Past 12 months sees record turnover for Staycity Group

European aparthotel operator Staycity has seen the past 12 months of trading break the €200m (£171m) turnover threshold for the first time, the company confirmed this week.

Improved trading prompted by the re-emergence of business travel, the increasing popularity of city breaks and 12 new property openings over the past 18 months has helped the group reach record sales in the 12 months to 1st May 2023, while turnover for 2023 is on target to reach €230m (£197m).

Turnover during 2022 hit €175m (£150m), up from €78m (£66m) in 2019, with EBITDA finishing the year at €30m (£25) and RevPAR [rooms revenue per available room] up 10 per cent on 2019 driven by a 15 per cent improvement in achieved room rates.

Occupancy trended at 89 per cent in the second half of 2022 while operating margin for the year rose to 17 per cent as the business scaled up in size. New openings, most notably in London Paddington and Dublin City Centre, performed ahead of expectation.

“As we went through last year it became clear that the recovery in our business, and the wider hospitality sector, was gaining momentum as people started travelling again and corporate bookings slowly began to pick up,” commented Staycity Group co-founder and CEO Tom Walsh. “This year is looking even stronger with demand for city breaks across Europe now reaching pre-pandemic levels.”

Staycity currently operates 32 aparthotel properties across its Staycity and Wilde brands with the total estate, including signed pipeline, at 7,400 keys. Over the past 18 months the company has opened a record 12 new sites across Germany, France, Ireland and the UK – an additional 2,724 keys, creating 500 new jobs.

A further six properties are scheduled to open through 2023/24 which will take Staycity into Amsterdam, Cambridge, Munich, Lisbon and Porto for the first time. The company has also announced the purchase of a site in Stratford, East London for the development of a 240-key ‘ultra-green’ property as part of a £40m investment as well as a new site in Nuremberg, Germany.

“In July 2022 we re-financed our £30m debt facility with Oaknorth, which was initially due to expire in mid 2023. We have now extended this out to 2027 when Staycity will be debt-free,” Walsh added.

The year will see Staycity continue to focus on high levels of customer service, with guest scores having improved over the past 12 months compared with its competitor set, as well as a significant investment on brand identity, to be unveiled later this summer. Another focus is its wide-reaching ESG strategy, with a budgeted spend of €3m for 2023, following the appointment of a dedicated ESG team.

“We have some exciting projects underway and we are set to reach our target of 10,000 signed and opened keys by December 2023. We are excited to be taking our brands into new European cities and continue to seek further locations in our target areas,” added Walsh.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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