The average daily rate in the quarter was 115 euros, 27.4% higher than the same period of the previous year
NH Hotel Group registered losses of 36 million euros in the first quarter of the year, a figure that represents an improvement of 40.9 million euros compared to the same quarter of 2022, as reported by the hotel group on Monday, which recalled that the The January-March period is the “weakest” due to the seasonality of the business.
Despite this, the company shot up its total revenue in the first quarter to 407 million euros, 74.2% more than in the same quarter of 2022, which was affected by the restrictions of the Omicron variant of Covid. With this volume of revenue, NH exceeds by 15.4% those obtained in the first quarter of 2019, in the absence of a pandemic.
Revenues for the first quarter of the year represent an improvement of 173 million euros compared to the same period of 2022, which was affected by omicron. These additional comparable revenues are divided between 36 million euros more in the business unit of Spain (which includes Portugal and France), 33 million in Italy, 41 million more in the Benelux countries, 39 million more in the countries of Central Europe and 23 million euros more in Latin American countries.
The hotel company indicated that 9 million euros corresponded to the new additions of hotels: nhow Frankfurt, NH Collection Milano CityLife, Anantara Plaza Nice and NH Collection Copenhagen.
The evolution of revenues was especially positive in the countries of Southern Europe. Spain increased its comparable income by 32% compared to 2019, due to the strong evolution of the main and secondary cities. In Italy, comparable growth compared to 2019 was 28%, with a recovery established both in Rome and Venice and in secondary cities.
In the Benelux countries, said growth was 5% and Central Europe were slightly lower due to a weak month of January and despite the fact that the other two months of the quarter were higher than 2019. In Latin America, revenues increased by 23% compared to the same quarter of 2019, with a particularly favorable evolution in Argentina and Mexico.
NH’s gross operating result (Ebitda) reached 59 million euros between January and March, multiplying by more than six the Ebitda obtained in the first quarter of 2022, and compared to 83 million in the first three months of 2019.
During the quarter, the reactivation was maintained in both leisure and business clients. Revenues from the B2B segment were slightly higher than in 2019. NH Hotel Group expects the trend to continue in the coming months, “based on strong demand for the first part of the year and good operating forecasts.”
The group’s liquidity exceeds 480 million euros after the voluntary repayment last January of the remaining 50 million of the ICO loan for an amount of 250 million received in the pandemic.
NH’s net financial debt now amounts to 340 million euros, which represents an increase of 33 million euros, due to the seasonality of the period and the CapEx investments of 23 million euros made in the first quarter of the year.
IMPROVED PRICES AND OCCUPANCY.
The average daily rate (ADR) rose from 90 euros in the first quarter of 2022 to 115 euros in the same quarter of this year. The evolution was upward month by month, from 105 euros per night in January to 115 euros in February and 122 euros per night in March. The progression continued in April, which closed with an ADR close to 140 euros.
The occupancy trend was also positive, reaching 59.7% in the first quarter of this year, but still five percentage points lower than the first quarter of 2019.
In the month of March it reached 67% and was higher than 70% in the month of April. This level of activity was higher in southern Europe, where it is close to 2019 levels.
Spain obtained an average occupancy of 68% in the quarter, the highest of the entire group, with an ADR of 113 euros per night. In Italy and the Benelux countries, the average occupancy was respectively 58% and 53%, with the same ADR of 135 euros in both cases.
In Central Europe, occupancy was 56% and the ADR was 105 euros. In Latin American countries, occupancy was 65% and the average daily rate was 80 euros.
Lastly, the average revenue per available room per night (RevPar) stood at 68 euros, compared to 36 euros in the same quarter a year ago, and 61 euros in the first quarter of 2019. In comparable terms, between January and March of this year, RevPar grew by 9% compared to the same period in 2019.
