EasyHotel
 | |
| Public limited company | |
| Traded as | LSE: EZH |
| Industry | Hotels |
| Founded | January 19, 2004 |
| Founder | Stelios Haji-Ioannou |
| Headquarters | London |
Number of locations | 25 |
Area served | Europe, Middle East |
Key people |
Guy Parsons (Chief Executive) Marc Vieilledent (Chief Financial Officer) Jonathan Lane (Non-Executive Chairman) |
| Services | Super budget hotel rooms |
| Website |
easyhotel |
EasyHotel (styled easyHotel) is an international super budget hotel chain head quartered in London and listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
easyHotel owns, develops, operates and franchises hotels under the “super budget” easyHotel brand, marketing its hotels as offering clean, comfortable and safe hotel accommodation to its customers. The company was incorporated in 2004 and opened its first hotel in 2005.
History
Originally founded by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou through easyGroup Holdings Ltd, easyHotel was incorporated in 2004 and opened its first hotel in South Kensington, London in 2005. Whilst easyHotel owned its first hotel in South Kensington (which was subsequently sold and franchised in 2007), its growth strategy in its early years was to expand via franchise contracts.
2007 saw the first three international franchise hotels open in Basel, Budapest and Zurich along with two further hotels in London, at Earl’s Court and Victoria.
2008 marked easyHotel’s expansion into key London travel hubs with the opening of hotels near Luton and Heathrow airports as well as in London Paddington.
Between 2010 and 2014, the Company continued to expand its portfolio through franchise partnerships with new openings in Scotland, Germany and The Netherlands. The Group also acquired two London based hotels in Old Street (2012) and Croydon (2014).
In June 2014 the Company floated on the London Stock Exchange raising £24.5m to fund further growth and expansion.
In 2015, a newly appointed management team led by Chief Executive Guy Parsons[1] announced the completion of a strategic review of the Group’s operations and a future development strategy for the growth of the business. This is centered primarily on the development of the Group’s owned and franchised hotel networks in the UK and Ireland and the expansion of the Group’s franchise hotel network overseas. The Company also announced the launch of a new, more modern format for its newly developed hotel rooms.
2015 also saw easyHotel announce plans for newbuild hotels in Manchester and Liverpool as well as a franchise agreement to develop the brand in the Middle East.
In 2016 easyHotel announced further expansion with plans for new hotels in Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds in the UK, as well as Barcelona, Spain. The Group opened hotels in Amsterdam (Arena Boulevard) and Brussels.
In 2017 easyHotel announced the openings of two of its ‘new look’ format hotels. easyHotel Birmingham opened in February 2017[2] and easyHotel Manchester[3] opened in April 2017.
On 17 July 2017 the Group also announced that it had signed a Master Development Agreement to develop the easyHotel brand in Iran and Sri Lanka.[4]
Operations
As of 1 August 2017 easyHotel has:
· Five corporately-owned hotels currently comprising 590 rooms in Old Street (London), Glasgow, Croydon, Birmingham, and Manchester.
· 20 franchised hotels with 1,750 rooms. in Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt), Hungary (Budapest), the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Zaandam, Rotterdam, The Hague), Switzerland (Basel, Zurich), UAE (Dubai), and the United Kingdom (Edinburgh, London Heathrow, Central London, Luton).
Following the completion of a strategic review conducted by management in 2015, the Group publicly confirmed that it had identified the potential for circa 8000 owned hotel rooms in the UK and Ireland under the easyHotel brand as well as a further 4000 franchised hotel rooms. The Group also announced the potential for a further 15000 rooms across Europe under the easyHotel brand, the majority of these being through franchise agreements.
Concept
easyHotel operates in the “super budget” hotel segment. The customer proposition offers low price rooms that provide comfortable beds and essentials with the option to pay for extras such as coffee, spare towels, housekeeping on multiple night stays, and internet access. Rooms are discounted for early bookings. Periods of high demand cost more than less popular periods.[5]
