Who Leads Lastminute.com? CEO Profile, Career, and Leadership Insights 2025
Sometimes you’re scrolling for a vacation deal that looks almost too good to be true, and you pause: who’s steering the ship at lastminute.com? Is there a real person behind all that sparkly pink branding, bargain escapes, and those notorious flash sales? Yep. As of July 2025, the person at the top is Marco Corradino, and he’s not just a number cruncher in a boardroom. This is a CEO who’s had his hands deep in the data and the drama of online travel for decades. Pull back the curtain just a bit, and you find a story of tech, turbulence, and direct talk—a story that actually shapes those late-night, just-book-it-now trips we all love.
The Big Boss: Who is Marco Corradino?
Marco Corradino became a familiar figure in European tech even before his rise at lastminute.com. If you’ve ever heard of Bravofly or Rumbo, those are projects he had a big hand in launching and scaling. Back in 2004, Marco joined Bravofly in Switzerland as co-founder, and in 2015 that small operation evolved to absorb lastminute.com (yes, the very same). When lastminute.com’s British roots merged with Swiss-Italian digital grit, Marco moved steadily up to Chief Executive Officer. Now, he’s very much the glue holding together a patchwork of iconic travel brands across Europe.
What’s different about Marco? He isn’t pretending to be a celebrity. There’s no personal Instagram feed filled with yachts or ski weekends (at least not public ones). Instead, he’s known in the digital industry for obsessing over the customer journey and digital interfaces. His biggest passion? Turning website visitors into loyal, repeat travelers. You’ll find interviews where he describes leveraging AI and machine learning to personalize the online travel hunt, long before those buzzwords made headlines everywhere.
In summer 2023, when many travel businesses were panicking over post-pandemic changes, Marco adopted what the media labeled a ‘fast lane strategy’—shrinking bureaucracy, accelerating app upgrades, and pushing for real-time deals and flexibility. Colleagues talk about his hands-on approach, whether it’s attending tech review meetings or stepping onto the customer service floor to answer support calls. That rare willingness to get granular is a big reason lastminute.com has thrived while others have stalled. The company’s annual report for 2024 credits much of its 16% jump in bookings and 12% overall revenue growth to his decisive leadership.
He’s also got a reputation for transparency. When bad press hit lastminute.com in 2022 around refund delays, Marco appeared on video messages and gave interviews, explaining both mistakes and fixes—not the usual silent CEO act. That candid stance won cautious respect from travelers burned out by stonewalling from other brands.
Inside lastminute.com: What’s Different Under Current Leadership?
Lastminute.com started in London back in 1998, with an idea so clever (flogging late travel deals) it’s hard now to imagine travel shopping without it. Since Marco Corradino moved into the CEO seat full-time in 2019, the company’s had quite a reboot.
The site now isn’t just about hotels or cheap flights: it’s about creating whole travel solutions that flex with you—so you can land a villa, an airport transfer, and tickets to a gig the night before you fly. Marco’s voice echoes in the tech: everything’s nudged toward personalization. Your search history? It isn’t just collecting dust. The system serves flash offers tailored to people who, let’s say, book city breaks in autumn or splurge on five-star hotels if there’s a spa discount.
Under Marco, there’s been a massive investment in mobile. In 2021, the company kicked off a "mobile-first" campaign, and now over 68% of all lastminute.com bookings come from a phone or tablet. That’s no accident; techies in the Milan and Chiasso offices say Marco personally tested app features on his own phone, sometimes dialing developers at night if navigation was clunky.
The company has also begun publicly tracking sustainability, something that’s only now becoming widespread in travel. Flights with lower emissions, eco-certified hotels, and options to offset carbon became filter-able in 2022. Marco himself backed a partnership with environmental groups in Switzerland and Italy, aiming for all company-branded city breaks to be carbon-neutral by 2027. That shift isn’t just for the travel-savvy; it’s a response to direct customer demand, showing Marco’s willingness to blend business with a bit of activism.
