Houlihan Lokey Advises Alliance Reservations Network

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Alliance Reservations Network (ARN) has been acquired by RCI, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wyndham Destinations, Inc.(NYSE:WYND). The transaction closed on August 6, 2019.

Since 1995, ARN has created cutting-edge private-label travel booking engine technology services fulfilling billions of dollars in travel revenue from travelers around the world. As one of the first travel booking engine platform providers on the internet, ARN has powered thousands of affiliate travel sites and has created proprietary software to service individual leisure, corporate, association, group, and event clients across the globe.

RCI is the worldwide leader in vacation exchange, housing a unique portfolio of brands. RCI pioneered the concept of vacation exchange in 1974, offering members increased flexibility and versatility with their vacation ownership experience. Today, through the RCI Weeks® program, the week-for-week exchange system, and the RCI Points® program, the industry's first global points-based exchange system, RCI offers its approximately 3.8 million members access to more than 4,300 affiliated resorts in 110 countries. RCI's luxury exchange program, The Registry Collection®, is the world's largest program of its kind with approximately 200 affiliated properties either accessible for exchange or under development on six continents. RCI's portfolio of brands also includes Love Home Swap, one of the world's largest home exchange programs, DAE, a direct-to-member exchange company, and @Work International, a leading provider of property management systems. RCI is part of Wyndham Destinations.

This strategic acquisition will accelerate growth at RCI through an enhanced B2B experience for members and affiliates as well as bring new benefits for individual and group travel, events, and the corporate meetings market. ARN's highly configurable and intelligent booking platform will also provide RCI the ability to offer travelers a wide array of ancillary travel and lifestyle services through the delivery of optimized booking engine, inventory, content, and pricing resources.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to ARN. This transaction marks Houlihan Lokey's fourth successful travel technology transaction in the past 12 months including the sale of The Rainmaker Group to Cendyn, the sale of Pegasus to TravelTripper, and the recapitalization of getaroom.com by Court Square Capital. Our travel tech team has completed more than 25 transactions in the sector across B2C OTAs/marketplaces, B2B2C booking engines, and B2B software business models.