WebBeds on Shopping Spree for Bedbanks: Should Hotelbeds Be Worried?
Photo Caption: WebBeds presents a unified brand at WTM 2018 this week
Skift Take
The acquisition of Destinations of the World seals WebBeds as the second largest B2B bedbank player, but incumbent Hotelbeds need not worry – for a very long time.
Granted, WebBeds has done very well in just five years of operation. Last week it trumpeted its position as the number two wholesale bedbank player with the acquisition of Dubai-based Destinations of the World.
But being number two when the number one is so much higher up on the ladder means there’s still a lot of climbing that WebBeds must do. It also reflects just how fragmented the business is, in which these companies operate behind the scenes connecting up travel agencies and tour operators with hotels across the globe.
Hotelbeds remains far bigger than WebBeds, according to Manuel Ferrer, founding partner and chairman of Olea Consultancy and a former Hotelbeds Asia-Pacific executive director.
Hotelbeds has over 170,000 hotels, the majority if not all are its own direct contracts. By contrast, WebBeds has 28,500 direct contracts. This includes 5,600 it picked up with $173 million acquisition of Destinations of the World from asset management firm Gulf Capital.
Direct contracts are key, for one, because margins are h
