Holidu 

GmbH

Bewertungen

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Holidu has a young, dynamic work environment and a supportive team atmosphere. Working alongside motivated and helpful colleagues makes the day-to-day work experience very enjoyable. In addition, the company fosters a good work-life balance, if you actively seek it out and demand it. A particular advantage is the hybrid work model, which allows for a maximum of two days in the office per week. This flexibility makes it much easier to balance work and personal life and, for me, is the greatest benefit of working at Holidu.

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Bonus structures are disadvantageous for employees, as achieving targets is often beyond their control.
Feedback isn’t passed up the chain. There’s a lack of transparency regarding priorities and a lack of communication from (all the way) at the top down. Products are released before they’re fully developed which causes so so so much work.
Employees are not valued financially. Every year, more and more is demanded, without any corresponding compensation from the employer.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

Holidu has the potential to be an excellent employer. However, the current push for profitability is putting significant pressure on employees, with many teams already feeling overworked and stretched to their limits. It is important that management recognizes and rewards these efforts once profitability is achieved (with not just another party).

At the same time, more office days, reduced bonus opportunities, and increasing workloads are likely continuing to drive higher employee turnover, particularly in Sales and Account Management, if not addressed soon.

Work-Life-Balance

If you actively set and maintain your boundaries, the work-life balance at Holidu can be quite good, depending on your role and responsibilities.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

Compared to the competition, the salary is simply at the lower end of the salary bands and is incredibly opaque. While new hires are hired here at a rate 15k higher than existing staff members in the same position, the company cites salary bands (which no one publicly discloses) and negotiations as justification. Annual performance reviews are the only way for existing employees to get a raise. However, if you fail to meet the goals - the achievement of which is largely beyond your control - the raise doesn’t even match the rate of inflation. Projects that you’re expected to complete in addition to your normal workload in order to score well on the “Values” criteria count for virtually nothing in the annual review and aren’t factored into your salary, regardless of your performance. So here, you’re at the mercy of the process’s arbitrariness.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

The team spirit at Holidu is exceptional. Collaboration within and across teams is truly impressive, people are approachable, supportive, and always willing to help each other. This creates a positive and enjoyable work environment where teamwork is genuinely lived.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Managers generally care about the well-being of their employees and are approachable when concerns arise. However, feedback is not always acted upon effectively, and issues can sometimes get lost in lengthy feedback loops. In some cases, leadership effectiveness could be improved through better alignment between management roles and individual skill sets.

Interessante Aufgaben

After a while, there are no new tasks left. In sales and account management, you do the same thing every day.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Overall, Holidu is a great employer where you can gain valuable experience over a few years. The company has a young and international team, which makes working with colleagues enjoyable and engaging. It also offers many great benefits that contribute to a positive work environment.

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

In Sales in particular, the bonus is never fully guaranteed, while the base salary is simply too low. The repeated changes to the bonus structure over the past months, mostly to the disadvantage of employees, have been quite frustrating and disappointing.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

Especially in Sales, the bonus structure has been changed around eight times over the past one and a half years, and never in a way that benefited Sales Managers. The base salary is relatively low, and only about 70% of the bonus depends on your own performance and results. The remaining 30% is outside of your control, meaning that reaching your full bonus often comes down to luck rather than performance.

Interessante Aufgaben

In Sales, you generally have the same tasks every day and there isn’t much variety. There are opportunities to take on additional projects, but overall, the work tends to be quite repetitive.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Great international spirit, leaders are approachable, open to feedback, and initiative is truly valued.

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Overall, Holidu is a great place for people who want responsibility, learning opportunities, and an international, modern work culture. It’s not perfect — and it doesn’t pretend to be — but the company is moving in the right direction, and you can genuinely contribute to meaningful progress.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

Some processes are still being built (or re-built), so you need to be comfortable with ambiguity. People who enjoy structure from day one might find this challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to shape things.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

The people are genuinely friendly, smart, and motivated. Collaboration across teams usually feels easy and respectful, and you can quickly build relationships also across locations.

Work-Life-Balance

Hybrid work and flexible ways of working are a plus. Work-life balance depends a bit on the team and the current business phase (after all it is a scale-up), but the overall direction is supportive.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Great colleages and team spirit. Fostered by regular workshops, offsites or company events (the summer parties are legendary)

Vorgesetztenverhalten

There is a clear drive to improve things and build long-term success. Many leaders are approachable and open to feedback. The culture rewards initiative: if you bring good ideas and execute well, you’ll be noticed.

