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Briefs: Accor, Pebblebrook’s Q2 Microsoft-Oyo tie-up?

Nocturne Luxury Villa to St. Barth: Nocturne Luxury Villa, a new company that invests in and operates luxury vacation rental managements, backed by Gladstone Investment Corp., acquired St. Barth Properties Inc., a villa rental manager on the island of Saint Barthelemy in the French West Indies and its sister company, St. Barth Dream Vacation, based in Gustavia in Saint Barthelemy with more than 250 luxury properties in their portfolio. This is the second investment by Nocturne, after the acquisition of Exceptional Stays, a vacation rental company based in Telluride, Colorado.

Accor on the mend: Accor reported Q2 2021 earnings on Thursday and reported a smaller operating loss for the first half of the year with Chairman and CEO Sebastien Bazin suggesting a “clear recovery” since May. It reported 5 points in RevPAR improvement every month since April with July trending similarly. Accor posted a narrower first-half EBITDA loss of €120 million (US$142.28 million), compared with a loss of e227 million euros a year earlier. RevPAR slumped 60% compared with the first half of 2019. First-half revenue fell 6% on a like-for-like basis to €824 million (US$978 million) The group said 93% of its hotels were now open, compared with 87% in April. It did not offer an outlook for the remainder of the year, confirming average monthly cash burn at less than €40 million (US$47 million).

Pebblebrook Q2 earnings: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust reported Q2 2021 results, highlighting accelerating operating trends throughout Q2 and into July due to robust leisure demand and increasing business transient travel. It achieved positive same-Property EBITDA of US$28.3 million, led by resorts and accelerating business transient demand at urban hotels. Same-property RevPAR rose sequentially by 111% from Q1 2021 to Q2 2021. For Q3 2021, Pebblebrook expects both same-property room revenues and total revenues to be down between (38%) and (42%) compared to Q3 2019, much improved from Q1 2021 and Q2 2021.

Park sells in DC: Blackstone Group has acquired from Park Hotels & Resorts the 204-room Courtyard by Marriott Washington Capitol Hill/Navy Yard hotel for US$52.6 million, according to reports. News of the sale broke on June 30, but the identity of the buyer was just released. Park Hotels took over the Courtyard Navy Yard through its acquisition of Chesapeake Lodging Trust, which bought the property for US$68 million in 2011.

Microsoft likely to invest in Oyo: Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to invest in Oyo, the Indian budget hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, as per a TechCrunch report. According to TechCrunch, the deal could value the Indian startup at about US$9 billion. The size of the investment is unclear. The deal is likely to involve Oyo shifting to Microsoft’s cloud services. Soft Bank Group Corp owns a 46% stake in Oyo. Airbnb-backed Oyo endured heavy losses and laid off thousands of employees since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak last year.

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