and yet nothing really happens. And lastly, the reason most people leave: lack of internal promotion. There is definite preference for hiring external people with a background in consultancy lately, when there are extremely good internal candidates for the job. The staff turnaround has become a lot faster in the past few months.
