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1. Accor Reports Record 2023 Earnings
French hotel firm Accor reports its 2023 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization leaped a record €1 billion for the first time, Hotel News Now reports.
“That EBITDA growth is a 49% increase versus 2022, and across that period, revenue increased 20% to €5.06 billion ($5.47 billion),” said Martine Gerow, Accor's chief financial officer.
Gerow added the metric beat the firm's most recent guidance. “[It] has come in above the high end of the €955 million to €985 million we gave. … It is a major milestone for Accor.”
2. Covivio Takes Full Ownership of its Hotel Brand
French owner-operator Covivio has agreed to acquire the total ownership in its Covivio Hotels brand owned by Italian insurance firm Assicurazioni Generali in exchange for new Covivio shares. Generali’s ownership equates to 8.3% of Covivio Hotels, which states its portfolio consists of 313 hotels in 12 countries with a value of €6.4 billion ($6.91 billion).
The deal, Covivio said, “represents the equivalent of the acquisition of €500 million of assets and a capital increase of nearly €300 million [and] marks a major step in the reinforcement of Covivio in the hotel sector.”
It added that the transaction is expected to close by the end of April.
3. New Nordics Hotel Brand Launches
Stockholm-based private-equity firm Slättö and Oslo-based hotel owner-operator Strawberry Hospitality Group have created a new hotel brand, Hotels Slättö, that is to “focus on strategic locations, quality and high sustainability ambitions” and cater to both short- and long-term stays.
The debut hotel signed for the chain, set to open in the second quarter of 2025, will be in the southern Swedish city of Falkenberg and have 151 rooms.
A release stated that the brand is “marked by high sustainability ambitions, such as the goal to use wood in construction, renewable energy production with solar panels and geothermal heat, resource efficiency through digital solutions, fast [electric vehicle] charging and environmental certification.”
4. Rate Growth Drives US Hotel Performance
For the week ending Feb. 13, U.S. hotel industry revenue per available room was up 1.6% year over year, driven entirely by a 4.2% increase in average daily rates, which more than offset a 2.5% decline in occupancy to 59.2%, according to the latest weekly performance data from CoStar.
Of the top 25 markets, Boston was the only market showing double-digit increases across all three metrics, with occupancy up 14.6% to 64.7%, ADR up 14% to $178.28 and RevPAR up 30.6% to $115.38.
5. UK Recession Called Weakest of All Time
According to Andrew Bailey, governor of the United Kingdom’s central bank, the Bank of England, the recession that the country officially entered into on Feb. 15 following two consecutive quarters of negative growth might be the “weakest recession” of all time. He made this comment during a briefing of members of Parliament in London on Feb. 21.
He did not deny the economy is sluggish, but he told MPs that “by historical standards, this is the weakest recession by a long way,” according to the BBC. Bailey said such economic pointers as the decrease in utility prices are “likely to bring overall inflation down to the Bank of England’s 2% target during the spring, [but] over the year [inflation] could rise again.”