Hotels.com
has terminated its contract with Travelocity, claiming that Travelocity breached its contract by not maintaining exclusivity to Hotels.com

Travelocity is now pushing its merchant hotel programmme, which gives it direct access to hotels’ reservation systems in order to sell rooms.

“Hoteliers are telling us that they are thrilled that we now have more ways to sell their rooms, and we’ve already seen a surge in merchant bookings,” said Travelocity president and CEO, Sam Gilliland
. “Since we began selling our own merchant hotels, as is clearly allowed by our contract with Hotels.com, hoteliers are lining up to join our program, and now some are even asking for exclusive deals. Clearly hoteliers are voting with their feet, as they think our technology and business practices are far superior and more hotel-friendly than those of our competitors.”

While optimistic about the momentum of the Travelocity merchant program, Gilliland commented on Travelocity’s relationship with Hotels.com. “Hotels.com may not like it, but they remain bound by the terms of our agreement including its confidentiality, even though we have exercised our contractual right to end the exclusivity provision.” Gilliland also expressed surprise over Hotels.com’s claims of prior breach, stating “Hotels.com hadn’t provided any notice of breach, we’re certainly not in breach, and we’re hopeful that any such concerns can be resolved in a confidential manner, consistent with our agreement.”
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