Hostelworld Grp PLC - Appointment of Interim Chair

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Hostelworld Group plc ("Hostelworld" or the "Group")

Appointment of Interim Chair

Hostelworld today announces that Ulrik Bengtsson has now formally stepped down as non-executive Chair of Hostelworld, having announced his intention to leave on 20 March 2025. Carl G. Shepherd, Non-Executive Director, has assumed the role of Interim Chair while the Board continues with the process of recruiting a permanent Chair. Carl will also assume Ulrik's responsibilities as Chair of the Nomination Committee on an interim basis and will, in accordance with provision 24 of the UK Corporate Governance Code, step down as a member of the Hostelworld Audit Committee while he serves as Interim Chair. Eimear Moloney has been appointed as Interim Senior Independent Director while Carl serves as Interim Chair. 

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About Hostelworld Group

Hostelworld Group PLC is a ground-breaking social network powered Online Travel Agent ("OTA") focused on the hostelling category, with a clear mission to help travellers find people to hang out with. Our mission statement is founded on the insight that most travellers go hostelling to meet other people, which we facilitate through a series of social features on our platform that connect our travellers in hostels and cities based on their booking data. The strategy has been extraordinarily successful, generating significant word of mouth recommendations from our customers and strong endorsements from our hostel partners.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Ireland, Hostelworld is a well-known trusted brand with almost 270 employees, hostel partners in over 180 countries, and a long-standing commitment to building a better world. To that end, our focus over the last few years has been on improving the sustainability of the hostelling industry. In particular, over the last two years we have commissioned independent research to validate the category's sustainability credentials and recently introduced a hostel specific sustainability framework which encourages our hostel partners to move to even more sustainable operations and also provides the data points for our customers to make more informed decisions about where they stay. In addition, our customers are now able to offset their trip's carbon emissions should they wish to do so, and we have maintained our 'Taking Climate Action' label awarded by South Pole.