The City Lodge Hotel Group (CLHG) has released its interim results for the six months to 31 December 2019, which show a decrease in room occupancies and a slight revenue increase. However the group remains optimistic about future opportunities, and CEO Andrew Widegger said, “The group’s portfolio of hotels is in excellent shape to benefit from economic growth and improved business and consumer confidence levels, as and when they occur.”
“The average room occupancy for the group’s South African properties fell from 61% to 57%.”
The average room occupancy for the group’s South African properties fell from 61% on 31 December 2018 to 57% on 31 December 2019; and from 58% to 54% for all properties in this period.
Revenue increased over this same period, from R807,4 million to R809,3 million, which is a 0.2% increase.
Part of the CLHG strategy has been to maintain high standards of their product through ongoing refurbishments and improvements. Some of their recent achievements include:
- The opening of City Lodge Hotel Maputo in February, completing the group’s East African expansion. The property has148-rooms and conference facilities.
- The construction of the 168-room Courtyard Hotel Waterfall City, which is due to open in November 2020. This will bring the group’s collection to 63 hotels offering 8,070 rooms in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.
- The completing of solar power generation capabilities at 25 of the group’s hotels, which will supply roughly 30% of each of these hotel’s energy needs, and account for approximately 10% of the group’s overall energy consumption.
The commentary accompanying the results noted some of the opportunities and threats facing the tourism industry; “The group is encouraged by some new government initiatives such as the e-Visa system being piloted in Kenya and the long-awaited scrapping of the requirement for unabridged birth certificates for foreign minors. These are both measures that can assist the growth of inbound tourism to South Africa, yet on the other hand, the coronavirus may have a negative impact on global travel.”
It also highlighted that “the first seven weeks of the second half of the financial year has seen some better trends with occupancies running at similar levels to the prior year”.
