Thomas Cook’s rebirth continues with Hotelbeds partnership

The resurrection of the Thomas Cook brand is well and truly alive, with the now online-only company forming a strategic partnership with global bedbank Hotelbeds.

The new collaboration will see Thomas Cook gain access to more than 180,000 properties in 140 countries, many of which are contracted under exclusive terms and conditions by a team of over 1,000 contracting professionals.

Thomas Cook joins Hotelbeds’ existing 60,000 travel trade buyers, such as tour operators, travel agents, airlines, and points redemption schemes.

Emma King, head of commercial product at Thomas Cook, said: “When we were developing our new Thomas Cook, we wanted to offer our customers the widest possible choice of hotel accommodation – and to be able to do that quickly without the need for direct contracting.

“Our relationship with Hotelbeds as a strategic bedbank partner gives our customers access to a huge portfolio of exclusive and competitively-priced hotels worldwide.

King said Thomas Cook is currently only selling holidays to destinations on the UK government’s travel corridor list, including Turkey, Italy and some parts of Greece.

“We will update that once travel restrictions change or are lifted,” she said.

“We look forward to growing and scaling our business working alongside Hotelbeds to respond to growing customer demand for holidays.”

León Herce, global sales director at Hotelbeds, said: “All of us at Hotelbeds are immensely pleased to see Thomas Cook relaunching and we’re delighted to be able to support their new model.

“Hotelbeds has the experience, technology and hotelier relationships available to help Thomas Cook attract travellers with the best possible service and hotel product. We look forward to watching it grow once again into one of Europe’s leading holiday brands.”

Following its shock demise just over a year ago, Thomas Cook was brought back to life last month by Fosun Tourism Group, but will operate purely as an online travel agency.

The resurrection of the Thomas Cook brand continues, thanks to a fresh partnership with a global bedbank.