(Corrected on May 20 to specify Cycas Hospitality's recently opened hotels in Brussels and Amsterdam in the 24th paragraph.)

Management company Cycas Hospitality’s move to operating traditional hotels, while remaining committed to the extended-stay product, has allowed the firm to fare well during the pandemic.

Widening its portfolio also will position the Amsterdam-based company to benefit as hotels across Europe slowly start to reopen, in the United Kingdom from May 17.

CEO Matt Luscombe, who started at Cycas in March 2019 after being chief commercial officer at IHG Hotels & Resorts, said despite the setbacks of 2020, the company continues to grow and invest.

People are at the heart of growth, he said. The firm has put much time and money into that aspect of the business.

“From October [2020] to September, we will open one hotel per month,” Luscombe said, noting that the company's focus on recruiting talent over the pandemic will enable that growth.

“That’s the silver lining. There is so much good, experienced talent out there, which is excited to join a growing company, and we’ve also recruited younger people, graduates, who as a group are among the most impacted people and during [COVID-19] have not been able to build up skills,” he said.

Newly recruited talent at the company includes Apurva Pratap, the firm’s first-ever managing director, who was hired at the beginning of this month and charged with leading growth in Europe. He arrives from The Student Hotel group where he was chief customer officer.

Another recent hire, Peter Habelitz took on the role of chief financial officer in December 2019, and is leading development of data analytics tools, which the company has invested in.

Luscombe said Cycas has a reputation for being a good employer.

“We’ve put a lot of focus in the last year on talent, building our commercial and financial teams, as well as the systems that support that. Yes, those systems are not always so exciting to talk about, but cutting-edge commercial systems give owners a lot of reassurance," he said.

Pratap said three strategies drive company investment and improvements: Maximizing each hotel’s full potential, providing service and commercial returns, and developing team members, which the company calls “Cycadettes.”

“With Cycas having doubled its business in the last two years, my role is to help our hotels and frontline teams deliver against all three,” he said.

Luscombe said equally important are investors, "who we obviously also want to see us as being credible and responsible."

“We have two types of investors. The owners of Cycas — the majority owner being a high-net-worth Thai family, the Huakee family, which has interests in chemicals, industry and hospitality in Asia-Pacific — and ... those who invest in the hotels themselves,” he said.

Development is moving forward, mostly in terms of conversions and contract takeovers rather than new builds, Luscombe said.

“What can be difficult is borrowing from banks. In a period like this one, there is an almost complete stop to new development, but those under way cannot be stopped,” he said.

The company's 12 development projects over the past year had all progressed far enough for developers to see them through, he added.

“Others were takeovers, which we typically do at the same time [the asset] has been purchased. I’d be disappointed if we do not sign any new developments, although most new growth with be takeovers,” he said.

Cycas has 29 open hotels under contract, half of which are in the United Kingdom and the rest in Belgium, France, Germany and The Netherlands. Twelve are leased, and 17 are under management agreement. Most are branded and franchised.

“The mindset we bring to any management agreement is as though we own it, which gives owners confidence we’re doing everything possible,” he said.

Luscombe said the growth goal is to be both “genuinely of scale across Europe and genuinely brand-agnostic, to be flexible in the business model our owners want to work with and have it not be said of us that Cycas only works with so-and-so.”

“Most of our new signings have not been in the extended-stay segment and that has permitted us to be gross-operating-profit positive, wildly above the competition, although of course it is still from a low base. Yes, we’ve benefited from some very strong extended-stay business. A huge light has been shone on it, which only attracts investor confidence," he said.

“Our ambitions have broadened a bit,” he said.

In April, Cycas opened two hotels on the same day — a first for the company — with hotels in Brussels and Amsterdam, both of which were formerly in the Qbic portfolio.

In another first for the company, Cycas also opened a dual-branded hotel in Slough in February, under Marriott International brands Moxy and Residence Inn by Marriott.

In March, the company opened its first hotel in the United Kingdom in a partnership with Accor.

Luscombe said Cycas closed only one hotel for a couple of months in 2020, but all others remained opened. A few developments were delayed.

“Despite the low-demand environment during the pandemic, Cycas still managed to maintain its track-record of out-performance, not only in revenue but also in cash-flow generation,” Pratap said.

He said one of the advantages of working with a wide number of brands and operating across a diverse range of segments is that Cycas learns from global hotel groups.

Pratap said Cycas has commonalities with his previous company, The Student Hotel.

“Cycas shares similar values, in that it has also always refused to accept traditional ways of working. One example of industry disruption is how Cycas defied traditional enrollment philosophy by introducing audition days to recruit by culture-fit and offering industry novices customer-facing positions," he said.

“Though that is seen as a bold move at the time, it’s now an accepted approach with many hotels, including Cycas’ own full-service hotels, and something that has ensured Cycas’ distinctive culture stands out in an increasingly competitive market."