Valk Exclusief selects Apaleo to power group-wide digital transformation across 43 hotels

Valk Exclusief, the Netherlands’ largest independent full-service hotel group, has entered the final stage of its digital transformation, powered by Apaleo, the open, API-first hospitality platform. 

Since launching the project in September 2024, Valk Digital – the hotel group’s dedicated technology arm – has successfully brought 10 'champion' hotels live on Apaleo, with all 43 of Valk Exclusief’s hotels on track to migrate by December 2025.

This ambitious rollout covers Valk Exclusief’s hotels in the Netherlands and Germany, spanning more than 7,100 rooms, 55 restaurants, 475 meeting spaces, plus wellness centres, bars, and retail outlets. Serving over 11 million guests annually, the group operates one of the most complex hospitality footprints in the region.

The 10 champion hotels, including Heerlen, Almere, Assen, Middelburg, Amsterdam Zuidas, and Düsseldorf, went live in June and July. The remaining properties will be onboarded in the next two months. 

Valk Exclusief’s digitalisation journey began when it selected Apaleo in September 2024 to replace its legacy property management system (PMS). With Apaleo’s API-first platform, the group gains full control to build and customise its tech stack without any vendor lock-in. 

Within six months, the first Valk Exclusief hotel successfully migrated to Apaleo, thanks to intensive in-house development led by Valk Digital and its strategic partners. The teams built and deployed a fully integrated hospitality tech stack from scratch, tailored to the group’s unique operations. This foundation now drives faster innovation, seamless integrations, and scalable automation.

Connected on Apaleo’s platform through the open APIs, Valk Exclusief’s custom-built tech stack includes:

• Guest experience tools: self-check-in kiosks; Valk Exclusief app (Apple and Android);  mobile key system; ValkService (room service and housekeeping solution); CRM for guests and corporate (loyalty systems); ValkToGo shop (24/7 self-service shop integrated with daily PMS revenue sync)

• Revenue & booking systems: IBE/CBE with ARI; ValkPay (room charges with leading payment POS partners); Digital AR invoicing that includes e-connect module

• Operations & integration: Housekeeping & technical service modules with PMS integration; Energy Management System integrated with PMS; migration tools

In addition to these proprietary systems, Valk Digital selected external applications where strategic advantages existed. These include solutions for rate automation, group bookings, lost and found service, guest communications and revenue management. 

By centralising systems and connecting all of its properties through Apaleo’s API-first platform, Valk Exclusief will reduce onboarding time for over 4,000 staff from days to hours, while elevating the guest experience across its portfolio.

Martijn van der Valk, Managing Director of Valk Exclusief Hotel Amsterdam-Zuidas, said: “Choosing Apaleo set the foundation of our digital transformation, but what we’ve achieved since then, from first pilot to ten champion hotels live, is a testament to the incredible work of the Valk Digital team and our partners. We look forward to completing our digital revamp by onboarding the remaining hotels this year. With Apaleo and direct access to APIs, we have the best of both worlds, a tailored tech stack with in-house solutions that can seamlessly integrate with third-party tools. This enables us to continuously innovate and shape the experience exactly as we envision it, for both guests and staff.”

Uli Pillau, Co-founder & CEO of Apaleo, said: “Valk Exclusief has built one of the most advanced and agile digital stacks in hospitality in under a year, an outstanding achievement. This is exactly why Apaleo exists, we give operators greater control and flexibility over their technology with an API-first platform. Hoteliers can build and choose the tools they need to suit their unique operations without any vendor lock-in. With agentic AI emerging, running on an API-first infrastructure also means having an AI-ready operations, and Valk Digital is future-proofing its business to stay ahead of the industry.”