Arbeitsbedingungen

I can only comment on the office in Munich and it has everything you need (great facilities, a lot of snacks and perks and solid technology)

Kommunikation

Holidu has regular All-Hands to discuss priorities and show progress against targets. Yet, with teams across various locations, alignment sometimes takes time.

Gleichberechtigung

There are many women in head-of / country lead positions

Interessante Aufgaben

The work is impactful and you can take ownership early. It’s a great environment to learn fast (especially if you like improving processes, building scalable solutions, work with customers)

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

flexible Arbeitszeiten, study days, junge, motivierte Teams

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

negative Entwicklungen werden oft nicht ernst genommen, was zu Konflikten, Unzufriedenheit oder Unsicherheiten fürhrt

Verbesserungsvorschläge

mehr auf Mitarbeiterstimmen/Feedback hören und eingehen (dafür sind die internen Umfragen da)

Image

es wird viel intern über Unzufriedenheit gesprochen.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

man kann gut Verdienen, aber sehr viel Druck und bei Krankheit/Urlaub nur geringes Fixgehalt in vielen Positionen. Ziele sind zu hoch angesetzt und werden nicht erreicht. Viel Ungleichheit zwischen Abteilungen z.B. Sales und Account-Managern

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

viel Versenden von Material zwischen Büros, teilweise fehlerhaft, was unnötigen Transport verursacht. Könnte besser kontrolliert werden

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Kollegen sollten ehrlicher und direkt miteinander kommunizieren

Vorgesetztenverhalten

es gab leider Fälle, in denen das Verhalten nicht respektvoll und nach den Richtlinien der Firma war.

Arbeitsbedingungen

nicht überall die selben Standards.

Kommunikation

viele entscheidungen werden von heute auf morgen getroffen, ohne Mitarbeiter einzubinden, teilweise auch bei "emotionalen" Themen wie Gehalt/Bonus

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

What I like the most is the values of the employer and the product.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

This is the main advantage of the company. The employer really cares about the environment and well-being of its employees.

Image

Yes, I definitely proud of the brand and share the values and goals of the company.

Work-Life-Balance

The company pays a lot of attention to the work-life balance.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

The company pays well, has a lot of perks (all the standard plus some specific bonuses), especially taking into account that it's not so huge a company.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

All the teams work together closely and celebrate achievements together as well as take responsibility.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

There is a well organised feedback system in the company. We have a bi-weekly ono-to-one sessions where we discuss goals, problems etc. Everyone in the company values the feedback and has opportunities to take leadership as well as being guided.

Arbeitsbedingungen

The office is very comfortable. It has everything one needs to work and feel good. It's clean, light, has good furniture and kitchens with all the supplies. Desks are comfortable, meeting rooms are well equipped.

Kommunikation

Well organised communication style. Regular feedback sessions, proper inter-team communication etiquette

Interessante Aufgaben

Since the company grows really quickly, there are many interesting and challenging projects, where an employee can put its own stamp.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

Many closer examinations I expressed in the comment sections are related to the experience in the customer support team. However, I can firmly state that some features are permanent in many departments: many people are unhappy and agree that the targets are getting higher and unreachable. The company wants every day more but gives every day less.
Employees from two external companies were hired in order to save costs. The employees were supposed to handle simple requests coming in from the guests and hosts. Working from cheaper countries and with a no fixed salary (their salary is based on the number of tickets closed), this should have helped us. On the contrary, it created more and more problems.
Tickets were closed too fast, with high unsatisfaction of the guests and all related issues. People working under stress only to get their salary increased.

The company should listen more to the employees. If many people complain about the „new“ face of the company, there is a reason. Being unheard by your management doesn´t motivate to work, especially if many issues are raised after a new director coming who never actively worked in your department = has no idea of what we are really facing.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

Weekly 1:1 with your TL are thought to show what you achieved during the last week (targets = numbers) and what could be improved. Of course every week is different and not every week can be the best one. This constant need to justify oneself (what happened last week? Why did you achieve less/more?) creates stress in many people.
People are not numbers so they experience changes through the weeks also due to factors that they can´t influence directly (for example: long cases with difficult customers, long cases due to external bugs which need to be fixed and so on).

This pressure will be one of the permanent feature of insatisfaction among Holidu employees. If you feel every day under pressure, your work and daily life will be negatively influenced – with bad consequences. It is sad that every sign of mental issue caused by the stress was often not taken seriously by the company

Image

The company tries their best to show their best side on social media (huge summer parties, events, „best company of the year“ and so on).
It is interesting to see how a short postive review (with only few words comment) always comes after a negative and well structred review, which makes me think that the company always tries to balance any negative input with a positive and forced one, in order to keep high standards.
It was really sad that the main issue of the company was changing the logo and its colors for marketing purpouses while our department was literally struggling due to failed organisation – with no recognition.
Employess are not happy about the company but only few of them dare to speak up. Those who speak up are not taken into consideration anyway, despite of the open feedback culture spread by the company: again, words are not followed by facts.

