Thomas Cook will receive £21 million from Sunhotels’ parent Webjet as part of the hotel contracting outsourcing arrangement announced yesterday.
Details of the partnership between Thomas Cook and Sunhotels, revealed in Melbourne-based Webjet’s full-year accounts, show an “upfront payment” of £21 million to Cook.
Cook said the payment represented the cost of synchronising IT systems so the group’s complementary hotel product was consistent across the network.
The deal, announced on Thursday, will see Webjet’s European online accommodation business Sunhotels take over 3,000 hotel contracts on behalf of Cook and “provide these and existing inventory to Thomas Cook as preferred distribution partner”.
Webjet will receive a management fee, of an undisclosed amount, for the first two years of the five-year deal before a “volume based service fee” is introduced in 2019.
Cook said the arrangement would come into effect from spring 2017 and be fully implemented by January 2019.
Sunhotels already has an agreement with Thomas Cook in the group’s Nordic markets.
Cook said the move is in line with its new operating model, unveiled last year.
Sunhotels will be responsible for health and safety audits at the properties.