Booking.com invests £100m in Manchester global hub
US-LISTED online travel giant Booking.com is to make a £100m investment in the North West as it opens a base to make Manchester its global transport hub.
The travel company has taken out a lease on a 222,000 sq ft campus at the Manchester Goods Yards. The construction of the new building is due to be completed by 2020. The new location will be Booking.com’s largest outside of its Amsterdam headquarters.
The final office will consolidate its four existing buildings, which already employ 1,500 people. It is understood the hub could add up to 900 jobs to Manchester in the coming years. Booking.com said it was in the process of hiring 200 new staff over the next 18 months.
The building will house Booking. com’s transport business, which includes brands such as Rentalcars.com.
The investment comes after Booking Holdings, the business’ parent company, announced it had invested $500m (£386m) in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, a major competitor to Uber. The travel company said it plans to integrate Didi’s ride-hailing app into its travel products.
Ian Brown, Booking.com chief executive of transport said: “It’s a great deal for the North West. We have good infrastructure here and good talent.”
The Didi deal was in part driven out of Booking.com’s transport division. “It allows us to access Didi’s inventory of products and give Didi customers access to ours,” Mr Brown said.
The Didi integration will, in the near future, allow customers to find a hotel through Didi’s ride-hailing app, or for customers of Booking.com to find a taxi ahead as part of their journey.
“Didi is not a brand many people are aware of in the UK, but it is a world leading business,” Mr Brown added.