Ireland: Aparthotel operator Staycity has recorded turnover of more than €200 million, the first time the company has reached this figure in a trading year.
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 have helped the group reach record sales in the 12 months to 1st May 2023, while turnover for 2023 is on target to reach €230 million.
Turnover during 2022 hit €175 million, up from €78 million in 2019, with EBITDA finishing the year at €30 million and RevPAR 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,” said 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 £40 million investment as well as a new site in Nuremberg, Germany.
“In July 2022 we re-financed our £30 million 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,” said Walsh.
This summer will see Staycity reveal a new brand identity. Another focus is its wide-reaching ESG strategy, with a budgeted spend of €3 million 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.
