EasyHotel has acquired a site for a new property in Dublin as it looks to build on its European expansion plans.
The site already has planning permission for a 96-bedroom hotel, but easyHotel believes there is the potential to extend that to 130 rooms.
The ‘super budget’ brand paid €9 million for the freehold and expects a total investment of €18 million once work has been completed.
EasyHotel currently owns seven hotels comprising a total of 702 rooms with a further 21 franchised hotels with a combined 1,803 rooms.
The Dublin development, on the corner of Benburb Street and Wood Lane, is the second owned hotel in Europe outside of the UK and follows a 204-room Barcelona property due to open this summer.
Its long-term plan is to expand its portfolio of owned hotels across Europe in key tourist and city centre destinations.
A group development director is to be appointed to lead the development in Europe, alongside a team focussed initially on Spain, France and Germany which is likely to be in place before the end of the current financial year.
The costs of expanding the team are expected to reduce EBITDA by around £750,000 in the 2019 & 2020 financial years but the group believes the additional Continental European hotels will “significantly” enhance earnings from 2021.
Four new owned hotels, representing 517 rooms, are expected to open by the end of the year. easyHotel Maastricht opened at the beginning of July taking the total number of hotels in the Group to 28. There are a further four new franchised hotels (336 rooms) in the pipeline. Openings have been delayed but are expected to open by the end of this year.
Guy Parsons, chief executive of easyHotel plc, said: “We are delighted to have secured this excellent site in the vibrant City of Dublin, our third investment since our successful fundraising in March 2018 and our second owned hotel site in Europe. The Dublin site takes our pipeline of owned/leased projects to 1,280 rooms in addition to the 1,782 franchise rooms currently under development.
“Europe holds a number of attractive opportunities for the easyHotel brand and we are keen to achieve a balance in our development pipeline between the UK and Continental Europe, as we look to accelerate our presence in these markets.
“The Group has a strong owned hotel development pipeline already established in the UK and this additional operational resource announced today will ensure that we are well positioned to take advantage of more opportunities in Continental Europe, creating value for our shareholders and underpinning the long-term growth of the easyHotel brand.”