European budget hotel chain easyHotel has seen sales recover strongly in recent months helped by “pent-up demand” from business travellers.
The company said that total sales reached £62 million across all properties during the 12 months to the end of September 2022, with sales for October up by 78 per cent on the same month in 2021.
EasyHotel said that its revPAR (revenue per available room) had increased by 37 per cent year-on-year as it gained market share, which was well above the 10 per cent increase recorded across the broader budget hotel sector.
The company offers a range of 42 owned, leased and franchised properties in Europe, and plans to more than double its portfolio to 100 hotels by 2026, helped by the addition of 51 new properties which are due to open over the next 18 months.
Harm Meijer, chairman of easyHotel, said the company had shown “resilience” during the pandemic and had seen a “return to strong trading” this year.
“We are also making good progress with our ambitious expansion plans to become the European leader in affordable, low-carbon hotels,” added Meijer.
“We recently announced the purchase of eight Benelux franchise hotels as part of our European growth drive and have exciting plans in the pipeline to capitalise on the pent-up demand for travel from both business and leisure travellers.”
EasyHotel highlighted its properties in Glasgow and Barcelona for their “particularly strong” sales, which were boosted by the rescheduling of major international events. Recent openings in Oxford and at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in France have also “performed well”.
The next franchise property to open in Europe will be located in Madrid’s Atocha district – the 230-room hotel is due to debut later this year.
Karim Malak, CEO of easyHotel, added: “Our strategic focus on offering low-carbon, high-quality, affordable hotels has underpinned strong trading recovery in 2022.
“In an inflationary economy, the strength of the easyHotel brand and our ability to offer our customers excellent value have been key drivers behind our growth in market share.
“The relaunch of our brand promise – super easy, super price and super low carbon - has been particularly important in helping us build on this further, appealing to new customers seeking more sustainable, fuss-free and affordable hotel stays.”