Hyatt Planning For Possible Expedia Pullout

Hyatt Hotels reportedly has signed an agreement with Booking.com to shift online reservations to that site in the event its negotiations with industry giant Expedia do not produce an agreement by a July 31 deadline.

According to an exclusive report published by Skift, Hyatt and Priceline Group’s Booking.com signed the deal in June, a year ahead of the expiration date of the two parties’ previous agreement, but chose not to announce it as to not disrupt its Expedia negotiations.

Earlier this year, Hyatt sent a letter to the property owners in its chain saying if it cannot reach “reasonable, competitive terms” with Expedia by July 31, 2017, it will pull out of the online travel giant (including Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and Orbitz) and direct more of its efforts to other distribution channels, including travel agencies.

Hyatt would neither confirm nor deny a Booking.com deal: “Hyatt is in constant dialogue with all our OTA partners around the world, including Booking.com and Expedia, but we will not get in to the details of those discussions. Our focus remains on growing the value proposition for booking directly with Hyatt so we can build strong relationships with our guests, as well as working with third-party distributors in line with our efforts to improve hotel profitability.”

As Travel Market Report reported in June, Hyatt told its property owners that travel agents would be one channel it would seek to push reservations to in the event that it feels forced to pull out of Expedia after July 31.