Agoda has taken no time at all in trying to mop up affiliates that have potentially lost out as a result of the closure of Kuoni-owned Octopus Travel.
Kuoni closed the consumer-facing functions of Octopus Travel last week in a move to concentrate efforts on its B2B programme of working through agents and operators.
The result, according to Agoda, has left affiliates who used to tap into Octopus inventory for their own websites with the "loss of an income stream".
Fear not, inevitably, with the Priceline-owned hotel service emailing intermediaries around the globe with an offer to subscribe to its own affiliate programme.
The company has created a special team, it says, to help make the switch from Octopus to Agoda.
Octopus's masters (now Kuoni, after its sale within the GTA business by Travelport in March 2011) closed the consumer-facing websites of Octopus last week, telling visitors that existing bookings would be honoured but that essentially it was the end of its B2C operations.
Affiliate programmes have become a significant part of the strategy of a number of OTAs in recent years, with both Agoda and Expedia (through its EAN division) putting great faith in allowing third parties to include inventory, availability and booking tools on their own websites.
NB:Cartoon hotel image via Shutterstock.