EasyHotel

easyHotel

Industry	Hotels
Founded	19 January 2004 (2004-01-19)
Founder	Stelios Haji-Ioannou
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom, Paris, and the Hague.
Number of locations	49[1]
Area served	Europe[1]
Key people	Karim Malak (CEO)[2]
Website	www.easyhotel.com

EasyHotel (styled as easyHotel) is a part of the easy family of brands, and is a low-carbon, great value hotel chain, with support offices in London, Paris, and the Hague with 43 trading hotels in 11 European countries, and 6 new hotels in development.^[1]

History

Originally founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou through the easyGroup, easyHotel was incorporated in 2004^[3] and opened its first hotel in South Kensington, London in 2005. Whilst easyHotel owned its first hotel in South Kensington (which was subsequently sold and franchised in 2007), its growth strategy in its early years was to expand via franchise contracts. Stelios stayed in the first branded easyHotel property on its opening night on 1 August 2005. The first week the South Kensington property was open, it was fully booked.^[4]

In June 2014, the Company floated on the London Stock Exchange raising £24.5 million to fund further growth and expansion. In August 2019, directors of the company backed a £139 million bid for the company despite opposition from founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The bidding consortium was made up of Luxembourg-based ICAMAP and Ivanhoé Cambridge of Canada. Ivanhoe is owned by Quebec’s pension company, CDPQ (Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec).^[5] As of 2021, ICAMAP and Ivanhoé Cambridge now own the majority of shares in the company.^[3] The majority owners also announced to invest € 50 million to vastly expand the chains operations by 2026 throughout Europe and the UK.^[3]

In December 2021, Karim Malak was appointed CEO after the sudden death of François Bachetta at the age of 56 in June of the same year. In October 2022, easyHotel acquired eight franchised easyHotel properties in the BENELUX region (7 in The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Zaandam, Maastricht, Rotterdam, The Hague) and 1 in Brussels, Belgium) from Crossroads Real Estate for € 145 million.^[6] As of May 2024, easyHotel has 26 owned and leased easyHotel properties and 17 franchised easyHotel properties, with an owned and leased property in Marseille due to open later in 2024.^[7]

Growth in Europe

As of May 2024, easyHotel maintains overall 42 corporately owned and franchised branches in the United Kingdom (19, of which 5 are in London), the Netherlands (7), Switzerland (5), Germany (1), France (3), Spain (3), Belgium (1), Ireland (1), Hungary (1), Portugal (1) and Bulgaria. There are also 6 hotels currently in development in France (2) and Spain (4).

EasyHotel is surging its expansion across Europe in the coming years, leveraging the leading easy brand awareness. The company aims to strengthen its presence in key markets such as France, Spain, Germany and the UK, whilst developing in new markets, including Italy, Greece and Poland. In 2023, the company received over 500 proposals for new hotel opportunities. Spain is anticipated to be a major growth area over the next few years, with a new signing announced in Alicante in April 2024 and additional hotels in Barcelona Meridiana and Valencia already in development.

Sustainability

In April 2023, easyHotel announced a £4.5 million investment for 12 UK locations to further reduce the group’s carbon footprint as part of its strategy to be the leader in low-carbon, great-value hotels across Europe. This investment was allocated to improving hotel energy efficiency through the installation of heat pumps, enhanced metering and control systems, and new, more efficient air conditioning systems. In addition, an extra €1.5 million was invested in February 2024 for low-carbon improvements at easyHotel’s owned EU locations.

2023 also saw the launch of easyHotel’s new low-carbon room, which was first introduced at easyHotel Paris Nord Aubervilliers. Initially built as a trial in two rooms, this concept is now being gradually rolled out across more hotels. These rooms are designed to use fewer raw materials, featuring Cradle-to-Cradle certified bedroom flooring, sustainably sourced timber bed frames, skirting, and door frames. Even the room stools are made from 100% recycled plastic. These low-carbon rooms emit 39% less carbon than other 2-star hotels per room per night.

In March 2024, easyHotel announced their involvement in developing the BBCA’s new low-carbon label, specifically designed for hotels across France. The BBCA low-carbon label for new construction, renovation, and operation measures a hotel's carbon footprint throughout its lifecycle and serves as a performance label to highlight exemplary buildings. Sixty different hotel projects, ranging in size and style, were studied to identify specific characteristics of a hotel's carbon emissions, best practices for reducing them, and the low-carbon requirements for obtaining the BBCA label. easyHotel was an integral part of this group.

Additionally, April 2024 marked the official rollout of easyHotel’s new Single Use Plastic policy, which aims to eliminate single-use plastics from all guest areas of the hotels. Key measures include switching to sustainably sourced wooden key cards, replacing plastic bottles in vending machines with cans, and installing free water fountains for guests to refill their own bottles or purchase reusable ones from reception. Additionally, single-use plastic bin bags have been removed from rooms, and tea and coffee facilities have been replaced by vending machines offering more sustainable hot drinks. Toiletry dispensers have also been installed in bathrooms, replacing single-use miniature toiletries.

References

External links

Media related to EasyHotel at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website