Global hotel giant, Accor has reported its third quarter results, showing RevPAR improved by 20% versus Q2 2021, reflecting a strong activity recovery seen over the summer.
Over the quarter, the strong demand translated in higher prices than in Q3 19 in most attractive leisure geographies such as French and British provinces, the UAE and the US with strong lifestyle hotels. September and October confirmed the return of business travellers and some MICE activity.
Group revenue for the third quarter of 2021 came in at €589m, up 79% as reported, and 79% like-for-like versus Q3 2020 (ie -40% compared with Q3 2019).
During the third quarter, Accor opened 82 hotels, representing 10,000 rooms, i.e., net system growth of +2.5% over the last twelve-month period. The Group is aiming for net system growth of around 3% on a full-year basis in 2021.
At end-September 2021, the Group had a hotel portfolio of 769,000 rooms (5,252 hotels) and a pipeline of 211,000 rooms (1,187 hotels).
During Q3 2021, the Group reported revenue of €589m, up 79% like-for-like (LFL) versus Q3 2020. This increase amounted to 94% for HotelServices and 57% for Hotel Assets & Other. To provide a comparison with RevPAR (presented as the change versus Q3 2019 throughout this release), the like-for-like decline in revenue versus Q3 2019 is 40%.
Consolidated RevPAR was down 37% overall in Q3 2021 versus Q3 2019. This decline reflects an environment that remains constrained by the health situation and travel restrictions between different countries.
In the UK, RevPAR was down 28%, also driven by regional cities (-6%, with average room prices also higher than levels seen in 2019) and stronger performances than London (-51)%, which was more affected.
Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO, said, “This third quarter of 2021 saw a genuine pick-up in demand. Our business was very strong this summer in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, particularly for our leisure destinations. These trends are expected to persist out to the end of the year.
'People are very keen to travel again. With this rebound, our vision of augmented hospitality to serve our guests beyond their hotel rooms, has been confirmed with the acceleration of lifestyle & entertainment activities and takes on its full meaning.
'Our teams are fully mobilized to support this recovery by rolling out new services, such as the launch of the ALL payment card in France and via global communication campaigns.
'Our renewed winning spirit, combined with strict financial discipline, are the pillars upon which we will continue to improve our quarter-on-quarter performance.”