Hostelworld reports significant growth in revenue as demand surges

(Alliance News) - Hostelworld Group PLC on Wednesday reported significant revenue growth and a narrowed loss as it continues to see an increase net bookings, following a recovery in demand.

For the six months ending June 30, the Dublin, Ireland-based online travel agent reported its revenue multiplied to EUR28.0 million from EUR2.9 million a year before. This was due to a surge in demand as travel restrictions eased.

Hostelworld's pretax loss narrowed to EUR14.3 million from EUR20.3 million a year prior, as a result of "strong" growth in new customers and net bookings, which increased to EUR2.1 million from EUR300,000 a year prior. This represents a 59% increase from 2019 levels.

Further, net average booking value increased 35% to EUR15.82 from EUR11.72 the previous year. These increases were driven by a higher proportion of bookings from higher-value destinations such as Europe and North America, said Hostelworld.

In addition, the company's adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation narrowed to EUR5.2 million from EUR9.7 million a year prior. The improvement can be attributed to a combination of booking recovery and cost control measures.

Hostelworld did not declare an interim dividend for the period.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects Ebitda to be positive in the second half of the year as key markets continue to recover and travel demand returns to 2019 levels. In addition, Hostelworld said it will continue to invest in its marketing technology platform, which will allow the company to allocate marketing spend and maximise new customer acquisition.

Chief Executive Officer Gary Morrison said: "We are encouraged by the strong recovery we have seen in the first six months of the year across all demand segments and destinations, which demonstrate the ability of our business to capture pent-up demand as the travel market returns."

Shares in Hostelworld were down 4.9% at 90.00 pence in London on Wednesday.

By Dominique Pretorius; dominiquepretorius@alliancenews.com

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