AccorHotels will acquire Gekko, a specialist in hotel distribution solutions for business travelers. The transaction is expected to help with Accor’s strategy aimed at improving the range of services offered to business travelers.
Thanks to its expertise and cutting-edge technology, Gekko offers search and reservation solutions via an interface connected to more than 500,000 hotels worldwide, ranging from budget to luxury. Its turnkey management tools allow business travelers to manage their online payments, offering them the option of tracking and optimizing their costs.
Gekko today serves more than 300 corporate customers and 14,000 travel agencies through its subsidiaries: HCorpo (key accounts), Teldar Travel (leisure travel agencies), Teldar Travel Biz (SME-focused travel agencies), Miles Attack (loyalty program) and Infinite Hotel (wholesaler serving independent French hotels). Gekko operates in France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, and has been posting very strong year-on-year growth for many years.
Founded in 2010, Gekko is managed by Olivier Delouis and Stéphane de Laforcade. They introduced HLD, a European investment fund, as their reference shareholder in 2015.
The transaction, which values Gekko at €100 million, will have an accretive effect on AccorHotels’ financial performance from 2018. Delouis and de Laforcade will remain at the head of Gekko and will continue to run the group independently.
“AccorHotels’ extensive global footprint, together with Gekko’s technological leadership, today paves the way for the creation of a global leader in B-to-B hotel distribution,” Thibault Viort, chief disruption and growth officer, said in a statement. “Since business travelers represent a key segment in the Group’s business, our capacity to respond to the specific requirements of this segment across the entire value chain is a factor that really sets us apart.”