Hotel Engine

Engine was born inside Traveler's Haven, a corporate housing company whose customers kept asking for hotel booking and cost controls. That demand was strong enough to spin out as its own company in 2018, and after expanding into air, ground, and financial products, the company rebranded from Hotel Engine to Engine in Summer 2024.

The culture is direct about its intensity. Engine's published culture memo states: "Culture is not words on a wall. It's who we hire, how we work, and what we reward." The company's DNA centers on a set of principles, including "Drivers, not Passengers" (act like owners, not bystanders), "Speed with Precision," and "Insist on High Standards" (every seat must be earned, and underperformance is addressed quickly). The hiring process reflects this: candidates go through skills assessments, back-channel references, and bar raiser interviews for leadership roles. Engine describes itself as "unapologetically intense" and optimizes for what it calls talent density.