EasyHotel ends ‘transformational year’ on a high
Super budget accommodation supplier easyHotel has announced total sales are up 25% to £37.2m for the financial year ended September 30 2018.
The figure compares to sales of £29.7m in the previous year.
The company described the past 12 months as a ‘transformational year’, with revenue per available room (revPAR) up 11% among owned hotels, while like-for-like revenue for franchised hotels increased by 12%.
In a statement, it said it ‘intends to balance its development pipeline more evenly between UK and Continental Europe and it will accelerate its presence in these markets’.
EasyHotel’s initial focus will be on Spain, France and Germany, where the board believes there is potential for the brand to target 10 to 15 cities in each of these three countries.
A dedicated team has been appointed to lead the expansion under group development director Marc Vieilledent.
EasyHotels said progress achieved in the first six months of the financial year, underpinned by a successful fund raising in March, has continued through to the second half with trading for the full year in line with the board’s expectations:
During the period easyHotels opened five new owned hotels (610 rooms) in Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and Barcelona, its first-owned hotel in Europe.
The Group continued to expand its franchise portfolio, opening four new hotels (297 rooms) in Belfast, Reading, Scheveningen Beach and Maastricht.
These combined openings significantly increased the Group’s portfolio room count by 42%, bringing the total network to 33 hotels and 3,068 rooms across 27 cities.
EasyHotel plc CEO Guy Parsons said: "Whilst we are mindful of the current economic uncertainty facing the UK, our simple, stylish and highly affordable customer proposition resonates well with today’s cost-conscious traveller and has underpinned strong revPAR growth over the period.
"The team has worked hard to deliver on an ambitious opening programme across the UK and Europe, which has seen the number of owned hotels in our portfolio double over the course of the financial year and our network of rooms across the UK and Europe increase by 42%, including the opening of easyHotel Barcelona, our first owned hotel in Continental Europe.
"The successful placing completed in March 2018 has enabled us to accelerate our growth plans. We are focussed on expanding our developments as well as balancing our strong UK pipeline with a growing number of exciting European opportunities, creating value for our shareholders and underpinning the long-term growth of the brand."
EasyHotel’s 10 owned hotels currently comprise 1,130 rooms, and it has a further 23 franchised hotels with 1,938 rooms.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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