
Elia Wallen never expected this.
Wallen started Hotel Engine as a subsidiary of corporate housing company Travelers Haven in 2015, meeting a long-standing customer request—assistance with hotel bookings. Wallen founded Travelers Haven in 2008 (the company reached $100 million in revenue in 2022, and was acquired by Blueground in 2023). But over time, the Hotel Engine side project gained more and more traction, becoming impossible to ignore.