Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Mr & Mrs Smith, recently announced an agreement with a Hyatt subsidiary to acquire London-based Mr & Mrs Smith, a travel club and boutique hotel specialist with a platform of over 1,500 boutique and luxury hotels, commonly located in some of the world's most coveted locations. Hyatt will acquire 100 per cent of the light asset Mr & Mrs Smith for a cash consideration of £53 million.
Not Mr & Mrs Smith (which predates the movie), but Mr & Mrs Smith, founded in 2003, is "a travel club for hotel lovers", with over 1,788 boutique and luxury hotels in over 80 countries carefully selected.
The acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith is expected to strengthen Hyatt's leadership position in the luxury hotel segment and further enhance Hyatt's distribution capabilities, particularly in Europe, by building relationships with other hotel owners and the more than one million loyal Mr & Mrs Smith members. The total number of members in the Hyatt Place loyalty programme has more than tripled in the last five years, thanks to Hyatt's expanding portfolio of brands and, with each stay, an ever-refreshing offering.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions. Later in the year after the transaction closes, Hyatt plans to roll out direct booking access to hotels within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt's distribution channels, including Hyatt.com and the Hyatt Place app. This anticipated initiative will potentially add more than twice as many global boutique and luxury hotels to Hyatt's direct booking channel, and Hyatt is exploring ways to enable Hyatt Place members to earn and redeem points at eligible hotels in the Mr & Mrs Smith collection. Hyatt Place members are among the industry's most valuable travellers, spending more, staying more and generating quality revenue for hotel owners.
Following the planned completion of the acquisition, more than 100 Mr & Mrs Smith associates are expected to join Hyatt's commercial services team, including Tamara Lohan, who will serve as CEO of Mr & Mrs Smith, reporting to Mark Vondrasek, Hyatt's Chief Commercial Officer, and James Lohan.