Customer service is sharper now, too. The "Auto Refund" system, rolling out fully in early 2024, processes most canceled bookings within 48 hours—a reaction to COVID-era refund chaos. Here’s a peek at recent stats:
| Year | Automated Refunds Processed | Average Refund Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 305,000 | 12 days |
| 2023 | 464,500 | 3.5 days |
| 2024 | 596,800 | 1.9 days |
How lastminute.com is Shaping Digital Travel Choices
You might think all travel booking sites are basically the same—but lastminute.com keeps shaking up the formula. Since Marco took over, there’s been an obvious push toward "dynamic packaging." Instead of picking and mixing your hotel, flights, and car hire separately, you get recommendations in bundles that update instantly as prices change. The result? Savings stack up that you literally couldn’t create yourself hunting on your own. That’s why the dynamic packaging system is now used on 69% of all completed bookings in 2025.
This tech isn’t just bells and whistles; it comes with practical wins. For example, the company’s AI suggests off-peak dates or alternate airports if you’re really gunning for value. I tried it for a Berlin weekend and scored a boutique suite for £109 after dodging a Friday morning flight surge. Tips for you: try tweaking trip length or changing airport—lastminute.com’s system will flag alternatives before checkout.
Another twist: lastminute.com has gone heavy on content. Their "Inspiration Hub" is packed with real customer photos and itineraries, not just stock images. Did you know they host live Q&As with travel insiders, right on their website? If you drop a question before Wednesday, there’s a good chance a destination expert will reply before the weekend. That’s the sort of interaction you won’t find with most middlemen sites focused on just selling beds and flights.
Here’s a quick hack: sign up for the site’s "Deal Alerts" and be ready to book fast. Flash offers rarely last more than four hours—and stats show the deepest discounts (up to 70% off city breaks) are most likely to be released between noon and 3pm, especially on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
What Sets Lastminute.com’s CEO Apart from Competitors?
Some CEOs hide in data dashboards, but Marco Corradino is more front-of-house than you’d expect. Sometimes he even pops up in company video blogs, explaining weekly site changes and celebrating customer milestones (like the millionth traveler to Spain since lockdowns ended). If an update flops, he admits it—and asks for feedback. That’s rare in executive circles.
He’s also a big believer in building out partnerships. Under his leadership, the company has inked deals not just with international hotel and airline chains but also with small-scale local tour operators, so city breaks feel more personal. There’s been a 24% jump since 2022 in packages sold that include "unique local experiences"—think wine tastings, or backstage concert passes.
Internally, company staff actually mention good vibes: Marco runs open Q&A sessions monthly, on video, and fields questions live. There’s a noticeable culture shift; even remote support agents (who can be anywhere from Edinburgh to Valencia) say they get responses to feedback within 12 hours. His commitment to "walking the floor" digitally is something most CEOs won’t bother with.
He’s not just focusing on numbers, either—Marco invests in upskilling staff. In 2023, lastminute.com partnered with Udemy to roll out training to everyone, not just managers. The focus? Customer empathy, AI tools, and effective communication—that translates into fewer call-frustrated travelers, according to their published quarterly surveys.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of lastminute.com
Want to get smarter about booking with lastminute.com under Marco Corradino’s watch? A couple of tested tricks can boost your savings and reduce stress.
- Activate the personalized offers by logging in and completing your traveler profile. The algorithm goes into high gear once it has your typical travel months or favorite destinations, pushing relevant discounts straight to your feed.
- Use the split payment feature—perfect if you’re splitting with friends or don’t want a huge charge on one card. As of spring 2025, around 27% of group bookings use this service.
- Check their flexible ticket filter—swap dates or cancel for free on a rising number of airline and hotel deals. This is a direct move by Marco to make booking during uncertain times less risky (a favorite since the pandemic years).
- Join the loyalty program, “Pink Club.” The first tier is free and already gets you price drops and early flash deals. The "Plus" upgrade costs, but heavy travelers earn slots in secret sales that aren’t even on the public site.
- Don’t ignore the app. A full 38% of their one-time only “pink label” deals in 2025 have been exclusive to mobile users, so download and enable notifications if you’re hunting a real bargain.
- Watch for real-time support pop-ups. The company’s new AI assistant can handle bookings and changes, but if you escalate, a human takes over—usually in under 2 minutes during business hours, according to published support times.
Want a summary on who to thank for this? If you snag a steal to Santorini or Paris at half the usual price through lastminute.com CEO-driven changes, Marco Corradino is the name behind that digital magic. He’s shuffled the pieces of the old travel booking puzzle and keeps trying new moves. Your spontaneous trip, stress-free refund, or that clever travel bundle probably started as an idea bouncing around his team’s video chat. So, next time you “go last minute,” know the real person (not just a logo) making it all work behind-the-scenes.