Hyatt Is Buying Hotel Booking Site Mr and Mrs Smith for $66 Million

25.08.2023 - 13:43 / skift.com / Ihg / Richard Clarke / Matthew Parsons

Hyatt is acquiring UK boutique hotel booking site Mr and Mrs Smith for £53 million — or about about $66 million in today’s exchange rates at the time of the announcement.

“We believe this planned acquisition will help us appeal to new types of travelers in existing Hyatt destinations and introduce World of Hyatt to new members via access to the curated Mr & Mrs Smith collection,” Mark Vondrasek, chief commercial officer of Hyatt, told Skift.

The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter, Hyatt said in a statement. If approved, Hyatt plans to add direct booking access to properties within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt’s website and mobile app.

The online specialist, which offers direct booking to hand-picked 1,500 boutique and luxury properties, was founded 20 years ago by husband and wife team Tamara Lohan and James Lohan. The company began life as a travel guide.

“After 20 years building the company, it’s hugely exciting to think that a company with such a wealth of resources, experience, and support will be there with me helping to grow the business,” said Tamara Lohan, founder and CEO of Mr and Mrs Smith.

Hyatt will now seek to leverage Mr & Mrs Smith’s one-million-strong membership base. It aims to launch direct booking access to properties within the luxury specialist’s platform through its distribution channels, including Hyatt.com and the World of Hyatt app.

The deal could double the number of global boutique and luxury properties within Hyatt’s direct booking channels. At the same time, Hyatt said it was exploring ways to enable World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points across eligible hotels in the Mr & Mrs Smith collection.

More than 100 Mr & Mrs Smith employees are expected to join Hyatt’s commercial services team. Tamara Lohan will remain Mr & Mrs Smith’s CEO, reporting to Vondrasek. James Lohan will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith’s chief creative officer.

Adding Mr and Mrs Smith could make 36-million-member Hyatt’s loyalty program more valuable to users, complementing Hyatt’s offerings and further strengthening its distribution capabilities, especially in Europe. The acquisition include properties in more than 20 countries where Hyatt doesn’t have a boutique presence, such as Fiji, Croatia, Iceland and Anguilla.

The footprint of boutique properties is more than double what’s now offered within Hyatt direct booking channels, noted Richard Clarke, managing director of AllianceBernstein, in a research note on Friday.

“This deal is low risk in the structural challenges,” Clarke wrote. “It likely enhances the loyalty program in giving more redemption (and eventually earning) opportunities in more geographies and adds the first venture into Villas, [a segment in]