Accor’s sales rise as hotel recovery gathers pace

First-half sales at French hotel group Accor were up 6.1 per cent, the company reported late on Tuesday, as a recovery in its midscale and upscale hotels gathered pace in the second quarter, and it said September bookings looked favourable.

Accor, the world’s fourth-largest hotel group behind InterContinental, Marriott, and Hilton and Starwood, said growth was led by higher occupancy rates in upscale and midscale hotels with average room rates rising in France, Germany and Britain.

Room rates were stabilising in Europe in the economy segment, but were still under pressure in the US though occupancy rates were improving at Motel 6.

Chief Executive Gilles Pelisson told a conference call that the business trend in early July was “rather good” and the trend for September bookings “favourable” despite low visibility.

Summer months are not a great indicator of Accor’s business, whose core clients are business travellers.

Global hoteliers are seeing a pick-up in demand as a slow recovery tempts consumers to travel again. Last week Marriott International posted a higher second-quarter profit, helped by a rise in room rates in North America.

Accor was reporting its first set of figures since the spin-off of its Edenred vouchers business on July 2.

Total first-half sales were €2.849 billion (Dh13.5bn), up 4.7 per cent like-for-like. Hotel revenue rose 7.5 per cent to €2.723bn, a 5.1 per cent like-for-like gain.

In the second-quarter alone, hotel revenue rose 8.2 per cent like-for-like, reflecting a continued improvement in occupancy rates that began in the first quarter.

In the US economy hotel sector, revenue was down 7.5 per cent in the first quarter and virtually stable in the second.

Accor has split into separately listed hotel and service voucher businesses to boost growth and expand abroad and its management believes the group's activities will be better valued.

Accor took on €1.2bn of the group’s €1.6bn of debt following the Edenred spinoff and plans to shed further assets to cut debt.

Earlier this month, Accor sold a 60 per cent stake in its onboard rail catering unit Wagons-Lits. It is also planning to dispose of its 49 per cent stake in casino group Lucien Barriere.

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