Cendant acquires Flairview Travel

Cendant Corporation today announced it has acquired Sydney, Australia-based Flairview Travel, a leading online hotel distributor that specialises in the distribution of international hotel inventory throughout Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Generating annual gross bookings in excess of US$150 million, Flairview Travel is a leading online accommodation provider in the Asia Pacific region, with a rapidly increasing presence throughout Europe.

Flairview Travel will form part of Cendant's Travel Distribution Services division (TDS), and the acquisition is seen as integral to Cendant TDS's planned expansion of its online travel offerings into the Asia Pacific and European regions. As well as enhancing Cendant's global travel portfolio, it continues the company's ongoing transformation into an industry leader that not only processes travel transactions efficiently and affordably for travel-industry customers, but generates and stimulates demand for business and leisure travel worldwide.

Flairview Travel provides an inventory of approximately 5300 hotels throughout the world, but particularly in Asia, Australasia and Europe, providing TDS with a substantial competitive advantage which will be leveraged across its various distribution channels to better serve the customers who rely on their brands and online travel services.

Said Gordon Wilson, Managing Director of International Markets for Cendant's Travel Distribution Services division: "I am delighted to welcome Flairview Travel to the Cendant TDS family. This is a significant acquisition in our overall strategy of bringing together the widest content and offering it through multiple channels of distribution - on-line consumer sites, corporate web sites and through 43,000 Galileo-powered travel agencies around the world. 

Adds Wilson, "Flairview Travel has both a comprehensive technological infrastructure and specialist hotel contracting teams throughout Europe and Asia Pacific, supporting the distribution and sale of hotel content in multiple languages and currencies. Besides English, they have sites available in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese, and have properties available in more than 35 countries around the world." 

The acquisition presents significant opportunities for combining Flairview Travel's strengths and capabilities with those of other Cendant TDS brands, such as Travelport, Cendant's corporate self booking technology, and the Global Distribution System, Galileo, through which Cendant TDS will be able to provide its 43,000 Galileo-powered travel agencies with access to an additional 5,300 specially negotiated net rates at hotel properties worldwide.

"Over the last 10 years, we have built an enormously successful business of which we're incredibly proud," said Leon Kamenev, founder and chairman of Flairview Travel.

"The online travel industry is an incredibly exciting one to be involved in, and becoming part of Cendant provides an excellent platform for further expansion throughout both Asia Pacific and Europe, ensuring we are much better placed to fulfill our ambitions for Flairview Travel." 

Added Kamenev, "Cendant TDS is uniquely placed to take full advantage of the changing market dynamics and I am very excited by the further opportunities that this will create for Flairview Travel and for our team."

Flairview Travel's founder, Leon Kamenev, will continue to serve as CEO of the company, supported by his current management team, bringing their years of expertise and experience to the Cendant TDS family.