Minor Hotels exceeds revenue, profit expectations in strong Q1 earnings report

22.05.2024 - 11:55 / traveldailynews.com / Vicky Karantzavelou

Core revenue climbs 17% y-y to THB 29.6bn for the quarter.

Minor Hotels, a hotel owner and operator with more than 550 properties in 56 countries, has announced a reported net profit of THB 530 million for the first quarter of 2024, with the sustained increase in travel activities offsetting the historical seasonality of the European hotel business.

Minor Hotels’ core revenue in Q1 reached THB 29.6 billion, marking a substantial 17% year-over-year gain and surpassing budget projections. This robust performance was driven by the continued strength in revenue generation, with healthy rate growth recorded across the group’s hotel portfolio, particularly in Europe and Thailand.

Minor’s owned and leased hotels portfolio contributed 80% of core hotel and mixed-use revenues in the first quarter, up 21% year on year. Management income also surged by 26% year-on-year due to RevPAR growth across the group’s managed hotels, along with the addition of several new hotel management contracts throughout the year.The seasonality of the hotel business throughout Europe, where Minor Hotels operates approximately 300 properties, means the first quarter is historically a weaker period for the group. Continued strong global demand and the group’s ability to increase its rates led to strong revenue performance and the narrowing of its quarterly core net loss to THB 968 million, a significant improvement from the core loss reported in Q1 2023.

Hotel occupancy across the group’s portfolio of eight brands showed significant improvement to 64%, up four percentage points versus Q1 last year. In Thailand, Minor Hotels saw an overall increase across in occupancy across its 23 properties of 10 percentage points compared with Q1 2023, hitting a better-than-expected average of 80%. Hotels in Middle East & Africa also reported strong occupancy growth of 11 percentage points to 65%, led by the Anantara, Tivoli, and NH Collection branded properties.

Minor Hotels reported positive growth in Average Daily Rate (ADR), with system-wide Q1 figures up 11% year-on-year. The group’s owned properties drove the lion’s share of this increase, up 14% year-on-year. Thailand was again a strong performer, with ADR across all properties up 12%. In Europe and the Americas, rates were up an average of 13% when calculated in THB terms, translating into growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR) of 18%. System-wide RevPAR rose 19% year-on-year, with owned and leased properties significantly outperforming expectations by increasing 21% and 35% compared to the prior year and pre-pandemic (2019) levels, respectively.

“The better-than-expected growth in revenue and bottom-line figures in a traditionally soft period underscores the agility and dynamic