Meliá is restoring more than half of the bookings for 2019 and expects a barrage of last-minute sales

Melia Hotel Group has already managed to reach 55% of its reservation level at this time in 2019. After the alarm has ended, the chain has verified increased traveler interest and after starting to reopen its large holiday hotels, and expects to raise blind people from 70% of its facilities. During the summer.

Given the summer season, the company believes there is room to restore the level of activity before the pandemic. Although, for the time being, they assure that travelers prioritize destinations of the peninsula’s coast over the islands.

Likewise, the uncertainty about mobility in the coming months continues to weigh on the activity level. As explained on Fitur’s first day by the company’s vice president and CEO, Gabriel Escarrer, everything indicates it will be summer for last-minute bookings.

“We are starting to see a certain light at the end of the tunnel, but the shapes must be handled very carefully”

He stressed that “we have begun to take a look at a certain light at the end of the tunnel, but the numbers must be dealt with very cautiously.” On this occasion, customer bookings are not accompanied by conventional deposits, due to the high degree of uncertainty about the application of new restrictions. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen and there will be a lot of last-minute sales.”

Escarrer also requested caution about the good prospects for the sector some run. “It’s very difficult to predict more than a month ago. But if the epidemic is brought under control and herd immunity is achieved, the logical thing is that in September we will have the hotel plant fully open. ”

In this sense, if vaccination continues to progress at a good pace, and the European Union’s vaccination passport is soon approved and the United Kingdom places Spain in the Green Zone in the risk rating, then it may be a “good summer, although it is far from the summer of 2019”, The chief employer also said Exceltur.

In addition, he defended that the Spanish government would have to pay for the PCR tests required to get to Spain for foreign tourists without vaccination. “It is not a cost, it is an investment in security to revitalize the business as quickly as possible,” he said, citing France as an example of the measure.

Asset sale

Regarding the potential sale of Meliá’s assets of between 150 and 200 million euros, Escarrer said it “is following the roadmap and will be implemented when this needs to be done.” Company sources consulted The Independent Avoid giving details of the course of operations that will be reported to CNMV in time. They indicate that they will be in Spain, although they do not state in detail what specific locations.

With these moves, the company seeks to boost its balance sheet, reduce debt, and improve liquidity. Although it is separated from the buildings, it maintains the running of the works installed in them. On the other hand, so far in 2021, the company has already signed eleven new projects in Asia and the Mediterranean. In District One, the company is currently focusing on 30% of its hotels awaiting opening.

15 new NH group hotels

For its part, the NH Hotel Group announced, on Wednesday, the anticipated opening of fifteen new properties during 2021 in Europe, the Middle East and the United States. The company is awaiting ERE and it, like Meliá, is considering giving up assets like the symbolic Eurobuilding in Madrid to make cash, though always under the formulas of “sell and rent back” or “resell and manage”.

In the first quarter of the year, it lost 124.1 million euros and revenue represents only 22% of what was released in the same period last year. However, despite the pandemic’s setback for the tourism sector, the group has opened its first hotel in the United States and will be introduced in Qatar and Denmark. You will also disembark in Prague and Florence as well as Venice. Under other collective brands, more stores will also be opened in Europe.