Travel giant Thomas Cook has announced a tie-up to make Expedia its preferred provider of hotels for city and domestic holidays.
US-based Expedia will also provide its booking platform for all city break and hotel-only sales for Thomas Cook in Europe.
The deal will offer Thomas Cook customers over 60,000 more hotels to choose from in cities across the UK and worldwide.
Thomas Cook said it will also help the group cut costs and simplify its city breaks and hotel-only business as it focuses on sun and beach holidays.
Peter Fankhauser hailed the agreement (Thomas Cook/PA)
Under the agreement, Thomas Cook will be able to offer sun and beach package holidays through Expedia sites.
Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said the agreement was an “important step forward in delivering our strategy for profitable growth”.
He added: “Joining forces with a company that has the global reach and expertise of Expedia will allow Thomas Cook to further simplify our systems and processes.
“At the same time, this will free us up to focus on holidays to our own-brand and selected partner hotels in sun and beach locations.”
Expedia brand president Aman Bhutani said the tie-up would help boost its “competitive positions in the European market”.
It comes after Thomas Cook announced a hotel-sourcing deal with Webjet in August last year, covering the bulk of Thomas Cook’s complementary sun and beach hotel service.