Award Overview

There is no better way to start what promises to be a challenging and promising business year than receiving a respected honor. Today HRS earned recognition from compamedia, as the company received a Top 100 Award for 2026 (https://www.top100-germany.com/) in our home country of Germany. Measuring the innovation and performance of the most creative medium-sized enterprises, this distinction is meaningful as it is based on a rigorous scientific audit that evaluates not just a single product, but the entire innovation climate and management processes of a company. Prior winners include such prominent brands as BioNTech, Hansgrohe and fischerwerke.  

For HRS, this independent, Top 100 seal serves as a powerful validation of our evolution from a classic hotel portal into a global, data-driven "Procure-to-Reclaim" platform. This success is the direct result of a fundamental cultural shift. Since 2020, HRS moved away from intuition-based decisions to institutionalize a culture of "Time-to-Evidence."

This transition incorporates practices used by the world’s most innovative and well-known brands. Highlights include:

• By adopting the "Working Backwards" methodology, HRS begins tech development with our end foremost in mind. What problem are we solving…and what are the metrics that capture the size and scope of it? Correspondingly, what resulting metrics that we aim to deliver will define our success?
• At HRS, every project now begins with a clear customer “Narrative” before a line of code is written. By writing things out in a repetitive structure, the work is governed, and bugs can be quickly addressed, noted and baked into future endeavors.
• The company has now built in a “Flywheel Effect,” enabling the everyday operational work of supporting clients and prospects to continue even as enhancements are gradually built into our automated service model. This approach spurs continuous innovation while minimizing interruptions for clients and/or hotel partners.

This methodology is only as strong as the people who apply it. The true driver behind this award is HRS’ global team, which embraces this entrepreneurial mindset and the scenarios unlocked by AI with exceptional dedication. Our team submitted 327 specific enhancement ideas last year alone; this is the strongest proof that innovation at HRS is a collective, bottom-up effort.  

This rigorous discipline allows HRS to translate complex market requirements into measurable solutions. And beyond technologies and services for clients and partners, this mindset filters into internal processes and procedures for fellow HRS employees. We use these principles as we strive to upgrade vital elements such as collaboration, communication, training and recruitment.

The success of this approach is best illustrated by HRS Copilot, now being deployed across HRS’ global client roster. The solution leverages Agentic AI to consolidate data streams in real time. The AI automation factors in elements such as booking patterns, rate availability, preferences, sustainability metrics, and more…automating up to 80% of historically manual tasks by leveraging 20 years of corporate lodging and meetings data.  

HRS Copilot accepts and normalizes data from TMCs, booking tools, hotel chains, sustainability solutions (such as HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative) and more into one place that drives insightful reports that illuminate potential tactical actions and their anticipated results. It is the

ideal AI-powered assistant for today’s modern managed lodging program, enabling leaders to shift focus from operational firefighting to strategic priorities such as cost efficiency, traveler satisfaction, and sustainability.

Innovative solutions such as HRS’ Copilot provide a lighthouse for not only our managed travel industry sandbox, but for Software-as-a-Service companies worldwide. We’re most grateful for the Top 100 recognition by compamedia, and pledge to build off our innovative architecture and mindset to set new standards in 2026 and the years to come.

Unlike other large language models, HRS Copilot is specifically trained on 20 years of corporate lodging and meetings data. Billions of rate impressions, corporate contracts, rate audits, payments, and invoices are added every year. This makes recommendations not just smart, but specific to each client’s procurement and operational reality.  

Streamlined connectivity enables HRS Copilot to seamlessly fit with different sized programs in different vertical markets. HRS Copilot accepts and normalizes data from TMCs, booking tools, hotel chains, sustainability solutions (such as HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative) and more into one place that drives insightful reports that illuminate potential tactical actions and their anticipated results. It is the ideal AI-powered assistant for today’s modern managed lodging programs.

Accordingly, HRS Copilot’s data-driven functionality can rightfully be judged by the metrics it delivers to clients. Initial highlights include:

• 80% time saved via automated approvals and streamline processes that reduce workload
• 100% compliance to company policies and ESG requirements
• 20% increase in satisfaction as “under the hood” streamlining mitigates historical hassle factors business travelers experience on every journey
• 20% increase in savings as previously hidden avenues can be discovered and explored via AI-infused spend optimization and leakage reduction.

Innovative solutions such as HRS’ Copilot provide a lighthouse for not only our managed travel industry sandbox, but for Software-as-a-Service companies worldwide. We’re most grateful for the Top 100 recognition by compamedia, and pledge to build off of our innovative architecture and mindset to set new standards in 2026 and the years to come.

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