Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Hotel space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Rami Zeidan
Co-Founder & CEO of Life House
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About Life House: Life House is a vertically integrated hotel software and management platform on the mission to make hotels operationally autonomous.
Peter Jackson
Group CEO of Flutter Entertainment
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About Flutter Entertainment, Paddy Power Betfair: Flutter Entertainment is the world’s leading online sports betting and gaming operator.
Christopher Cowdray
CEO of The Dorchester Collection
Mr. Christopher Cowdray became Dorchester Collection’s chief executive officer in 2007, prior to being general manager of The Dorchester since 2004. Brought up in Zimbabwe, his 30 years of extensive international hotel management experience, across four continents, gives him an exceptional understanding of the luxury hotel market and the significant impact that cultural differences have when doing business around the world Mr. Cowdray firmly believes that the success of any organisation comes from its employees, with every single member of the team playing a vital role in delivering exceptional service. He has been instrumental in establishing Dorchester Collection’s Vision & Values and ensuring that these are articulated through all teams in the hotels. This has led to the entire company being visibly aligned to his vision of passion for excellence and innovation.
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About The Dorchester Collection: The Dorchester Collection provides one of the world’s largest selections of luxury hotels.
Matthew Larby
Co-Founder & CEO of Unified Technologies
Matthew Larby is the Co-Founder & CEO at Unified Technologies.
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About Unified Technologies: Advanced indoor-location services, sensor-based analytics and workforce management solutions for buildings.
Paul Besnainou
Founder & CEO of Sweet Inn
Paul Besnainou is a 31-year old French-Israeli entrepreneur, who is entirely self-taught. After his high school diploma, he opted to pursue his studies at the Mir Yeshiva rather than attend a prominent business school. Following his seven years of Talmudic studies, he emerged filled with intellectual curiosity, discipline, and an analytical spirit – characteristics that would lead him to found and direct, only a year later, Sweet Inn. In just 5 years since its founding, Sweet Inn is already located in 13 cities around Europe and in Israel, totaling over 700 apartments and employ more than 200 employees.
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About Sweet Inn: Sweet Inn is a booking platform intended for hotel services for tourists and business travelers.
Edward Orr
Co-founder & CEO of Mr & Mrs Smith
Co-founder and CEO Edward Orr has been working in investment banking, and managing companies in their early stage for more than 10 years. As a result he has had to stay in many hotels across five different continents – and generally, he doesn’t like them. This makes him qualified not only to look after the finances of Mr & Mrs Smith but also to have penned one of the team reviews – and he can confirm that Mr & Mrs Smith hotels really are special enough to be a treat, even for the most jaded corporate traveller.
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About Mr & Mrs Smith, SubTv: Mr & Mrs Smith is a hand-picked collection of the most special boutique hotels in the world.
Gareth Hughes
CEO of Crave Interactive
Gareth is a technology entrepreneur with a passion for creating innovative solutions that everyone can instinctively use. He was formerly with Dun & Bradstreet, GEC and was a main board Director of Psion plc.
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About Crave Interactive: Crave Interactive is the leading provider of cutting-edge in-room tablets designed for hotels of any size.
Evan Davies
Co-Founder and CEO of The Booking Factory
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About The Booking Factory: Hotel Management System for Independent Hotels
Nour Mouakke
Founder & CEO of Wizme
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About Wizme: Wizme makes meetings and events management magical through superior ease of use and smart technologies.
Sara Brunelli
CEO of BidToTrip
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About BidToTrip: BidToTrip is an auction site for luxury hotels and other travel items.
