Deal allows flight and hotel booking in one with Ryanair

LOW-FARES airline Ryanair yesterday struck a deal allowing passengers buying flights to also book rooms in 20,000 hotels across Europe.

Travel industry experts said Ryanair’s deal with the Expedia accommodation website follows growing trends on the internet for DIY holidays. Holidaymakers are buying cheap flights online and then arranging their own hotels separately — cutting out middlemen like holiday firms.

“Ryanair sees this trend as a way it can increase revenue from passengers,” travel consultant John G O’Dwyer said. “When your business strategy is selling airline seats at low costs like Ryanair’s, then finding new ways to increase revenue and profit is very important.”

Other money-spinning ideas dreamt up by Ryanair include charging passengers to check-in luggage and to get priority boarding.

This year Ryanair expects to carry 50 million passengers with its flights booking website among Europe’s most popular sites for travel.

“Ryanair.com has incredible coverage and will give Expedia exposure through that,” said Mr O’Dwyer.

Visitors to the Ryanair website currently click on a “hotels” link where they can book accommodation through Expedia separately.

But from January 2008, they will be able to book hotels as part of the normal flight-booking process.

Ryanair’s deal with Expedia means passengers can choose from a range of hotels at each of the airline’s 130 European destinations.

Passengers will get the choice of 20,000 hotels offering rooms from basic budget standard to five-star luxury. Ryanair said the deal was good news for customers and for Expedia, which should benefit as a result of rising passengers numbers, expected to hit €84m by 2012.

“Passengers will enjoy significantly improved choice and fantastic hotel deals from the world’s largest online hotel vendor,” said Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley. At the same time, Expedia would grow alongside what Mr Cawley said was Europe’s fastest growing airline.

David Roche, for Expedia, said Ryanair would benefit from hotel industry expertise without having first to set up its own accommodation booking website. “Adding easy access through the Ryanair site to our hotel stock will mean that passengers can book their accommodation simply and quickly,” he added.