US / UK: Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced plans to acquire the London-based hotel booking platform Mr & Mrs Smith for £53 million in cash.
The planned acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. At a later date, Hyatt will introduce direct booking access to more than 1,500 properties within the Mr & Mrs platform.
Over 100 staff members will join Hyatt’s commercial services team, including Tamara Lohan who will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith CEO. James Lohan will take on the role as Mr & Mrs Smith chief creative officer.
As well as boutique hotels, Mr & Mrs Smith offers a luxury private villa collection, with properties located across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Tamara Lohan said: “I am really excited that we have found such a dynamic and globally trusted brand as Hyatt to take Mr & Mrs Smith into our next chapter. We have long admired and respected Hyatt and are confident that there is no one better placed to build on what we have achieved and take our company to new heights.
“Our vision has always been for Mr & Mrs Smith to be the world’s definitive travel club for hotel lovers. Thanks to Hyatt, that vision has become much closer to reality. With Hyatt’s support, Mr & Mrs Smith will be able to offer our community of members, hoteliers and partners so much more,” she added.
Mark Vondrasek, chief commercial officer at Hyatt, said: “We are excited by this planned acquisition and to explore bringing guests and World of Hyatt members even more global luxury offerings across hundreds of geographies – including over 20 countries where there are currently no Hyatt hotels such as Fiji, Croatia, Iceland and Anguilla.
“Founders Tamara and James Lohan alongside their impressive team have built the ultimate global direct booking collection of truly unique stay experiences including rooms located in treehouses, within caves, and underwater suites. Importantly, we see a lot of synergy between our collective ethos of care, and we look forward to working together to bring our shared focus to new, memorable stay experiences for guests and World of Hyatt members – and introduce new guests to Hyatt hotels around the world,” added Vondrasek.
Credit Suisse served as financial advisor to Hyatt and Linklaters LLP acted as its legal advisor. Arrowpoint Advisory [part of Rothschild & Co] served as financial advisor to Mr & Mrs Smith and Fieldfisher LLP acted as its legal advisor.
The news follows Hyatt’s recently completed acquisition of Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle brand and management portfolio and the conversion of a portfolio of over 30 franchise agreements with Lindner Hotels & Resorts and me and all hotels.
