On July 31, the deadline for Hyatt and Expedia to reach a new distribution agreement, Hyatt confirmed that it has reached an agreement “in principle” on contract terms.
At least for now, it’s business as usual when it comes to being able to book Hyatt hotels on Expedia and its sister booking sites without any disruption.
Hyatt issued the following statement:
“We remain focused on growing the value proposition for our guests who book directly with Hyatt so that we can build stronger relationships with them. We also work with third-party distributors to reach guests who might not be frequent travelers or who otherwise have a reason to book through these sites.
“Hyatt is in dialogue with all of our OTA [online travel agency] partners around the world as a regular matter. We recently agreed to build on our existing relationship with Booking.com by implementing new initiatives intended to reduce costs and increase flexibility while driving demand. Additionally, we’ve had productive discussions with Expedia and have agreed in principle on terms that address our concerns about distribution costs and flexibility. We expect that Hyatt hotels will continue to be distributed on Expedia platforms without disruption.”
The Hyatt-Expedia deal comes in the context of Expedia having completed a round of contract renegotiations with the likes of most major chains, including Marriott and Hilton. Hyatt’s economics under the new deal likely didn’t achieve the benefits levels of these larger players, however Hyatt presumably will receive a better package now than under its prior contract with Expedia.
“We partner with several hundred thousand hoteliers around the world and we stand by the value we deliver,” Expedia said in a statement that confirmed its tentative agreement with Hyatt. “We bring partners brand agnostic, incremental consumers (only a tiny percentage of our regular consumers book the same hotel brand consistently) from across the globe, and that’s a clear indication of the value we bring to partners, like Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
