The Matutes Family Considers Future of the Ayre Hotel in Oviedo

20 January 2018 – La Voz de Asturias

Palladium Hotel Group, the hotel group owned by the Matutes family, is reconsidering the future of its hotel in Oviedo, the Hotel Ayre. The Director-General of the company, Abel Matutes Prats, is considering including the establishments from the Ayre brand within the Only You brand (a concept of boutique city hotels), but it has not ruled out selling certain establishments.

The Ibiza-based hotel company has owned Ayre Hotels together with Parinver, the investment arm of El Corte Inglés since 2006. The chain comprises ten establishments (located in Oviedo, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Córdoba and Sevilla). Some of these hotels may be included within the Only You brand and others may be sold in a commitment by the company to strengthen its hotel management business over hotel ownership. Nevertheless, in August, sources at El Corte Inglés said that “there were no plans afoot to sell any stakes”.

“We are making a significant effort to move towards a management model. We are a company that owns everything and our objective is to move towards a similar mix to that of our competitors. Over the medium term, we have to go down that route”, explained the director who wants to strengthen his firm’s role as a manager through agreements with owners and investment funds to grow faster.

The company considers that in Spain there is space to grow with the Only You brand in places such as Sevilla, Málaga, Valencia, Bilbao and San Sebastian, as well as in other European countries such as Portugal and Italy. “Once we are established in Europe, the plan will be to make the leap to North America”, he revealed.

The hotel group is very satisfied with the performance of its Only You Hotels brand (boutique city hotels), which currently comprises two establishments in Madrid. And the future outlook is so positive that it is looking for new operations for this brand both within and outside of Spain.

“We want to grow quickly with this brand but everything will depend on the welcome it receives when it opens”, said the company’s Director General, Abel Matutes Prats, who explained that the idea is to also incorporate hotels outside of Spain in both cities and tourist areas.

Turnover

With the repositioning of its brands, the hotelier owned by the Matutes family forecasts “an important jump” in terms of revenues over the next two years, which could rise by 10% and whereby exceed the €600 million reached in 2017 thanks to the consolidation of the Only You brand, the opening of new hotels in Mexico at the end of the year and another couple of projects “which are currently under consideration”, but which will also close in 2018.

Palladium closed 2017 with investment in Europe and North America amounting to more than €88 million in terms of renovations and €125 million in new builds. In terms of the hotel company’s objective for the coming year, it plans to spend €50 million on renovations and €180 million on new constructions.

Original story: La Voz de Asturias

Translation: Carmel Drake