Cancun Quintana Roo. The Grupo Posadas hotel chain has begun to go down a path of recovery and even growth compared to its situation prior to the pandemic. After completing its financial restructuring under Chapter 11 – which, by pre-arrangement, closed in a matter of two months – the growth plan points to more complexes in the short term, new brands, and a strong emphasis on resorts.
Towards the end of the year, the company plans to add two more hotels to its portfolio, which as of the second quarter of 2022 consisted of 188 complexes. For the following year, it is planned to add five more hotels, and there are even five resorts that are under construction that, by 2025, would add more than 5,000 rooms to the largest hotel operator in the country.
In this regard, Enrique Calderón, Grupo Posadas’ vice president of operations, explains that the growth plans take place in an environment in which, despite the rise in costs brought about by inflation, profit margins have been achieved that are higher than those previously recorded. to the pandemic.
“The beaches have been in high season all year, they have been running 80% occupancy every month, which has been very positive,” explains the manager to Expansión , during the 28th National Congress of the Meetings Industry. “January was a bit tricky because of the omimon variant, but it wasn’t bad. As of February it has been surplus. We see a slight contraction in September, nothing serious, but we see that the reservations for the beginning of 2023 are in very good shape”, he assures.
The company comes from a second quarter in which its revenues grew 19% to reach 2,293.3 million pesos, with a net profit of 146 million pesos.
Part of these results is due to an increase not only in the average rate of its complexes, but also in revenue per available room (or RevPAR), which generally increased 14%, but climbed 60% in the case of resorts. .
The manager assures that a rate increase of around 25% has been achieved compared to 2019, while cost increases range between 15% and 18% in terms of food and beverages, for example. This has helped contain the inflationary effect.
“The costs have risen, but the rates have risen in a greater proportion. This has benefited us in terms of profitability”, he adds.
In addition to the opening of new hotels, Posadas is preparing a new brand aimed at conversions that is about to come out, although he did not want to give more details.
Going forward, the challenge will be to maintain the pace of growth in the medium term, in which the company has some ambitious goals.
According to its restructuring plan under Chapter 11, by 2026 the hotel operator expects to increase its total income at a rate of 8% per year to more than 658 million dollars, 40% more than in 2019. For Calderón, this it is achievable according to the operating indicators that have been seen recently.
“What we see is that we again have a generation of important leads from new hotels that we can operate, and that gives us a growth rate by important acquisition. We are seeing that, compared to other years, there is a significant investment, especially in beach hotels, which has been reactivated in an important way, and they ‘move the needle’ much faster”, he concludes.
