Hays Travel is reviewing all its accommodation-only suppliers with the aim of “substantially” reducing the number it works with.
The move comes as the miniple remains locked in talks with hotels4u.com just a week after taking the bed bank off sale.
Managing director John Hays said the review was due to problems in general across the bed bank sector.
Hays Travel, which has 34 agencies in northeast England, currently works about 12 bed banks. It would not reveal how many could be axed.
Hays said: “We are looking to work with fewer bed banks and better control the hotels we deal with. The number of bed banks will be reduced because we need to ensure our clients get the right quality.”
He said it was human nature for agents to search first on price rather than quality. By cutting down the number of bed banks, he hopes some of these prices “do not come up on our screens”.
Hotels4u.com said it hoped to be back on sale with Hays Travel within days. Sales director John Harding said: “There were some customer service issues we are addressing. I hope by the end of this week it will be back to normal.”
Meanwhile, he rubbished claims hotels4u.com was about to be sold to Youtravel.com and denied the company was up for sale “for the right price”, as is widely reported.
He added: “It’s incorrect we are about to be bought by youtravel.com and I have no idea where this speculation has come from, but as market leader there have been informal approaches made to us.”
In a statement, the company conceded one meeting took place with youtravel.com some months ago but said confidential talks between the two were “way off beam”. Associated Newspapers and managing director Haim Perry each have a 40% stake in hotels4u.com.
Youtravel.com would not comment.