EasyHotel plc, the owner, developer and operator of 'super budget' hotels, has reported results for the financial year ended 30 September 2018, showing total system sales were up 25% to £37.2m from £29.7m in the previous year.
Owned hotels Revpar rose by 11% with the group's owned hotels continuing to deliver market outperformance for the third consecutive year.
During the period, like-for-like revenue for franchised hotels increased by 12%.
The new revenue management system launched last year has been very e?ective. This, combined with the excellent performance of newly opened hotels and the impact of the firm's busy opening programme (through which it launched a total of nine owned and franchised hotels), has delivered strong sales growth.
Fve new owned hotels were opened (610 rooms) in Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, She?eld and Barcelona, the brand's ?rst owned hotel in Europe. These hotels have performed particularly well, mirroring the strong performance of its Birmingham and Manchester hotels opened last year.
The group continued to expand its franchise portfolio opening four new hotels (297 rooms) in Belfast, Reading, Scheveningen Beach and Maastricht.
These combined openings signi?cantly increased the company's portfolio room count by 42%, bringing the total network to 33 hotels and 3,068 rooms across 27 cities.
EasyHotel has also refurbished its Croydon and Glasgow hotels to bring them in line with the new brand format. This investment has been immediately earnings enhancing.
As previously announced, the group will also be undertaking a full refurbishment of its property at 80 Old Street. The building will be shut from December 2018 instead of a rolling refurbishment programme and expects to re-open the building as a 89-bedroom hotel and 15,500 sq ft of o?ce accommodation in the second half of 2019. The total cost for the development is expected to be approximately £7m.
The business has added a further 686 rooms to its development pipeline over the course of the period with plans for new hotels in Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Chester, Cambridge, Dublin and Blackpool. As at 30 September 2018, the firm's total owned hotel development pipeline comprised 955 rooms.
In addition to the four recently opened franchised hotels mentioned above, the group has also signed new franchise agreements to develop a further seven hotels in Switzerland (Zurich, 4 hotels, and Basel), Spain (Malaga) and the Netherlands. As at 30 September 2018, the brand's total franchised hotel development pipeline comprised 1,975 rooms.
Guy Parsons, Chief Executive Officer of easyHotel plc said, 'Whilst we are mindful of the current economic uncertainty facing the UK, our simple, stylish and highly a?ordable customer proposi8on 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 ambi8ous opening programme across the UK and Europe, which has seen the number of owned hotels in our por5olio double over the course of the ?nancial year and our network of rooms across the UK and Europe increase by 42%,including the opening of easyHotel Barcelona, our ?rst 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 exci8ng European opportunities, creating value for our shareholders and underpinning the long-term growth of the brand.'