Skift Take
Hopper is in a much deeper state of hurt than it is letting on. It has a trimmed down vision to focus on direct hotel relationships after two of the biggest online travel agencies in the world departed as partners.
Fearing another Expedia-like breakup, Hopper abruptly ended its hotel partnership with Booking Holdings a week ago, Skift has exclusively learned.
Hopper feared another blow to its reputation if a second major online travel agency, namely Booking.com, went public about a soured partnership so soon after Expedia Group did so in July, several travel industry sources and former employees said. Hopper told employees it proactively disconnected Booking.com's accommodations supply last Friday, September 29.
Hopper was concerned how these hits on its brand reputation would impact business-to-business partnerships, such as with Capital One and other future distribution partnerships, as well as with existing airline partners, sources said.
Hopper announced a deal on September 27 that expanded its supply relationship with wholesalers Hotelbeds and WebBeds before Hopper disconnected Booking.com. Hopper was keen on terminating its relationship with Booking first — and it did so without advance notice — so that Booking couldn't claim that it was the one to sever ties, and Hopper thus hoped to avoid negative fallout that would deter future supplier or distribution agreements.
"The Hotelbeds deal wasn't a done deal," said one travel industry source. "So if Booking disconnected Hopper and would have made it public, like Expedia did, maybe Hotelbeds would have backed off the deal. Hopper disconnected Booking, so Booking wouldn't announce anything."
The existence of a partnership where Booking.com supplied hotel and short-term rental inventory to Hopper had been in existence for more than a year, possible much longer, but has not been publicly disclosed until this story.
A source close to Booking Holdings said the company was testing Hopper's fintech products across Booking's brands, had been supplying Hopper with accommodations inventory, and was looking to expand that inventory partnership for Hopper's consumer and B2B businesses in exchange for a traditional revenue share arrangement when Hopper ended the