Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Mr & Mrs Smith announced an agreement for a Hyatt affiliate to acquire London-based Mr & Mrs Smith, a platform offering direct booking access to a collection of over 1,500 boutique and luxury properties around the world. Hyatt will acquire 100 percent of the Mr & Mrs Smith platform for an enterprise value of £53.0 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 over 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, within 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.”
The planned acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith is expected to build on Hyatt’s leadership position in luxury and further strengthen Hyatt’s distribution capabilities, especially across Europe, through relationships with hotel owners and more than one million Mr & Mrs Smith members. This acquisition builds on a 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. As a result of Hyatt’s brand portfolio and offerings, membership in World of Hyatt has more than tripled during the past five years.
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 have direct booking access to properties within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt’s distribution channels. The move will have the potential to access more than twice the number of global boutique and luxury properties within Hyatt’s direct booking channels, and Hyatt is exploring ways to enable World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points across 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. 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,” shared Tamara Lohan, co-founder and CEO, Mr & Mrs Smith. “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, over 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 Mark Vondrasek, Hyatt’s chief commercial officer, 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.
