Hotelbeds to shed 250 jobs in cost-cutting drive

Thursday, 13 Nov, 2019 0

Hotelbeds has today announced staff redundancies and a ‘scaling down’ of its offices in London, Zurich, Dubai, Orlando and Tel Aviv.

Management said it was looking to reduce its global workforce by 5%, which means it is looking to shed around 250 members of staff.

The Palma-based bed bank, which has 5,000 staff employed in 60 locations around the world, made €233.5 million before tax in the year up to the end of September compared with €207.9 million in 2018.

However, it said its aim in reducing its payroll was to lower the cost per room per night from €6.30 to €4.90 by the end of 2021.

It said this was achievable as in 2016, prior to its purchase of Tourico and GTA, it was achieving a €5.40 cost per room per night.

Executive chairman Joan Vila said: "These results represent a remarkable achievement in what has been an intense year for our teams worldwide as they have worked incredibly hard, in a complex context, to integrate the top three leading players in our segment. I thank all our employees for the level of commitment and initiative they have shown during this period.

"Post-integration, we can focus once again, without distraction, on managing the day-to-day operations of our business to deliver increased value for our travel trade partners. This is also the perfect moment to optimise our operations and fully utilise our strong position to deliver the level of efficiencies our scale and combined capabilities enables.

"As a fully integrated company and the biggest independent bedbank worldwide, coupled with the financial strength and resilience of the business, we are now well positioned, with a clear strategy and focus, to deliver on our ambitious growth plans."

Hotelbeds is investing in a new technology hub in Valencia, Spain, which it said will drive the future development of automated platforms, processes and technology to make the process more ‘seamless and cost efficient’ for its partners.

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Linsey McNeill

Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk

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