It expects to open 13 new hotels in 18 months until it reaches 35 with 3,600 rooms, almost double its capacity

MADRID, 15 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Room Mate Hotels announces the launch of its new brand 'Room Mate Collection', as part of the growth strategy planned by the company chaired by Kike Sarasola for this year 2024, in which it expects to reach 150 million euros in turnover, growing over all in the European market, with 13 new hotels planned for the next 18 months.

"We are actively in the market to grow and we have no investment limit to improve the chain," hotel manager Kike Sarasola was emphatic in an interview with Europa Press, in which he recognized the investment appetite of the hotel company that is expresses its willingness to buy, rent or manage both independent hotels and hotel groups to continue expanding its brand in a powerful way over the coming years.

This intense growth is supported by a very positive fiscal year in 2023 in which the company recorded the first profit in its history. Last year the company obtained a positive net profit, a historical record, reaching 15.7 million euros in normalized gross operating profit (Ebitda) and with a margin on sales close to 15%.

A profit that is expected to exceed by more than 50% by the end of 2024 with a recurring normalized Ebitda of 24.1 million euros, this represents a growth compared to the actual data for 2023 of 8.5 million euros (53.5 % in relative terms). With all this, it aims to reach a sales figure of around 150 million euros, once all the hotels are renovated and 100% open.

"I am very excited that the company is beginning to grow, diversify and take on new horizons," said the executive president of the hotel company, for whom this year 2024 will also be a year of growth, "although less explosive than 2023."

In this favorable context, the chain announces the 'rebranding' of its parent brand and the launch of 'Room Mate Collection', a new brand for 4-star Plus hotels, which emerges as an evolution of the Room Mate brand itself for those clients who are demanding "a quiet luxury, far from excess or ostentation," explains Kike Sarasola to Europa Press.

Maintaining the essence of the brand, "but with a more serene and elegant decoration and more personalized customer service", the new brand maintains "the chain's flagship qualities such as the location in the city center or the tranquility of being like at home, hallmarks of Room Mate throughout its history," he points out.

Of all the current establishments, for now, two will become part of the 'Room Mate Collection': Gerard (66 rooms) in Barcelona and Giulia (85 rooms) in Milan.

The chain's focus in its growth model is mainly on Europe, particularly in Spain and Italy where "spectacular growth" has been recorded. The chain is currently studying interesting operations in city centers (in the form of purchase, rental or management), as well as carrying out negotiations to incorporate new units at the end of 2024 or early 2025 in the United Kingdom (London), France (Paris), Italy (Sicily, Rome and Milan) and Germany (Berlin, Hamburg or Munich).

A growth that is supported by various American, European and Middle Eastern funds that are willing to buy properties to be managed by the company, as confirmed by the hotel company.

"Room Mate Collection is the response to the demand of the Room Mate client. A 'level up' in disruption and attention to our already standard of affordable luxury, just as at the time we were asked to create tourist apartments under the brand and thus we did," explains the company's founder.

The announcement of the company's new image and second brand was made to investors and funds during the IFIH hotel investment fair that is being held that week in Berlin.

Room Mate Hotels faces this new stage with 'zero debt' and with a brand 'rebranding' that will be accompanied by new units that will be added by the end of the year, as well as renovations in the current ones, new customer service ideas or technological improvements .

The Spanish chain currently has 22 hotels (about 1,700 rooms) spread across 5 countries: 12 of them located in Spain (mainly Madrid and Barcelona) and 10 abroad: 6 in Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome and Milan ), 2 in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam), one in the United Kingdom (London) and one in Turkey (Istanbul). Their goal is to reach 35 hotels in the next year and a half.

Room Mate has closed 2023 with "extraordinary" results in all its locations, both in sales levels and average daily rate (ADR), especially those registered in Italy, with growth of 21% in Milan, 28% in Rome and almost 40% in Florence, compared to 2022.

Room Mate's objective is to continue growing throughout Europe - it has just opened Lime Tree in London - but it maintains its focus on Italy where the chain has just opened Palazzo dei Fiori in Venice and is about to inaugurate the Capo d'hotel. 'Africa in Rome. "Between now and the end of the year, with what we already have in the pipeline we will be able to add 3 to 5 more hotels in this country alone," confirms Sarasola.

Another notable city for the chain is Madrid, positioned among the main luxury and shopping destinations in Europe with growth of over 20% last year. "We are firmly committed to Madrid, which right now is the most fashionable city in Europe and we trust in its growth," says the manager, who acknowledged that the possible return to the United States will still be analyzed in the medium-long term.

The company's 2023 figures are the result of the growth in occupancy and average price (sales growth of more than 25% compared to 2022) that the chain hopes to consolidate in the coming months thanks to the process of partial or total renewal of its hotels, in which Room Mate expects to invest more than 16 million euros between the period 2023-2025.

With all this, the company aims to grow to reach 35 hotels in the next 18 months and go from 1,700 rooms to 3,600, which represents exponential growth that almost doubles its capacity.

The company, which welcomed more than 2.4 million people into its establishments in 2023, 91% of them international, announced last February a capital increase worth 38.2 million to finance its expansion. At the moment no new expansions are planned because, according to what they say, they have enough cash and funds to continue growing.

The support of the American alternative investment fund Angelo Gordon and the hotel manager Westmont Hospitality Group, which bought the company in July 2022, has been decisive in the business comeback.

Maintaining the company's philosophy and values, the growth has been unstoppable. "They are spectacular investors and when you work comfortably with the same philosophy and goals, the results are there," said the executive president, who is willing to continue investing and is even looking at hotel groups to join the project. "After a year of consolidation, now is the time to grow unstoppably," concludes Sarasola.