Accor CEO: We Won’t Be Investing Equity in Our Struggling Hotels

While Europe’s largest hotel operator is struggling amid the global decline in travel, Accor also has $2.7 billion cash on hand. But it won’t use that money to bail out operators struggling through the coronavirus downturn. Operations at 62 percent of Accor’s global hotel portfolio are suspended due to coronavirus. The French hotel company saw a 17 percent decline in revenue and 25 percent drop in revenue per room, or RevPAR, in the first quarter. March was the weakest month of the quarter, but April and May are expected to be the worst months of the year due to uncertainty in when the global economy will reopen, according to Accor’s first quarter earnings report out on Wednesday. Accor CEO Sebastian Bazin acknowledged the company has a grim outlook for the year, but the company does not plan to divert from its asset-light shift in recent years to assist struggling operators of any Accor-flagged property. “While weâ€