Work-Life-Balance

Many people suffer stress due to the high pressure put in order to reach crazy targets.New joiners were put under strong pressure after only a couple of months – and finally fired.

I would like to point out that this sad work life balance raised in the last period. Compensation days (after working during weekd) were approved or rejected after +1 month. In other words, you need to always be available for the company but as soon as you ask for sth, the Director needs to check 1month long in order to approve a day off which you are entitled of.
The holiday organisation for the high season was also miserable. Some people requested holiday many months in advance. The request was posponed till middle of the year when any reservation would have been expensive and short term.
Having an international team implies also family reunion=organisation must be done in advance, if you really care about your team.
So needless to say that Director&C.O. could enjoy long time off during the peak season,while the employees were still waiting for a reply for their requests.
It was then funny to hear how these people wanted us to believe that there is no hierarchy at the company and we are all alike

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

Too many tasks and responsability = stress for a miserable salary, especially for an expensive city such as Munich.
High management explained that the company aligns the salary according to some general regional values, which were never shared with us. If we google the average salary for any role, at Holidu it was often lower.
No 13th salary, no vacation or Christmas surchage (really common in Germany). No increase after understaffed high season due to the bad internal organisation (this was even an admission by the managment!).
Ridiculous salary increase (around 2%) only based on your numbers. It doesn´t matter when you started, how much you struggled or any private issues you might have encountered during the last years. Only the numbers count: do not forget how often the targets were changed (see previous sections), which makes me wonder if any calculation and consequent salary increase was correct.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

+600 people flying to Munich for a party is not eco friendly.
Home Office Policy can reduce the pollution emission. The company increased the office days = more pollution.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

One of Holidu´s value is "we win as a team". Sadly, it doesn´t often apply to the real condition. The high targets which were set generate more competition among the colleagues instead of cooperation.
During the meetings, the "best employees" of the month are celebrated. This can create a competition feeling or a sense of inferiority in some people, depending on the personality of each one. In any case, this doesn´t increase a team feeling. Other departments also show charts with the related results but this is related to a bonus which they get if they can achieve better results than the colleagues.
In the Customer Support Team you get no extra bonus for the months where your name was often on the podium.
You are better then other colleagues if you can close more tickets: how you handled the case or if you created unecessarily tickets just to reach the targets, this is not taken in consideration by the management. Another example to show how fairness is not valued anymore.
Unfortunately, many employees complain only privately and do not show their real thoughts during the 1:1s.

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

Being a start up, many employees are younger. Recently the company started to hire older employees. People with years of experience might see things in a different way or suggest improvements or changes. A fair company should embrace any suggestion, especially if coming from people with years of experience.
On the contrary, any comment was brutally cut during open meetings. This company seems to prefer young and unexperienced people so that it might be easier to manipulate them with parties and nice team events. Older employees are quicker unhappy and even left after less than 1 month.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Clearly disparity between „normal“ employees and management – despite of the „nice“ words coming from above.
As often mentioned, the targets were getting higher and higher while the number of properties = guests and cases to handle increased but the number of agents did not increase accordingly. People were even suddendly fired, which created even more stress and fear.
The calculation of targets was changed so often (4 times in less than a year). Really fascinating, especially when only numbers determine if you should get a(ridiculous)salary increase or not. The question was: which calculation for the targets was correct? Did management really considered all the changes and stress this caused in the employees? According to their words, yes. According to the facts, no. Many empty promises were done.

People got a promotion but no related salary increase due to missing budget. They should expect the increase on the following year, which did not happen.
So the behaviour of the management is getting worser and worser. Empty words without a real human meaning. Only numbers count. It doesn´t matter how the numbers are reached (quality or fairness are not values here).

Arbeitsbedingungen

The office in Munich is modern, bright and light. I found the office always very clean. Not far from Ubahn station and with bus connection.
Due to the home office policy, personal equipment was provided (laptop, monitor, keyboard). The equipment is new.

The work quality should still be improved, at least for the customer support team. Many companies do not let employees work on the phone and email at the same time, for example. This reduces stress and let employees focus more on their tasks. At Holidu we had to handle many different tasks at the same time, which leads to stress and more internal mistakes and all the other consequences which I already expressed.

Kommunikation

The company states to value clear and honest communication. This did not often happen in the last year.
Colleagues were suddendly fired after being working for years at the company but it was explained to the team that it was their decision to leave or it was a mutual agreement.
During the hiring process, possible new joiners thought that only 1office day was mandatory. When new joiners were hired, they discovered that the process of increasing the office days to 2 days proweek was already ongoing.

Exceptions to the new policy were taken in consideration only with people who live +150 km far away from the office.
The job description doesn´t match with the real tasks. The tasks listed in the job description are related to a lower support level. It happened that the reference letter mentioned only part of the real tasks.
Too many changes in the customer support team for working procedure (at least 1 change pro day!), which were communicated once they are done - and not before, asking for feedbacks. Management explained that any change should help the employees but I can assure that keeping count of all the changes in a stressful period such as summer .. this doesn´t help at all!

Gleichberechtigung

Women are welcomed but with salary gap.

Interessante Aufgaben

I used to like the job and the tasks itself. It was never boring. Every day we faced new cases, some of them even funny and to be shared with colleagues and family and friends. I think that the best part of customer support is being conscious of being able to help people who really need your backing. When I joined the company, this was the main goal.

When the company decided to reduce costs and hired the new director, things changed – to the worse. A quick and superficial support can´t be a good support. You can verify it by yourself checking reviews from customers. Please, bear in mind not to spend too much time on the reviews done „on invitation“: it was told us to invite people leaving a review only if we could really provide a real positive experience :) This doesn´t match with the idea of transparency which the company promotes. Another example of missing fairness and not willingness to face the real problem.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

Very good company and office structure. Excellent equipment and technical support.

I have the impression that the CEO really believes in the company and works to make it grow and reach its full potential. I find him to be a person who cares about Holidu.

Flexibility of work and workation are good advantages to improve work-life balance.

The summer party with all the company's employees flying in from all over Europe is a nice and motivating event.

Team events are also usually a great time to build team spirit (but as I said above, it's not guaranteed that you'll have them, and it may be that, indeed, with the budget to do four a year, your team lead will organize one or two).

Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich

This is only about the CHT department, not the whole company. That's the part that saddens me the most. I used to love working at Holidu.

The company has grown, and it's important to worry about costs (understandable). The problem was that the head of the department wasn't enough to meet this target, so they hired someone above him to do it. Then everything changed.
Quality is no longer the focus; staying within the company's budget is. The problem is that this is costing the company in other areas.

Colleagues have had to reduce their hours to cope with the stress (on medical advice), have started taking anxiolytics, and have clear signs of burnout and other issues in their mental health that were initiated or aggravated by the work. Colleagues have started skipping lunch to work more, logging on Sunday nights to see how their cases are doing. To solve this, they implemented a tracking system that timed everything you did in the software, which backfired because it only increased anxiety and stress.

It breaks my heart to have to write this because it was a job I was happy with and in which I would have liked to have built a career. Unfortunately, my colleagues who are still there continue to suffer the same kinds of pressures and suffer from so many changes focused on saving money. That's what this department has become: better numbers and less quality and humanity.

Verbesserungsvorschläge

Please listen to your employees and not just to the leader who gives you information from their perspective.

CHT is not valued in the company as it should be. The service constantly drops in quality in search of performance (check with HO's). But don't just look at the numbers to justify it. Take the happiness check questionnaire more seriously. Maybe even make a second one for the departments with the lowest happiness scores.

If many employees start claiming the same thing, something deeper is wrong. HR has heard the same things in exit talks.

Look at employees' health. It's neither healthy nor normal to consider burnout and taking anxiolytics an acceptable side effect of the new management measures and policies.

The company was not like that before and could be great again.

Arbeitsatmosphäre

It used to be 5 stars. I truly appreciated the working atmosphere. It was great; everyone was involved and united. For that, I will still give 2 starts.

Unfortunately, our department changed so much that the team is now disconnected, and stress levels are on the roof. Not necessarily amongst all colleagues, but more because we can't waste time to be able to achieve all the new targets, and trust is definitely shaken.

I can confidently say that employees are afraid to speak their minds. Many are already quietly looking for other jobs.

Image

Unfortunately, I can't say much about the company in general because we don't know what it's like in other departments. This is probably because most of them work from home or don't go to the office on the same days.

Overall, I'd say the company is a good place to work. But I wouldn't recommend working in the CHT department.

Work-Life-Balance

The possibility of working from home is great, and working in other locations is also a huge advantage, especially in an international team. This allows you to work while traveling or visiting family.

I deducted one star because there started to be a delay in planning the high season, which made it difficult to plan big summer holidays in advance (which can raise costs). Some weekend planning was also done at the last minute (such as who would cover the markets for special events).

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

This can vary greatly depending on your position and the country in which you are located. I know that my colleagues in Spain always complain about the low salaries.

