holiday autos targets accommodation market

HOLIDAY Autos has enlisted the help of former First Choice holidays division managing director Paul Evans to spearhead an assault on the accommodation-only market.

The car-hire broker is contracting hotel rooms in Spain and the Balearics for the new venture, expected to be branded Holiday Hotels. Stock will be sold via agents and a dedicated website.

Holiday Autos group marketing communications director Sara Zimmerman said: “We are in the early stages and are working through all the issues.

“We are taking this seriously otherwise we wouldn’t have got someone as experienced as Paul Evans involved.”

Holiday Autos’ decision to offer accommodation-only has been prompted by the rise of no-frills services to the popular summer destinations this year.

It also has the advantage of being able to mop up hotel rooms formerly contracted by the major operators which have been unsold. In the past hoteliers have been able to fill these through Scandinavian or European operators, but this year there is a glut of stock in those markets due to September 11.

“We are contracting and will be in all the places you’d expect, especially in Spain. The operation will have a European focus,” said Zimmerman.

The rental giant already owns a hotel broker – Hotel Discount Services – which operates through French agents. It was acquired as part of a deal three years ago. Zimmerman said company discussions about what to do with it had been behind the decision to expand the concept in the UK.

Evans said he was offering “strategic advice” to Holiday Autos chairman Clive Jacobs on the new venture. “I’m helping Clive out and I’ve been talking to hotels, as there are clearly beds available. But my sights are on other things. I’d like to go back to running one of the major operators,” he said.