The Cox & Kings Group has confirmed its acquisition of LateRooms in a deal worth £8.5 million.
Yesterday it emerged Tui had sold the hotel booking website but details of the sale, including the price tag, were not revealed.
Cox & Kings said they believed the purchase would boost further growth for the group and help its strategy to “expand its global online and B2C leisure proposition”.
The group also expects there to be synergies between LateRooms and SuperBreak, which is also owned by Cox & Kings.
Peter Kerkar, director at Cox & Kings, said, “We are confident that bringing the LateRooms brand and technology into the fold will provide a significant boost to Cox & Kings’ growth trajectory and technology capabilities”.
The buyer, whose headquarters is in India, described LateRooms as a profitable business with 54,800 properties globally. The site also has an active customer database of 3.5 million and had around 93 million online visits in the financial year ending September 30, generating total transaction value of £300 million and net revenues of £50 million.
In the past year, around 57% of traffic to LateRooms.com was driven from smartphones and tablets.
Hugo Kimber, executive chairman of Cox & Kings Leisure Division-EU, said, “The acquisition of LateRooms and access to its online technology platform bolsters the Group’s delivery capabilities across all geographies for the Leisure business.