Travel giant builds hotel unit in Chicago
Corporate travel agency giant Carlson Wagonlit is using Chicago as the launching pad for a major push into the hotel-booking business.
Carlson Wagonlit, which predominantly arranges air travel for corporations, carved out a separate hotel-distribution business last year. Hotels are a more lucrative piece of the travel business than air.
The new CWT unit will compile rooms from hotel chains, aggregators such as Booking.com and Expedia, and directly from individual properties. It will provide customers those hotel options, along with air travel.
The Minneapolis-based company leased 8,000 square feet for the unit at 1 S. Wacker Drive. The team has about 30 employees in Chicago, largely in sales and technology, and it plans to have 65 here by year-end, says Scott Brennan, president of the hotels unit.
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