There are annual increases and salary reviews, but they are very small.

There's the argument that it's always the market average and that we're always on the same level as the competition. The thing is, Holidu's customer support service does a lot more than just answer phones and write emails, so it should be compensated more.

Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein

There used to be a department just for this, dealing with sustainability. However, it seems to have been reformulated, and I can't say exactly how it is now.

There are donation campaigns once or twice a year (I can't remember for sure now) where we can choose the institutions that will be granted financial support.

Kollegenzusammenhalt

Again, it pains me to have to write this, but my first 2 years used to be 10/10. We were a united team that helped each other. There was respect between TL, no arrogance, and totally open communication. The day we went to the office in person was a day we looked forward to. Many of us even became personal friends. Team events were a cool, chill moment for us, and 1:1's were a time to talk, listen, and grow.

Unfortunately, the team started to become segregated, and not just because they built a huge team from our department in another country. Initially, this wasn't a problem at all. We would look forward to seeing them all in person at the summer party. But with so many changes, increased pressure, and stress, cooperation diminished.

It's sad to say, but things got strange, with rivalry between colleagues. Team spirit went from very present to non-existent. Colleagues started to write that we might be a "team" like that in quotation marks. There was no interest in interacting with each other anymore. We win as a team is, sadly, just a slogan.

Umgang mit älteren Kollegen

In general, the company and our department have always been younger, with a start-up atmosphere (as indeed it was). I don't think this was intentional, but it is due to the company's history and environment.

Recently, older people were hired for the CS department. The intention was good, perhaps to bring more maturity to the team. I don't see any age restrictions as company policy.

However, the management of the department itself found it difficult to manage these new employees, as the pace of work and the pressure to perform increased greatly. This made it very difficult for them, and the company took the decision to "part ways."

Vorgesetztenverhalten

In the beginning, I had amazing TLs who communicated very well and understood the particularities of their market focus. They brought solutions to improve performance and cared about the quality of the work. Back then, I would for sure give 5 starts.

TLs have been redistributed and overloaded, leaving no quality time for this working relationship, with many extra tasks too. 1:1s then started to be all about numbers, and anything we suggested was either not considered or ignored. Comparisons between colleagues from the TLs themselves became explicit, and a ranking system that greatly increased work stress.

Some have done unprofessional things (like telling an employee a list of names of colleagues who have complained about you), and I would say that they are not qualified for the role (even though I like them as a person).

Arbeitsbedingungen

There's nothing to complain about here. You'll get good, quality, new equipment. If you have any problems, you can ask for a new one. You can take screens home with you, and the technical and IT assistance is excellent and fast.
The main office is spacious and bright. Great structure.

Kommunikation

General-wise, I guess the company communicates with employees well and lets you know the next steps.

Department-wise, there are weekly meetings and constant 1:1s with TL, which is great. However, they are not efficient anymore. It is all about numbers and how we were not doing it enough. Practical solutions are not set to help, they are just told to be followed; employees have to fit the new way of working regardless. We do not feel heard by the TLs, head, and director anymore (unless it is something technical to improve numbers).

When they decide it's time to "part ways" with an employee or to let someone go as a "mutual agreement," there is no transparency for the co-workers about the true reasons and parameters. They might claim it is for privacy reasons, but there is no need to lie or change the reasons. Immediate disconnection is set, not even allowing you to say goodbye to your co-workers (this happened more than once).

Gleichberechtigung

I can only say this about my department. Only men are in the top leadership positions (director, head of department, CEO). For team leaders and other technical positions, yes, we have a lot of women, but unfortunately, I can't tell you about salary equity.

Interessante Aufgaben

The cases can be stressful, but they also present unique situations, allowing you to discover cool travel possibilities. Funny stories and humor between departments were present at various times in the early years.

Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich

The quarterly team events and the yearly summer party!

Verbesserungsvorschläge

I believe same amount of paid vacation days should be granted throughout all local offices

Arbeitsatmosphäre

I can speak for Munich and Malaga offices where the atmosphere is really nice

Work-Life-Balance

There is a lot of flexibility at Holidu. 10 days of unpaid vacations can be taken on top of the 23 paid vacation days and 2 study days, there is also the possibility to work 90% having 2 Fridays per month of.

Karriere/Weiterbildung

Gehalt/Benefits

Many benefits for employees!
Salaries could be slightly higher

Kollegenzusammenhalt

the best part of Holidu is definitely the people. It all starts with HR finding the best candidates living up by the company's values.

Vorgesetztenverhalten

Of course, there is pressure and we need to deliver results and work on projects, but you are not treated like a number. At Holidu you are treated as a person!