Hotelbeds has announced a strategic partnership with Thomas Cook,  the new online-only holiday business launched recently following the acquisition of the brand by Fosun Tourism Group.

Owing to this collaboration Thomas Cook will gain access to more than 180,000 unique hotel properties in 140 countries worldwide, many of which are contracted under exclusive terms and conditions by a team of over 1,000 contracting professionals located in the most popular leisure destinations around the world.

Thomas Cook joins Hotelbeds’ existing 60,000 travel trade buyers – such as tour operators, travel agents, airlines and points redemption schemes – who typically book further in advance, pay more per room, stay for longer, have lower cancellation rates and spend more at the property.

León Herce, global sales director at Hotelbeds, said: “We are immensely pleased to see Thomas Cook relaunching and we will now be able to support their new model. Hotelbeds has the experience, technology and hotelier relationships available to help Thomas Cook attract travellers with the best possible service and hotel product. We look forward to watching it grow once again into one of Europe’s leading holiday brands.”

Emma King, head of commercial product, added: “When we were developing our new Thomas Cook we wanted to offer our customers the widest possible choice of hotel accommodation – and to be able to do that quickly without the need for direct contracting. Our relationship with Hotelbeds as a strategic bedbank partner, gives our customers access to a huge portfolio of exclusive and competitively priced hotels worldwide. We’re only selling holidays to destinations on the UK government’s travel corridor list, including Turkey, Italy and some parts of Greece. We will update that once travel restrictions change or are lifted. We look forward to growing and scaling our business working alongside Hotelbeds to respond to growing customer demand for holidays.”