watado

Thanks for the journey.

After eleven years, watado says goodbye. A look back, a thank-you and a look ahead.

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More than 250,000 people travelled with us. Thank you for being part of it.

watado was a labour of love: a tour operator for little getaways. Musicals, spas, theme parks or city trips: we lovingly bundled the experience, the hotel and the extras into one trip you could book or give as a gift in one go. Now we are closing this chapter, with one eye smiling and one eye crying.

watado in numbers

250,000+Travellers
1,300+Travel packages
20+People on the team
4Offices, from Cologne to Dortmund Airport

Our story

How it all began.

From one tiny room in Cologne to boxes full of anticipation. The story of a group of friends who wanted to make short breaks simpler.

2015: One room for all of us.

Let's be honest: the best stories rarely start in fancy offices. Ours started in 2015 with a group of friends and a simple question: why do you have to piece together the experience, the hotel and the tickets one by one? So we packed our things and moved to Cologne. We all slept together in one tiny room, worked in the office and cleared our heads at the gym. The next day, it all started over again. It was cramped, it was chaotic, and we wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world.

2016: Downtown Hagen.

In 2016 we moved to the heart of Hagen, and suddenly everything felt a little more grown-up. The idea became a real company: hotels, spas and theme parks joined as partners, more and more trips went online, and a few friends became a team that grew year after year. Our goal never changed: make short breaks so simple that all you have to do is pack your bag.

2018: One voucher, many spas.

In winter 2018 we tried something the short-break market hadn't seen before: a wellness voucher that wasn't just valid for one spa, but for many spas and sauna resorts across Germany and Europe. You pick where to go, we take care of the rest. The idea took off: the voucher became a huge success and ended up under an incredible number of Christmas trees.

2019: Boxes full of anticipation.

In 2019 we doubled down: with the theme park voucher and the Prague travel voucher, things took off all over again. What set us apart from day one? With us, you could hold a trip in your hands. A lovingly designed gift box with a printed ticket, perfect for Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries. Every week we drove several car loads of parcels to the post office, and every single one was a little promise of a really good time. That same year we moved to Unna, a little closer to home again.

Moments

Unforgettable.

A few snapshots from eleven years that still make us grin.

Hundreds of stacked watado gift boxes labelled “Dein Erlebnis-Geschenk”
Gift boxesAnticipation you can unwrap. For us, that meant boot load after boot load to the post office, every single week!
A green microphone cover with the watado.de logo and the claim “wissen was geht.”
wissen was geht.Our claim back then, roughly “know what's on”, and a promise we wanted to keep every single day.
The watado team in front of the castle at Disneyland Paris
Team tripsIf you sell trips, you should experience them yourself. Disneyland® Paris, Europa-Park or Therme Sinsheim: our team events were outing and product test in one.
A film camera on a dolly track on the set of the watado World Cup campaign
Our own World Cup campaignCamera rolling! Our own campaign, produced entirely in-house. A crash course in professional production we will never forget.
Two colleagues having fun at a photo shoot in the office
Behind the scenesOur office was studio, stage and idea factory in one. Good vibes included.
A teal wall with the watado.de logo in a meeting room
Our home baseThis is where we laughed, tinkered and dreamed up more than a few trips. Teal wasn't just a colour for us, it was a way of life.

2020 until today

Then came Covid.

Almost overnight, travel came to a halt. Spas, theme parks, musicals and hotels had to close, often for months. For us it was the most intense time in our history: rebooking trips, cancelling bookings and extending vouchers by every single closure period.

At the same time we had to make the team much smaller to get watado through the crisis. That had consequences: customer service hit bottlenecks, replies took too long, and not every request was resolved the way you deserved.

If you had to wait for us during that time: we are truly sorry.

Back then we made a deliberate decision to stop growing the watado brand. One task was close to our hearts: everyone who still had a voucher should be able to travel with it. That is why there was never a hard closing date. In 2021 we moved into an office at Dortmund Airport and kept working on the travel technology in the background.

To this day, people have travelled with us. At the end of 2026, the last guest sets off on their trip with watado. Then we close this chapter, grateful for every single journey.

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Thank you.

Eleven years, four cities, countless weekends full of experiences. None of it would have been possible without you.

AI-generated image: a crowd forms the watado logo on a lawn
Illustrative image, AI-generated

To every traveller

You trusted us with your days off, your gifts, your birthdays and your anniversaries. Being a small part of them means the world to us. Thank you for your trust and your patience, especially in the hard years.

To our team

More than 20 people built watado with their whole heart, from the tiny room in Cologne to the office at the airport. You hauled parcels, shot campaigns, built trips and made the impossible possible during the pandemic. Without you, there would be no story to tell.

To our partners

Hotels, spas, theme parks and musicals: many of you believed in us when we were still a group of friends with an idea. Your places and experiences became trips that gave hundreds of thousands of people wonderful days. Thank you for your trust and for every idea we brought to life together. It was an honour.

What remains

The craft remains.

watado was always two things: a travel brand and the technology behind it. Bundling trips, voucher systems, shipping and connecting our partners: we built all of it ourselves over the years, with a lot of passion and even more lessons learned.

We are taking that knowledge with us. For the past year and a half we have been working in the background on a new consumer travel brand, with everything we learned at watado and the same love for travel. We always knew we would be back.

More soon.

For partners and everyone in the travel industry:

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