Launched in Sweden late last year, Tui on Monday (10 July) revealed its plans to bring the platform – which is not yet available to agents – to the UK and Irish market.

“Customers tell us they want flexibility, ease, choice and simplicity,” said Tui UK and Ireland managing director Andrew Flintham. “And that’s really what is shaping the strategic direction we’re taking the business in now.”

Customers will initially be able to choose from around 12,000 hotels across 54 destinations without having to book them as part of a package with a Tui flight. Flintham said the platform would provide consumers "options that fit their lives".

Accessible via the Tui website, the platform offers customers flexible and non-refundable rates – as well as new payment methods, including buy now pay later options. 

Flintham said the accommodation-only platform was the first in a series of products that will grow the European travel giant’s segmented portfolio, such as a new car hire business and an expanded touring and experience division.

“It’s about us broadening the eco-system for our customer base,” he continued. “We are the biggest travel website in the UK, so we have a pretty big customer base.”

Flintham, speaking during a conference call, played down criticism of Tui for being late to the accommodation-only party, saying there wasn’t an “early or a late”. “It’s about our existing customers telling us they want options for different holidays," he said.

The decision to open the platform to all trade partners further down the, said Flintham, is part of the company’s strategy to “redress the balance” of recent years, which has worked in favour of Tui’s in-house agents.

It comes after commercial and business development director Richard Sofer told TTG in early June the company would go back to selling through third parties to avoid missing parts of the market.

“We recognise that if we don’t work with independent agencies we’re missing out on part of the market – and to be honest – part of the market that our competitors are working with,” he said in June.

“From a business point of view, it makes sense, from a relationship point of view, it makes sense, [and] from the customer point of view, it makes sense.”