With TravelClick Acquisition, Amadeus Expands Its Reach

MADRID—Amadeus’ presence in the hospitality sector has grown following the purchase of TravelClick for $1.52 billion in August.

“Hospitality IT offers a $7-billion addressable market that we believe offers tremendous potential for Amadeus and we regard as a strategic priority for growth,” said Francisco Pérez-Lozao, SVP of hospitality, Amadeus. “TravelClick brings us a portfolio of powerful products, complementary to our own; access to the strategically important mid-chain and independent market; and a global team with great expertise and experience, especially in sales and account management.”

“This deal marks the next stage in TravelClick’s incredible journey of success in delivering groundbreaking solutions for hoteliers,” said Larry Kutscher, CEO of TravelClick. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team or more excited about the impact our combined companies will have on the hospitality industry as we begin to deliver the next generation of innovation for hoteliers.”

It’s all about strategy. Pérez-Lozao explained that now was the right time to strike a deal as the company looks to address the next segments in the hospitality marketplace, which include mid-large chains and independents.

“Our M&A activity is based on bringing great technology, strong teams or access to new market segments to help us execute our business strategy; TravelClick does all three of these,” he said. “We are progressing in our strategy of addressing the market holistically, starting with enterprise-level/large chains. We are currently migrating IHG to Amadeus CRS, we have our launch customer for combined CRS/PMS suite and our previous acquisitions are well integrated.”

The synergies between TravelClick and Amadeus made the merger attractive; significant opportunities for growth were also identified through this acquisition.

“With a broad portfolio and enhanced commercial teams, we see opportunities for cross-selling products and services from both portfolios,” he said. “By leveraging the complementary assets of both organizations—solutions, segments and geographies—we will offer an open end-to-end technology platform and holistic offering to serve hotels of all profiles. Our unique value will be derived from a centralized data architecture and centralized inventory across all components and layers to drive higher personalization.”

Amadeus operates as a global company with its headquarters in Madrid. The company’s teams, ranging from commercial, R&D and support functions, operate at more than 100 sites and beyond. This approach will continue as the TravelClick teams are folded into the company.

“Our vision is a to have an open end-to-end technology platform to serve the needs of hoteliers of all shapes and sizes across distribution & marketing, guest interaction, operations and groups and events. We will achieve this by leveraging the complementary assets of both organizations,” he said. “Our unique value will be derived from the centralized data architecture and centralized inventory across all components and layers and open API framework to drive higher personalization.”

He added, “In the longer term, the combination of our portfolios will allow us to unify products, solutions and data into a single platform, giving hotels integrated technology capabilities that can help them improve the guest experience as well as optimize their own revenues and costs.

“By having a centralized data architecture and a centralized inventory across all components, we will allow hoteliers to better understand guest preferences across the journey and help the hotel industry advance in delivering personalized guest experiences,” he concluded.