France-based hospitality giant Accor reported strong system-wide rate growth for the first quarter, which the company attributed to growing demand across all regions.
In an earning call on Thursday (27 April), executives highlighted increased momentum in the Asia-Pacific region, where revenue per available room was €56.80, up 77 per cent year over year.
Accor also reported a 107 per cent year-over-year increase in revenue for the region.
Accor CEO and chairman Sébastien Bazin underlined the company’s focus on premium, midscale and economy tiers.
“This excellent performance was driven in particular by the strong rebound in Asia, good price levels, and increased occupancy rates,” Bazin said. “Given this highly positive start of the year, we have revised our 2023 guidance upwards, with double-digit [revenue per available room] growth versus 2022.”
Additional Q1 results
Accor’s Q1 system-wide RevPAR was €64, up 57 per cent year over year and up 19 per cent on 2019 benchmarks. The company’s average daily rate reached €106, up 22 per cent from 2022. Accor’s system-wide occupancy was 60.3 per cent, up 13.6 per cent year over year while still lagging pre-pandemic levels by 5 per cent.
In South Europe and North Europe RevPAR was €55 and €57, respectively, up 42.5 per cent and 69.2 per cent, respectively, year over year.
The company reported RevPAR remained solid in France, which accounts for 46 per cent of room revenue of the Europe and North Africa region, bolstered in particular by the return of international travellers to Paris, where recent strikes “did not have a significant impact”.
The UK, which represents 13 per cent of room revenue for the region, achieved "remarkable" RevPAR growth, while RevPAR in Germany “has remained deteriorated” since November 2022, reflecting the seasonal nature of trade fairs and congresses.
As for property growth, Accor has primarily premium, midscale and economy properties in development globally with 996 hotels and 164,000 rooms in the pipeline.
In Q1, the company reported a total of 5,444 hotels and more than 800,300 rooms in its network — of which 4,937 hotels and 689,000 rooms are within the premium, midscale and economy sectors.
Accor reported Q1 revenue of €1.13 billion, up 54 per cent year over year.
Gerow named CFO
Accor earlier this month named former American Express Global Business Travel executive Martine Gerow CFO. Gerow, the travel management company's former CFO, replaces Jean-Jacques Morin, who remains Accor’s deputy CEO and CEO of the Premium, Midscale & Economy division.