Expedia’s white label division has agreed its biggest-ever deal – providing accommodation on Ryanair.com.
The five-year revenue sharing contract is part of the no-frills carrier’s plan to boost passengers numbers from 50 million to 84 million by 2012.
Expedia Private Label will provide more than 20,000 hotels and resorts in the carrier’s 130 destinations.
EPL managing director Karen Bohannon claimed it has the potential to be the largest accommodation deal in the no-frills carrier market based on Ryanair’s traffic and booking figures and the potential they bring for hotel bookings.
“Most of the people who book on the Ryanair website also need accommodation,” she said.
Currently the flight and hotel search facilities are separate, but next year the two will be incorporated so customers can book travel and accommodation at the same time.
Expedia Private Label also has deals with John Lewis’s travel site Greenbee, Alitalia and Eurostar.
Bohannon said EPL is in talks with a number of other established high street brands that are looking to enter the online travel market.
She said the industry should expect a flood of companies offering travel in the next few years as they start to grasp their customers’ online shopping habits.
“A number of established high street stores have only had websites for five or six years and are only now starting to understand the Internet,” she said. “Travel is an attractive sector because purchases are high value.”