LONDON (Alliance News) - easyHotel PLC on Wednesday said trading in the first half of its financial year was above its expectations, driven by like-for-like revenue growth in owned hotels and as it continues to expand its property portfolio.
The budget hotel operator said owned hotels like-for-like revenue grew by 8.0% in the six months ended March 31, with a particularly strong performance in the second quarter. easyHotel said this was especially encouraging in the lead up to the traditionally busiest trading months of the year for the hotel industry.
Franchise hotel trading, central overheads and pre-opening costs, meanwhile, were in line with the board's expectations.
Since the start of the financial year, easyHotel has added six new hotels to its portfolio as it extends both is owned and franchised development pipeline.
A new hotel in Liverpool is expected to open by January 2017, followed by one in Manchester by April 2017. The developments in Birmingham and Ipswich which easyHotel bought in January remain subject to planning permission and are anticipated to be open by March and June 2017, respectively.
Outside of the UK, the acquisition of land in Barcelona is progressing as anticipated, with the hotel expected to open in early 2018. This is easyHotel's first owned hotel outside of the UK.
Meanwhile, easyHotel's Benelux franchisee is expected to open hotels in Amsterdam and Brussels by early 2017, while its development partner in the Middle East is continuing to progress towards its target of 600 rooms in the UAE and Oman by December 2017, having received planning permission for the first 300-room hotel in Bur Dubai.
"We are very pleased to report that during the first half of the financial year our operational initiatives and strategic focus have had a positive impact, earlier than originally anticipated, on our trading performance and expansion of our development pipeline. There remains further scope to improve our revenue. With the right management team in place we can now expand our owned and franchised network in line with our exciting business plan," Chief Executive Guy Parsons said in a statement.
easyHotel will release its first-half results on May 24.
Shares in easyHotel were up 0.6% to 94.05 pence early Wednesday.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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