A busy day for TUI Group yesterday as it unveiled half-year results as well as setting out its strategy for growth going forward for investors.
The company, formed late last year by the merger of TUI Travel and Germany's TUI AG, formally put a 'for sale' sign over the LateRooms Group which also includes the Brazil-based Malapronta brand.
AsiaRooms, also part of the LateRooms Group, was shut earlier this year and customers are now redirected to LateRooms.com.
TUI bosses had talked in previous earnings reports about losses at AsiaRooms, LateRooms and Malapronta referring to a $7 million loss across the brands in late 2013.
Meanwhile, in October 2014, TUI Travel boss Peter Long referred to AsiaRooms and Malapronta as "loss-making."
Yesterday LateRooms, which had a turnover of Euro 31 million for the first half of 2014, was described as not fitting in the portfolio as the company looks to move forward with a one-brand strategy.
However, Hotelbeds will continue to run as an independent business while the company "evaluates options to find the best route to secure maximum value for the business."
As for the Specialist Group, TUI says the "world and its wife want to buy it" but the company feels there are opportunities to improve its performance.
From a one-brand perspective TUI believes its brand strength and scale, in terms of its position within cruise, airline and hotel segments, give it a huge competitive advantage and one which others could not replicate easily.
Joint chief executive Friedrich Joussen talked about global brands scaling better than local ones as online distribution becomes more and more important and the impact of a single URL.
Underpinning the one-brand strategy, TUI bosses talked about integrated platforms - a central mobility platform and a central online platform (currently being tested in Spain) are already underway while still to come are a SAP-based customer platform and an eCRM system from IBM.
The one-brand strategy will be phased-in starting with the Netherlands in September and then France while the Nordics and the UK are in phase two.
TUI acknowledges there is more work to be done in some regions in both direct and online distribution.
For example, the Central region only has 12% online distribution compared to 45% in the Western Region and 56% in the Northern region.
In half year results for 2014/15, turnover increased by just over 7% to Euro 6.94 billion while there was a 20% improvement in operating revenue to a loss of Euro 273.
In a summer 2015 update, the group says online accounts for 36% of bookings, an 11% improvement on the previous year. In the UK online sales for summer bookings stood at 50%, up three percentage points year-on-year.