In a move that will widen its presence in the luxury segment, Hyatt Hotels Corp. will acquire Mr & Mrs Smith, a platform that enables direct booking to a collection of boutique and luxury properties, for £53 million ($66.11 million) in cash consideration.
The Chicago-based group has signed an agreement with Mr & Mrs Smith for a Hyatt affiliate to acquire 100% of the London-based asset light booking platform.
The acquisition will help Hyatt add more luxury properties worldwide, including in more than 20 countries where the hotel giant is not present yet, such as Croatia, Fiji, Iceland and Anguilla.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions. Following the close of the deal, Hyatt will provide direct booking access to Mr & Mrs Smith’s platform properties via its own distribution channels, including Hyatt.com and the World of Hyatt loyalty program app.
This is expected to unlock access to over twice the number of boutique and luxury properties in Hyatt’s booking channels. Hyatt is looking at enabling World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points at eligible hotels within the Mr & Mrs Smith collection.
Mr & Mrs Smith offers a curated collection of more than 1,500 properties globally. All of these hotels and villas are hand-picked and anonymously reviewed. The global travel club was founded in 2003 by husband-and-wife James and Tamara Lohan.
In October 2020, IHG Hotels & Resorts partnered with Mr & Mrs Smith, allowing IHG One Rewards loyalty program members to earn and spend points at over 400 hotels chosen by Mr & Mrs Smith. Mr & Mrs Smith’s hotels could also be booked through IHG Rewards. Some of Mr & Mrs Smith’s hotels were also bookable through IHG Rewards.
“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,” said Mark Vondrasek, Hyatt’s chief commercial officer.
Once the transaction closes, more than 100 Mr & Mrs Smith employees are expected to join Hyatt’s commercial services team. This includes Tamara Lohan, who will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith’s CEO and report to Vondrasek and James Lohan who will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith’s chief creative officer.
The addition of the platform will build on Hyatt’s leadership position in luxury and strengthen the group’s distribution capabilities, particularly in Europe, by creating relationships with more hotel owners and more than 1 million members of Mr & Mrs Smith.
The acquisition comes during Hyatt’s transformative growth period in the last 12 months, which includes the recently completed acquisition of Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle brand and management portfolio and the conversion of a portfolio of more than 30 franchise agreements with Lindner Hotels & Resorts and me and all hotels, besides the organic growth of Hyatt’s portfolio worldwide. The recent brand additions to Hyatt’s portfolio have more than tripled the World of Hyatt loyalty program in the last five years.
Credit Suisse served as financial advisor to Hyatt, while Linklaters LLP served 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.