EUROPE ’ S BIGGEST HOTEL GROUP HAS REVISED ITS 2023 GUIDANCE UPWARDS , DRIVEN BY THE REBOUNDING BUSINESS GROWTH AND TRAVEL RESURGENCE IN ASIA .

By KATHAKALI NANDI

During its first quarter earnings call , the Paris-based hotel group ’ s revenue in the first quarter of 2023 soared 54 %, driven by business growth across all regions and in its two divisions — premium , midscale and economy and luxury & lifestyle . The company runs brands like Sofitel , ibis , Pullman , Novotel and Fairmont .

Q1 2023 also established the strength of recovery of business travel , quarter after quarter . Accor attributed the further acceleration of RevPAR ( up 19 % from Q1 2019 ) to the rebound of hotels in Asia , after China lifted its strict zero-COVID policy in late 2022 . All the other regions also contributed to maintaining business activity at a significantly higher level than before the crisis .

One of the biggest hotel groups in Europe , Accor also attributed this impressive performance to the robust travel in Asia , good price

levels and increased occupancy rates .

The underlying dynamics seen in the earlier quarters remained the same , with average prices still high and sequentially increasing occupancy rate but marginally lower compared to 2019 .

In Q1 2023 , Accor opened 36 hotels totaling nearly 4,400 rooms , achieving net network growth of 2.9 % in the past 12 months . By the end of March , the hospitality company had a total portfolio of 5,444 hotels totaling 800,321 rooms , with a pipeline of 1,241 hotels constituting 214,000 rooms .

22 hotelsmag . com June 2023