Easyhotel books profit rise as revenue doubles

Budget hotels operator Easyhotel booked in higher interim pre-tax profits on Wednesday, with a doubling of revenue year-on-year driven primarily by an increase in the capacity of its hotel portfolio.Pre-tax profit rose 7% to £0.37m from £0.34m, while revenue rose to £2.6m from £1.3m in the same period last year.The company, which was set up in 2004 by Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, attributed much of the growth in revenue to the addition of 173 rooms to its hotel portfolio.Easyhotel said it has moved forward with its hotel expansion plans, with easyHotel Croydon opening in November 2014 and a new hotel development site acquired in Liverpool expected to open in spring 2016.However, the company said that profit growth has been dampened this year because of the additional costs incurred by being a public company, as well as the group investing to meet significant development targets."Trading for the year ending 30 September 2015 continues in line with the board's expectations and we remain confident that we can secure properties in the UK and key European gateway cities and continue to expand our franchised hotels elsewhere, delivering a high return on investment for our shareholders," the company said.EasyHotel also said that its executive chairman, Jan Astrand, will be stepping down from his role on 1 July. Current non-executive director Jonathan Lane has been appointed non-executive chairman with effect from 2 July.