loveholidays has appointed Ady Guthrie as senior director of partnerships to spearhead a new trade-facing strategic partnerships division. The move will make the market-leading technology that powers the online travel agent available to trade partners, with an immediate focus on delivering white label and API solutions.
The OTA has run a successful white label partnership with HolidayPirates in the UK since 2017 and recently entered a similar relationship with German holiday deal aggregator Urlaubstracker. Building on these results, the company plans to expand its business-to-business offering to the wider travel industry and adjacent sectors, ranging from airlines, airports and hotel chains to fintech businesses, loyalty programmes and sports organisations.
“I’m delighted to join loveholidays during such an exciting phase of its growth. 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. I'm looking forward to strengthening existing relationships and building new partnerships across the industry as we grow the division,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie brings more than 20 years’ experience building partnerships across travel and technology. His previous roles include positions at Rentalcars.com, Booking.com, Meili and Auto Europe Car Rental. He reports to Al Murray, chief marketing and supply officer at loveholidays, who oversees the online travel agent’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. 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,” Murray said.
loveholidays has tripled its market share of package holidays in the UK since 2019, rising from 5% to 15%, and has broadened its product range to include city breaks and long-haul holidays alongside short-haul. The company now operates in eight markets and holds an Air Traffic Organiser’s Licence to take more than 5.5 million passengers from the UK on holiday annually.
