Hotel group Accor upbeat on recovery after lower H1 loss

EUROPE'S biggest hotel group Accor said on Thursday that it was confident of recovery in all geographies with the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide after the company reported a smaller operating loss for the first half of the year.

"Since May, we have seen a clear recovery. Positive signs including the ramp-up of vaccine roll-out and the progressive reopening of borders will continue throughout the summer," chairman and chief executive officer Sebastien Bazin said.

Accor, which operates 5,199 hotels in 110 countries, posted a narrower first-half earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) loss of 120 million euros (S$193 million), compared with a loss of 227 million euros a year earlier.

Still under pressure from the pandemic fallout, the group's revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key measure for a hotel's topline performance, slumped 60 per cent compared with the first half of 2019.

While situations differed across nations, Europe helped accelerate the recovery momentum as lockdown restrictions eased, the French hotelier said.

The group, which runs high-end chains Sofitel and Pullman, as well as budget ones such as Ibis, added that it saw an improvement of about 5 points in RevPAR every month since April and a similar trend this month.

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First-half revenue fell 6 per cent on a like-for-like basis to 824 million euros.

Accor confirmed the recurring cost savings of 200 million euros as part of the plan announced last year to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, adding that its Ebitda should benefit from a positive impact of 70 million euros this year.

The group said 93 per cent of its hotels were now open, compared with 87 per cent in April.

It refrained, however, from offering a definite outlook for the year, confirming average monthly cash burn at less than 40 million euros. REUTERS