Hotelworld’s roots date back to 1967 when, as Concordia, the company serviced the accommodation needs of inbound tourists and individual travellers through airline booking systems and retail desks at railway stations and airports.  

Concordia pioneered the technology revolution of the early 80’s, developing new reservations systems and, from 1986 providing automation for Thomas Cook Travel Management's corporate hotel reservations service.  

In 1992 Concordia became Hotel & Travel Reservations (HTRL) and adopted the Thomas Cook brand as the first UK member of Thomas Cook’s worldwide network. This move helped HTRL to become the UK's leading provider of late availability accommodation at guesthouses, B&B’s, youth hostels and hotels up to five-star standard.  

In addition to accommodation, the desks also provided travel services including air, rail, coach and ferry tickets, car hire, mobile phone rental, Interflora, travel insurance, short breaks, sightseeing tours, theatre, concert and sporting event tickets.  

In 1994 the company entered the B2B market in its own right, creating First Option Hotel Reservations as a sister company to HTRL. Over the next 10 years, First Option became the UK’s 3rd largest hotel booking agency, reaching a £50m turnover in 2001 with a roster of blue chip, PLC and government clients serviced by a 100-strong specialist team based in Stockport.  

In 2001, HTRL dropped the Thomas Cook brand to become First Option Leisure Breaks. Customers could make reservations etc, the desks were open for up to sixteen hours a day throughout the year, providing a unique distribution channel for hotels with ‘distressed inventory’ - unsold capacity or last minute availability. By now, customers could make reservations in person, by phone, fax or by e-mail, and around 90% of bookings were for same-day arrival.  

HTRL and First Option were both acquired by Last Minute Network Ltd in 2004. The retail desks were re-branded once again, this time to lastminute.com, and the product range expanded to include the full range of products available from the lastminute.com web site.  

In 2006, HTRL, including 17 retail desks, was re-purchased by Europoint Holdings Ltd, although the continued to trade under the ‘lastminute.com’ brand. That September, the company established a dedicated call centre to provide a comprehensive accommodation booking service at properties throughout the UK and Europe, as well as an extensive range of travel services.  

June 2007 saw HTRL re-named to Hotelworld, and the announcement that some of the outlets re-acquired from Lastminute.com in 2006 will re-brand as Hotelworld, including London’s Victoria and Euston stations, and at Gatwick Airport. These units were rebranded to Hotelworld in December 2007, however, No deadline has been set for the completion of the re-branding programme.