British travel and hospitality company Thomas Cook has announced plans to shut down its in-house bed bank Medhotels, a UK company that negotiates special rates with accommodation providers and acts as a wholesaler for the accommodation. Expedia and Webjet are poised to take over contracting of the company’s own-brand and partner hotels.

“The closure of the Medhotels business is a natural evolution of our strategy,” said Thomas Hohn, chief of group complementary product at Thomas Cook. “The transformation of our complementary hotel partnerships will simplify our processes and give customers a better online experience with more choice.

Thomas Cook also acquired from LMEY a 42-percent stake in Aldiana, a premium club and activity-focused tour operator and hotel-management company based in Germany. Aldiana currently operates eight club resorts located in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia and Austria, with plans to open another four resorts over the next two years. Following the acquisition, Aldiana sits alongside Thomas Cook’s six existing proprietary hotel brands.

The group is expected to update the market on third-party investors joining the fund later this year. In the meantime, it is looking more like the global hotel operators, adding both scale and brands. 

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