Trivago handed its turnaround to former interns after a 70% revenue collapse
Revenue sank from €839M to €249M in the pandemic; the 2023 rebuild put former interns in the CEO, CFO and CMO chairs — and Q1 2025 revenue rose 22%.
What was changed
In the space of a month during the pandemic, hotel search platform Trivago watched its revenue forecast plummet from $1 billion to virtually zero. Actual revenue sank 70%, to €249 million in 2020 from €839 million (about $940 million) in 2019 — a 'near-death experience' that CEO Johannes Thomas calls the start of a 'deep winter'. Even after travel restrictions lifted, the company did not recover, and in 2023 Thomas was brought in as CEO to turn it around. 'After you have a near-death experience and three years of depression, you have a team that doesn't believe anymore,' he told Fortune.
Thomas's rebuild leaned on people who had grown up inside the company. He had joined Trivago himself in 2011 as an intern in online marketing, and quietly assembled other former interns around him: chief financial officer Wolf Schmuhl and chief marketing officer Jasmine Ezz — three of the four top leaders once started as interns. His argument: leaders who understand the business and its culture from the ground up are key to restoring belief.
The strategy targets young people on both sides — as customers and as talent. The average Trivago customer is 34, and Gen Z was the only generation reporting increased year-over-year travel spending between 2023 and 2024 (average trip over $11,000, per Berkshire Hathaway's travel insurance report). 'You get rock stars on the senior level football team,' Thomas says, 'and then you have a second team of young talents that have a chance to grow.'
The recovery is real but early: 2024 revenue was still half of 2019's, while first-quarter 2025 revenue rose 22% to $124 million. Trivago joins Nike, HP, Principal Financial and EY in promoting former interns to the top job — Nike's Elliott Hill started as an apparel sales intern at 19.
Why it worked
The pandemic collapse and three flat years had drained the team's belief, in the incoming CEO's diagnosis.
Thomas bet that leaders who knew Trivago's culture from the ground up could rebuild it faster than outside stars.
A customer base averaging 34 years old made young leaders and young talent a product requirement, not an HR preference.
What can be applied
After a near-death shock, culture knowledge can beat star hiring: leaders who came up through the company can rebuild belief — but recovery is measured in years, not quarters.
Aftermath
Revenue is growing again — up 22% in Q1 2025 to $124 million — but remains about half of the 2019 peak, leaving the intern-led rebuild with its proof still to deliver.