Back in June, Booking.com and Etraveli announced an eight-year extension of
their partnership, which brings flight content and technology to the online
travel agency.
While the partnership helps Booking with its strategy to offer consumers
many elements of a trip, it is also a major element in Etraveli’s bid to become
a B2B travel player.
Etraveli CEO Mathias Hedlund said the transformation to B2B had been ongoing
for the past five years.
In an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference, Hedlund
said the company wants to “double down” on that B2B strategy.
“Booking.com will remain central given its scale. Operating its flights
product is a significant responsibility, and we work closely with the team day
to day, which will continue to be our top priority. At the same time, we intend
to add other large partners alongside Booking.com and use different parts of
our platform to support the wider travel ecosystem.”
Etraveli’s investment from KKR, which announced the acquisition of a stake
in the company in July, also plays into this ambition.
“After essentially being for sale for five years, we now have a longer-term horizon with a new investor coming in. That allows us to think three, four and
five years out, and it changes how we operate. We can make more long-term
investments and take new bets, and that is the biggest change,” Hedlund said.
Etraveli has been owned by private equity firm CVC since 2017, and while
Booking Holdings announced its intention to acquire the company in late 2021,
the deal was blocked two years later by the European Commission.
Hedlund also discussed how flight retailing has become harder, the product
development areas Etraveli is eyeing and “flexibility” offerings it would like
to bring to market.
Watch the full interview below with PhocusWire’s Morgan Hines below.
Transforming from a B2C to a B2B travel company