With clear foresight of the growth potential of internet, in 1997 Carlos Buetas and Ricardo Buil founded Infopirineo. By creating web pages for tourism-related companies in the Aragonese region of Sobrarbe, Infopirineo aimed to use the Internet to promote the Pyrenees region. Four years later and thanks to their technological savvy, Carlos and Ricardo created an online hotel reservation service and travel agency…today’s centraldereservas.com.

What began as a project involving just a few people, it has become a mid-size company employing more than 60 collaborators (70% female) and offering clients over 46,000 hotels throughout the world, along with other services such as car rental, cruise reservations and ski packages. In order to offer the best possible prices to clients, the company works with the main operators (wholesalers, incoming agents and tour operators) and directly and exclusively with certain establishments.

But…what makes centraldereservas.com different from other reservation services? The answer: we are 100% client-oriented and base our unique service in Europe on the following three pillars:

- Hotel rooms are not paid for until ten days prior to the reserved start date (the agency finances reservations)

- 24-hour emergency service

- Exemplary customer service: customer satisfaction is our top priority

Although 95% of centraldereservas.com reservations are made online, the company also meets the need of its clients who prefer traditional face-to-face service. With that in mind, a walk-in agency was opened in downtown Zaragoza in June 2006. The branch office is designed to be a meeting space for travellers, and its innovative and avant-garde design features a space for talks and colloquiums, along with everything else necessary to ensure that the client’s trip is as personalised as possible.

centraldereservas.com is committed to the economic development and settlement of the Pyrenees area in which it operates; it supports an adequate work/life balance through flexi-time for employees. All employees are trained in order to promote innovation and sustainable growth. The company is a real and consolidated example that it is possible to create new ways of living in rural areas.

centraldereservas.com has received the Online Travel Agency Award for Highest Sales Volume in 2005, the Young Aragonese Entrepreneur Award for 2006 and the Best Virtual Store Award for 2007. The company was a finalist for the Huesca Business Award for 2007 and the High Aragonese Award for 2005, selected by readers of the Diario de Alto Aragón newspaper.