Skift Take

Accor, the Paris-based hotel giant, predicts robust bookings and strong pricing power in the second half. Its executives aren't losing any sleep over airlines like Ryanair complaining about softening airfares.

Sean O'Neill

Accor reported strong results for the first half of the year Thursday, and pointed to promising bookings trends for the second half.

"We're not worried about the pace of demand and the volume of demand across the globe," said Sébastien Bazin, Accor's Chairman and CEO.

The Paris-based operator of 5,682 hotels worldwide said it expected to see very good momentum in the Middle East, the U.S., and Southeast Asia.

The group modestly upgraded its forecast for full-year revenue per available room growth to between 4% and 5%.

Robust bookings, pricing power

The upbeat comments from the hotel group's executives came Thursday after some airlines recently reported a softening in their airfares and profits in some markets.

The upbeat predictions followed a strong first half, during which Accor saw revenue-per-available room (RevPAR) growth of 6%.

"Ryanair's second quarter stipulated that they had a drop in pricing of about 15%, but they had an increase in volume by about 10%," Bazin said, noting that there was no slowdown in demand with Europe's largest carrier by passenger volume.

"There's no slowdown in demand in many of the airlines in the world and certainly not in India ... or Qatar," he said. "If customers do end up paying less for the [air] travel, they may pay more for the hotels and for the food and beverage and entertainment," Bazin said. "So [the trend in weakening