Lanyon Goes Beyond Hotel RFPs By Buying ETABid

Lanyon, the hotel technology company best known to travel buyers as a provider of electronic request-for-proposals services, has bought the U.K.-based e-RFP tool ETABid. The deal represents the first strategic expansion by Lanyon beyond hotels into other parts of the travel industry.

ETABid owner E Travel Advisors launched in 2004, initially offering buyers an automated RFP process for travel management company tender offers. Since then, it has launched versions of the tool for selecting online booking tools and car rental suppliers.

Lanyon, which is based in Dallas, traditionally has marketed its technology to hotel suppliers, but last year started serving corporate buyers directly with the launch of the tool RFP Control Center. Roland Tanner, the company's executive vice president for Europe, said Lanyon would devote most of its investment this year to enlarging its corporate business, starting with the ETABid acquisition.

"This is where our focus is going to continue," he said. "Additional resources will mainly be on the corporate side. Buying ETABid makes perfect sense for us, rather than us replicating what ETABid does, or ETABid replicating our hotel tool."

As well as selling its enlarged suite of e-RFP tools directly to buyers, Lanyon also will license it through consultants. ETABid already has a licence deal in the United States with Consulting Strategies, and Tanner said talks are progressing with two others. In the United Kingdom, the tools will be sold directly to corporate clients, while the sole consultant licensee will be 3Sixty, launched by ETA founder Karen McGee last year.

Commenting on the sale, McGee said: "ETABid needs more investment and resource to reach its full potential. Lanyon is able to offer both of these."