Cendant acquires giant hotel wholesaler Gullivers/OctopusTravel.com

US travel giant Cendant has continued its rapid expansion by acquiring Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA), online arm OctopusTravel.com and US wholesaler Travel Bound. The $1.1 billion deal comes shortly after Cendant’s purchase of UK ebookers for $375 million and the acquisition of Ramada International in last two weeks. Gullivers and Octopus join Cendant’s wide-ranging portfolio which includes Galileo, Travel 2-4, ebookers, Orbitz, Travel Bound, Cheaptickets and HotelClub.com. The deal brings the two companies under Cendant’s Travel Distribution Services (TDS) division, headed by Sam Galeotos. Gullivers chairman David Babai said: “I have no doubt that the partnership with Cendant will create a new and formidable force in the travel distribution business which will change the face of tourism as we know it.” 30 year old Gullivers is the worlds largest hotel wholesaler, with merchant hotel contracts at over 21,400 properties world wide, 80% of which are independent hotels. It generates yearly sales of $ 810 million, processing over 15,000 daily bookings. While GTA sold 920,000 bed nights in Paris alone last year and expects to reach 1.2 million bed nights in London for year 2004, it’s strength spans worldwide for both FIT and group. GTA employs 2,400 staff and operates through more than 30 offices in 28 countries while OctopusTravel.com, its retail web site, covers 10 countries. Its division Travel Bound is a leading US wholesaler. Cendant TDS international markets managing director Gordon Wilson claimed that travel agents would benefit from the “addition of excellent merchant relationships from Gullivers which sells online through both the trade and Octopus.com 25 million room nights a year”. He added: “Suppliers too will benefit as the combination of TDS and Gullivers will provide a great distribution platform through a choice of channels – wholesale, agency, supplier and consumer – such as Orbitz, ebookers, Cheaptickets, Lodging.com, HotelClub.com, Travel 2 Travel 4, as well as the existing Galileo subscriber network of 44,000 travel agencies.” Cendant is one of the world’s largest franchisors of hotels with more than 6,400 hotels and nearly 540,000 rooms on five continents, including Amerihost Inn, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge, Wingate Inn – Additionally, Cendant owns Resort Condominiums International (RCI) which manages vacation exchange programs for 3,500 affiliated time share resorts worldwide, representing a global market share of 70%; Fairfield Resorts, Inc., with more than 450,000 member families, is the largest vacation ownership company in the world; the Cendant Marketing Group is its U.S. direct marketing unit, reaching more than 100 million customers and clients across America with membership-based discount travel, shopping, health, dental, entertainment and consumer protection services; Cims is a membership marketing company delivering new brands and loyalty programs to banks and other organizations with large customer bases, reaching over 17 million consumers across Europe; and Cendant is the world’s largest franchisor of real estate brokerages, with more than 13,000 offices and 277,000 sales associates, including such brands as Century 21®, Coldwell Banker®, ERA®, and Sotheby’s International Realty®. Reported by Charles Kao