Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Mr & Mrs Smith have agreed to a Hyatt affiliate acquiring London-based Mr & Mrs Smith, a travel club platform offering direct booking access to a curated collection of more than 1,500 boutique and luxury properties worldwide. Hyatt will acquire 100% of the asset-light Mr & Mrs Smith platform for an enterprise value of 53 million pounds ($66.3 million) in cash consideration.
“We are excited by this planned acquisition and to explore bringing guests and World of Hyatt members even more global luxury offerings across hundreds of geographies—including more than 20 countries where there are currently no Hyatt hotels, such as Fiji, Croatia, Iceland and Anguilla,” said Mark Vondrasek, chief commercial officer, Hyatt. “Founders Tamara and James Lohan, alongside their impressive team, have built the ultimate global direct booking collection of truly unique stay experiences including rooms located in treehouses and caves, and underwater suites. Importantly, we see a lot of synergy between our collective ethos of care, and we look forward to working together to bring our shared focus to new, memorable stay experiences for guests and World of Hyatt members—and introduce new guests to Hyatt hotels around the world.”
This acquisition builds on a transformative growth period for Hyatt in the last 12 months, which included the recently completed acquisition of Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle brand and management portfolio and the conversion of a portfolio of over 30 franchise agreements with Lindner Hotels & Resorts and me and all hotels, as well as organic growth of Hyatt’s global portfolio.
The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions. At a later date following the closing, Hyatt plans to unveil direct booking access to properties within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt’s distribution channels, including hyatt.com and the World of Hyatt app. The anticipated move will have the potential to unlock access to more than twice the number of global boutique and luxury properties within Hyatt direct booking channels, and Hyatt is exploring ways to enable World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points across eligible hotels in the Mr & Mrs Smith collection.
“I am really excited that we have found such a dynamic and globally trusted brand as Hyatt to take Mr & Mrs Smith into our next chapter,” said Tamara Lohan, cofounder/CEO, Mr & Mrs Smith. “We have long admired and respected Hyatt and are confident that there is no one better placed to build on what we have achieved and take our company to new heights. Our vision has always been for Mr & Mrs Smith to be the world’s definitive travel club for hotel lovers. Thanks to Hyatt, that vision has become much closer to reality. With Hyatt’s support, Mr & Mrs Smith will be able to offer our community of members, hoteliers and partners so much more.”
Following the planned acquisition close, more than 100 Mr & Mrs Smith colleagues are expected to join Hyatt’s Commercial Services team, including Tamara Lohan, who will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith CEO, reporting to Vondrasek, and James Lohan, who will serve as Mr & Mrs Smith chief creative officer.
In connection with the transaction, Credit Suisse served as financial advisor to Hyatt and Linklaters LLP acted as its legal advisor. Arrowpoint Advisory (part of Rothschild & Co) served as financial advisor to Mr & Mrs Smith and Fieldfisher LLP acted as its legal advisor.
