Hyatt Hotels Corp. is set to acquire London-based Mr & Mrs Smith, a platform offering direct booking access to a collection of more than 1,500 boutique and luxury hotels worldwide. Hyatt will acquire 100 percent of the asset-light Mr & Mrs Smith platform for an enterprise value of £53 million in cash consideration.
“We are excited by this planned acquisition and to explore bringing guests and World of Hyatt members even more global luxury offerings across hundreds of geographies—including over 20 countries where there are currently no Hyatt hotels such as Fiji, Croatia, Iceland and Anguilla,” Mark Vondrasek, Hyatt's chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “Founders Tamara and James Lohan alongside their impressive team have built the ultimate global direct booking collection of truly unique stay experiences including rooms located in treehouses, within caves, and underwater suites. Importantly, we see a lot of synergy between our collective ethos of care, and we look forward to working together to bring our shared focus to new, memorable stay experiences for guests and World of Hyatt members—and introduce new guests to Hyatt hotels around the world.”
The planned acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith is expected to further strengthen Hyatt’s distribution capabilities, especially across Europe, through developing relationships with additional hotel owners and more than 1 million Mr & Mrs Smith members. Over the past year, Hyatt acquired Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle brand and management portfolio, a portfolio of over 30 franchise agreements with Lindner Hotels & Resorts and Me and All Hotels.
The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions. At a later date following the closing, Hyatt plans to unveil direct booking access to properties within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt’s distribution channels, including Hyatt.com and the World of Hyatt app. The anticipated move will have the potential to unlock access to more than twice the number of global boutique and luxury properties within Hyatt direct booking channels.
“I am really excited that we have found such a dynamic and globally trusted brand as Hyatt to take Mr & Mrs Smith into our next chapter. We have long admired and respected Hyatt and are confident that there is no one better placed to build on what we have achieved and take our company to new heights,” said Tamara Lohan, co-founder and chief executive officer, Mr & Mrs Smith. “Our vision has always been for Mr & Mrs Smith to be the world’s definitive travel club for hotel lovers. Thanks to Hyatt, that vision has become much closer to reality.”
Following the planned acquisition close, more than 100 Mr & Mrs Smith colleagues are expected to join Hyatt’s Commercial Services team, including Tamara Lohan, who will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith CEO, reporting to Vondrasek, and James Lohan, who will be Mr & Mrs Smith’s chief creative officer.