Room rate increases drive growth for Melia in H1

Melia Hotels International saw strong performances from its hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in the first half of the year, ahead of a raft of new openings in the region.

According to the company’s H1 results, EMEA occupancy rates grew by 0.7 percentage points to 70.1%, while RevPAR grew by 3.8% to €86.40 (US $115.46). Average room rates grew by 3% to €123.20 (US $164.64).

Globally, the company saw RevPAR grow 11% to €62.1 (US $82.99), driven by strong performances in America, Premium Europe and Mediterranean.

“We continue to remain focused on growing our footprint around the world with high quality hotels under our 7 brands,” said Meliá Hotels International vice-president and CEO Gabriel Escarrer.

“We currently have over 16,000 rooms in our development pipeline, an almost 10% increase over a year ago, highlighting recent incorporations such as the ME Milan or the Innside New York, reflecting hotel owners’ confidence in our brands and operational strength.

“In this regards, the loyalty of our guests, our global sales force, our guest-facing technology and our local teams enable us to deliver even greater value to hotel owners.”

Globally, Melia saw its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (without capital gains) rise 35% to €98.5 million (US $131.6 million), from total revenues of €703.9 (US $940.7 million).

Among the hotels in the company's pipeline is ME Dubai, which is expected to become a flagship property for the ME brand in the Middle East when it opens in 2016.

From 2015 onwards Melia has a total of 20 hotels with almost 4,300 rooms in the pipeline across EMEA.

It has already attracted plenty of attention around the world due the properties striking designs by renowned international architect Zaha Hadid.

Two new Middle East properties have already been added in EMEA since the end of the reporting period. Sol Taba and Sol Dahab opened in July with a total of 658 rooms.