Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
STR: Europe hotel performance for October 2020
Reflecting the impact of a second lockdown, Europe’s hotel industry reported slight performance decreases in October from the prior month, according to data from STR, the parent company of Hotel News Now. In year-on-year terms, measured in Euro constant currency, October’s occupancy fell 57.8% to 32.3%, average daily rate fell 26.4% to €84.91 ($102.83) and revenue per available room fell 69% to €27.39 ($33.17). STR analysts said the declines are amid renewed COVID-19 lockdowns throughout the continent.
One example of the trends downwards is The Netherlands. For the same period, its occupancy declined RevPAR fell 85.9% to €14.36 ($17.39), occupancy declined 77.7% to 18% and ADR declined 36.9% to €79.73 ($96.80). The country’s occupancy fell to its lowest level since May, while its ADR came in lower than any month since April.
Accor buys Ennismore, rest of SBE
Accor purchased management firm Ennismore, whose brands are The Hoxton and Gleneagles, in an undisclosed stock deal and bought the 50% of Los Angeles-based SBE it did not already own for $300 million. The French hotel firm now has placed all of its boutique brands under the Ennismore brand name, a new vehicle to be run by two co-CEOs, Ennismore’s Sharan Pasricha and Accor’s Gaurav Bhushan, writes HNN’s Terence Baker.
The combined Ennismore now has 12 hotel brands with 73 operating hotels, 110 in the pipeline and approximately 70 in active discussion. Bhushan said Accor’s 100% buy of SBE’s management business and hotels will be replicated for other brands within the new umbrella, notably Mama Shelter and 25Hours, which it already owns 35% and 30% of, respectively.
Schröder takes over CEO reins at Kempinski
Bernold Schröder, formerly COO, Europe, has taken over the CEO role at Kempinski Hotels following the sudden departure of Martin R. Smura, who began his tenure in the role on 1 July 2019, according to a news release.
Schröder also is the new chairman of the management board of the Geneva-based hotel firm. No reason was given for Smura’s exit.
Travelodge UK CEO exits as the majority of hotels stay
Travelodge (United Kingdom) has retained the vast majority of its landlords and hotels following a much-debated financial reorganization called a company voluntary arrangement, but Peter Gowers, its CEO for more than seven years, has decided to go by the end of 2020, writes HNN’s Terence Baker.
The firm’s website said it has retained “578 hotels, accounting for more than 98% of its 2019 U.K. hotel (earnings before interest, tax and depreciation).” Nine hotels have become Ibis-branded properties, a flag of Accor, for a new management platform called AGO, while Goodnight Hotels, another new platform, and Whitbread’s Premier Inn brand have taken a handful, too. Landlords could have left due to the CVA having been deemed by the courts to be a breach of contract.
London brothers buy New York’s Surrey for $151m
British billionaire brothers Simon Reuben and David Reuben spent $151.15 million on the 189-room hotel The Surrey. Though it is for a total below the original $215 million asking price, it is the highest amount paid for a hotel in New York City in 2020, according to Linda Moss, a staff writer for CoStar News, published by CoStar Group, the parent company of HNN and STR.
The seller is Kaufman Organization of New York.
Deals and developments
- Hilton has signed a management agreement with Troulis Royal Collection to open The Royal Senses Resort Crete in May 2021, the 179-room hotel to be the debut of the firm’s soft brand Curio Collection.
- Accor and Kievskaya Ploshchad Group of Companies are to open a Raffles Hotels & Resorts hotel in Moscow in the second half of 2022. It is the debut of the brand in Russia and will have 153 rooms.
- Meliá Hotels International and owner Generali Real Estate are to open the 70-room Gran Meliá Milan in the Italian city in 2023. It will occupy the Palazzo Venezia, close to the Piazza del Duomo.
- InterContinental Hotels & Group has signed a management with Calvia Country Club S.A. to open in 2022 the Kimpton Mallorca on the Spanish island, the second Kimpton in the country following the opening of the Kimpton Vividora in Barcelona in early 2020.
- Whitbread PLC has bought 13 hotels (1,934 rooms) in Germany from the Centro Hotel Group and thus grown its trading and pipeline portfolio to 68 hotels and approximately 12,000 rooms.
Compiled by Terence Baker.