It’s Been a Busy Year for Travel Acquisitions With Lodging Deals Dominating
Photo Caption: There have been 71 acquisitions of travel companies, including both startups and more established players, so far in 2016. Pictured is the Expedia.com desktop site. So far it's been a quiet year for Expedia acquisitions.
Skift Take
Travel acquisitions have been humming along this year and we've seen several deals that will have a lasting impact on consumer behavior. Marriott-Starwood dominated headlines for months although Expedia and Priceline largely have been largely inactive in mergers and acquisitions so far in 2016. We still have a few months left, though.
While Expedia Inc.'s buying spree created most of the mergers and acquisitions buzz last year, 2016 has been a quieter year for mega online travel agency acquisitions and the focus has shifted to hotel and other hospitality tech company acquisitions so far this year.
There have been at least six hotel acquisitions since January totaling more than $16 billion, with the bulk of that amount coming from the Marriott International-Starwood Hotels & Resorts deal that closed last month. Other deals included AccorHotels $2.7 billion buy of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International and SBE Entertainment's $794 million grab of Morgans Hotel Group.
AccorHotels also waded into alternative accommodations when it bought onefinestay for $170 million and also acquired hotel software company John Paul. Two other hotel software exits include Trivago buying Base7booking and TrustYou buying CheckMate (terms of both deals were undisclosed).
Still, there has been plenty of smaller acquisition act
