The growth strategy at the Rezidor group has been guided by the Route 2015 group of initiatives, designed to expand margins by 6-8 points by 2015. This quarter, Rezidor has stayed in line with these objectives by gaining market share, and growing revenue 1.8% like-for-like. All four geographic segments reported RevPAR growth over the last year, led by the strongest development in Eastern Europe. Thus RevPAR growth is on a positive trend with a 5.9% increase like-for-like.However, the strengthening of the Euro and the exit of nine leased hotels did blemish revenue over the last year, 10 million euro less than 2012 despite the like-for-like improvement. The drivers of improvement were reduction initiatives and the exit of loss-producing leases. This grew the margin by 2.6 percentage points to 10%, on target with Route 2015.During the third quarter 2013, Rezidor opened 600 rooms and added 1,400 rooms to its pipeline. All new rooms signed and opened were under contracts, supporting an asset-light strategy. However, the group reversed this trend in two particular cases, going from management to lease agreements to secure two highly profitable hotels in Copenhagen.Despite unfavorable exchange rates, Rezidor pushes ahead with plans to expand its margins, satisfied with the increased market share and profitability of Q3 2013.
