Spain's NH Hotel Group had some good numbers in what it calls the "least significant quarter of the year." For the first quarter of 2017, the company saw "significant momentum and progress" quarter after quarter for its best Q1 performance in recent years.
During the quarter, the company invested in repositioning its hotels. As of the end of March, the company had renovated 61 hotels and reorganized its portfolio around four brands: NH Hotels, NH Collection, nhow and Hesperia Resorts. (The company's new premium brand, NH Collection, with 67 properties and 10,483 rooms, is driving price growth.)
The company saw year-over-year revenue growth of 8.9 percent to $358.8 million, which it credits to the portfolio repositioning and the new "astute" revenue management strategies. Overall, NH Hotel Group saw revenue increase by $29.2 million from the first quarter of 2016, posting its highest first-quarter topline growth figure in 10 years.
The price management strategy rolled out during the least significant quarter of the year paved the way for RevPAR growth of 11.9 percent. The company's growth strategy targeted ADR (which was up by 5.5 percent) and occupancy (up 6 percent). Relative RevPAR and ADR growth was 3.1 and 1.6 percentage points, respectively, above the competition, with the performance in key city destinations such as Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Brussels standing out.
Top Markets
Top markets for revenue performance were in Spain (up 12.1 percent to $88.7 million) and the Benelux region (up 17 percent to $73.5 million), thanks to the full recovery of the Belgian market. The Central European, Italian and Latin American business areas posted revenue growth of 3.9 percent, 1.6 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively.
NH Hotel Group operates close to 400 hotels and almost 60,000 rooms in 30 markets across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia,