The OTA, which is the UK's third-largest Atol holder, is making the technology that powers its direct-sell offering available to the trade.

It will place an initial focus on white label and API solutions. Loveholidays has since 2017 run a white label operation for deals site HolidayPirates in the UK.

On Wednesday (14 October), Loveholidays said it would expand its B2B offering "to the wider travel industry and adjacent sectors", ranging from airlines, airports and hotel chains to fintech businesses, loyalty programmes and sports organisations.

Independent, third-party agents are not explicitly defined as potential target partners in the first instance.

Loveholidays has appointed Ady Guthrie as Senior Director of Partnerships to lead the new division; he brings experience from spells with Auto Europe Car Rental, Meili, Booking.com and Rentalcars.com.

"Over the past decade, the team has built a flexible technology platform that makes finding and booking holidays incredibly easy, and we’re now in a position to bring that capability to more businesses and their customers," said Guthrie.

"I'm looking forward to strengthening existing relationships and building new partnerships across the industry as we grow the division.”

'Opening up our technology'

Guthrie will report into Al Murray, Loveholidays' Chief Marketing and Supply Officer, who oversees the OTA's hotel and flight supply partnerships.

"Industry partnerships have played a big part in getting Loveholidays to where it is today, and they’ll be just as important in where we go next," said Murray.

"Ady has spent his career building partnerships that work for both sides, and I’m delighted to welcome him to the team as we open up the technology that has fuelled our growth to other businesses."

Earlier this year, Loveholidays upped its Atol by around another 10% – approximately 500,000 seats – to cement its place as the UK's third-largest Atol holder and bear down on second-placed Tui. It is authorised to sell some 5.5 million Atol-protected seats in the year to the end of March 2027.

The OTA claims to have tripled its share of the UK's package holiday market since 2019, going up from 5% to 15%.

Total Atol capacity for the period from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027 stands at almost 35.8 million following the September renewal, with Loveholidays' 5.5 million authorisations constituting just over 14% of Atol capacity.

There is history in this space; prior to the pandemic, one of Loveholidays' major OTA rivals – On the Beach – acquired Classic Collection Holidays to serve as a B2B counterpart to its OTA operation.

However, despite investing in the mainline Classic proposition as well as a simpler package holiday portal, On the Beach pulled the plug on Classic Collection last year.