HotelPlanner, a hotel and event booking technology platform, Reservations.com, a premier online travel agency, and Astrea Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: ASAXU), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today that they have entered into a definitive three-way merger agreement for a business combination.
Through this transaction, HotelPlanner, with its family of brands including Meetings.com and Reservations.com, plans to leverage its 1+ million hotel room and alternative accommodation inventory and proprietary booking engine to unlock synergies across the travel ecosystem.
The transaction is expected to position the combined company to capitalize on expected increased demand for individual, group, and corporate travel and to invest to drive accelerated growth, expand internationally and pursue attractive, well-timed, high-return M&A opportunities. Upon completion of the business combination, which is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2021, the combined travel technology company will operate as HotelPlanner, and will be listed on NASDAQ under the new ticker symbol “HOTP.”
A key business differentiator is HotelPlanner’s ability to deliver unique “Closed User Group” rates to customers. Closed User Group discounted rates are offered in unpublished, private sale environments and are available to members within groups such as weddings, reunions, tour groups, pro and amateur sports teams and leagues, private clubs, associations, business meetings and corporate travel. Closed User Group rates are complementary, not competitive, with Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and deliver a larger proportion of higher-margin “Merchant of Record” transactions with fewer cancellations.
“As worldwide leisure and business travel demand rebounds in the coming months and years, we are in a prime position to rapidly grow our user base and revenue,” said Tim Hentschel, Co-Founder and CEO of HotelPlanner. “We see opportunities for accelerating growth both in the U.S. and globally as we unite two of the largest online booking websites on one highly efficient tech-forward platform, and combine it with the power of our Closed User Group rates. HotelPlanner is a dynamic and cycle-tested company with proven management, scalable proprietary technology, strong profitability, and preferred partnerships built over nearly two decades with 50,000 individual hotels, plus access to more than 1 million accommodation options we make available to our customers. Our technology investments have enabled us to remain ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing travel industry. Reservations.com is a leading global hotel booking website, with more than 1 million stays booked each year. Together, with our combined user base, global gig-based travel agents, brand reach, organizational efficiencies, and significant capital, we are in a prime position to shape the future of online travel booking.”
Felipe Gonzalez, CEO of Astrea Acquisition Corp., said “We are thrilled to partner with HotelPlanner and Reservations.com. We analyzed a lot of companies as part of our investment process, and HotelPlanner stood out to us as a unique platform with tremendous potential to benefit from access to public markets. In its nearly two-decade run, HotelPlanner.com has proven to be one of the most innovative, successful, and resilient travel technology companies in the industry, with steady growth nearly every year. In 2020, they successfully navigated through the pandemic and are now positioned to capitalize on the increasing demand for global travel. The combined HotelPlanner is on track to achieve record revenue in 2021, and we believe this transaction will provide the scale and capital to help further accelerate their growth trajectory and deliver exceptional shareholder value for decades to come.”
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