Accor in profit but hotels still suffering from Covid

French hotel giant Accor said Thursday it had returned to profit but that revenues were still down by more than half from pre-pandemic levels as travel remains constrained.

From the period from January through June the company that owns the Ibis, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman brands among others, said its revenue came in at 824 million euros ($978 million).

That was a drop of 10 percent from the same period last year, when Covid-19 lockdowns first began to be put in place, and a 53 percent drop from the first half of 2019.

Accor was nevertheless able to squeeze out a profit of 67 million euros, compared to a loss of 1.5 billion euros one year ago.

While vaccination has allowed the United States and much of Europe to remove pandemic restrictions, travel remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

But the company said it sees the market beginning to recover.

“Since May, we have seen a clear recovery,” CEO Sebastien Bazin said in a statement.

“It is still too early to fully define the outlook for the end of the year, but we are confident in our ability to capture recovery in all geographies and to put into place a reinvented vision of travel,” he added.

Accor shares slumped 2.6 percent in morning trading in Paris, where the blue-chip CAC 40 index rose 0.6 percent.

ref/rl/wdb