21-05-2025
Thomas Hertkorn has been appointed Head of Online Marketing at a&o Hostels
a&o Hostels have announced the appointment of Thomas Hertkorn as the Head of Online Marketing, with the expert in performance and data-based strategies returning to the company after five years to take up his former position. Thomas, 40, is once again responsible for the digital marketing strategy of Europe's largest budget group.
The marketing specialist is returning to a&o Hostels having previously been responsible for online brand communications between 2017 and 2020.
Hertkorn started his career at the Berlin digital agency Peak Ace and has held several positions in various B2C and B2B markets, most recently as Head of Sales and Lead AI Innovations. More than 15 years of digital marketing expertise at agency and company level shape Hertkorn's view of technology, with a particular focus on AI developments: "it is always important to find the right balance between responsibility and risk, opportunities and limits, efficiency and transparency", said Hertkorn. The"passionate digital transformer"also talks up the importance of a "necessary dynamic balance" through constant learning, further training and staying up to date with the most current trends and industry developments.
Artificial intelligence, added value, a&o Club
Optimised guest experiences and customer interactions, increased efficiency and new, sustainable and flexible services and business models are also constant challenges for Europe's leading budget group a&o, who operate 42 hotels in ten European countries. Regarding the digital marketing strategy, Thomas Hertkorn sees the following aspects, among others, as key success factors:
Personalisation and interaction: targeted communication across the entire customer journey
targeted communication across the entire customer journey Address quality and frequency: providingrelevant content, with the right timing and scalable implementation
providingrelevant content, with the right timing and scalable implementation Use of large language models (LLMs): AI-supported text generation for flexible campaigns, user interaction and conversion rate optimisation.
At the same time, the a&o Club is being significantly expanded to target regular guests with personalised offers.