news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

the housing prices of yaduo, which was hailed as a "new elite" by the middle class, began to decline.

on the evening of august 29, chinese hotel chain group atour group (nasdaq: atat) released its second quarter 2024 financial report. in the second quarter, atour achieved total revenue of 1.797 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.5%; net profit of 304 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%; adjusted ebitda was 443 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%.

including the first quarter data, atour group achieved a total revenue of 3.265 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 74.93%; and a net profit of 562 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 118.33%. according to the shareholder return and dividend policy disclosed by atour group in the next three years, the planned annual cumulative dividend will not be less than 50% of the net profit of the previous fiscal year.

on august 29, eastern time, atour opened up 13.32%. as of the close of the day, the stock price was us$18.72, and the market value was equivalent to nearly rmb 17.7 billion.

on august 30, the share prices of many hotel stocks were also boosted, among which huazhu group in the us stock market rose 6.3%, and btg hotels group and jinjiang group in the hong kong stock market rose by more than 4% during the session.

average daily room rates are falling, but store openings are accelerating

in the first half of this year, a decline in average room rates has become the norm in the hotel industry.

as early as the first quarter conference call, atour founder, chairman and ceo wang haijun said that the revpar (average revenue per available room) in the second quarter may be more stressful than that in the first quarter. the financial report shows that in the second quarter, the revpar of all hotels in atour group was 358.7 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.49%; the adr (average daily room rate) was 440.6 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.2%; the average occupancy rate was 78.4%, a year-on-year increase of 1.3 percentage points.

in a conference call on the evening of august 29, atour's management said that the decline in adr and revpar was mainly due to the high base of average daily room rates in the same period last year. in addition, the number of travelers during the summer vacation last year significantly exceeded the level in 2019, and the high base pressure still exists. "looking forward to the whole year, there is a relatively large uncertainty in revpar performance."

according to the corporate customer contribution ratio disclosed by atour, the corporate contracted sales room nights accounted for 19.3% in the second quarter, up 0.9 percentage points year-on-year, which is relatively high in the industry. in comparison, the corporate customer room night contribution ratio of huazhu group is around 9%-11%. however, this also shows that the relative weakness in business travel demand will have a certain impact on atour's revpar.

although the growth rate of the hotel industry slowed down in the first half of the year, the pace of store opening and expansion of atour group did not slow down.

in the second quarter, atour opened 123 new hotels, a 76% increase over the same period last year, setting a new quarterly record. a total of 220 new hotels were opened in the first half of the year. by the end of the second quarter, atour group had 1,412 hotels in operation, a 17% increase from the end of last year.

"in the second quarter, our hotel network expansion momentum remained strong, accelerating towards the goal of 2,000 good hotels by 2025," said wang haijun. at the beginning of 2023, atour set the strategic goal of "chinese experience, 2,000 good hotels", and plans to open 2,000 high-quality hotels by the end of 2025.

in a conference call, atour's management revealed that due to the accelerated opening of hotels in the first half of the year, the company is confident that the number of newly opened hotels this year will increase from 360 to 400, raising the store opening target set at the beginning of the year. it is reported that atour's contract signing volume continued to grow rapidly in the second quarter, and the number of pipeline projects reached 712 by the end of the second quarter.

in march this year, the number of hotels in operation under the atour hotel brand reached 1,000. the management said that atour group is confident that light home will become the group's second 1,000-store brand. as of june 30, the group has opened 54 light home 3.0 hotels.

however, it is not easy to run a second 1,000-store brand in the short term. among atour's current 1,412 hotels, 1,063 are mid- to high-end atour hotels, accounting for 75%; followed by mid- to high-end atour x hotels, with 153, while mid-range qingju has only 123 in operation, accounting for less than 9%.

earned 1.1 billion from sideline business, marketing expenses doubled

as a hotel company, nearly 30% of atour group's revenue comes from its retail business.

the revenue of atour group is composed of hotel management, hotel leasing, retail and others. in the second quarter, atour's hotel management and leasing achieved revenue of 1.027 billion yuan and 180 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 63.9% and a decrease of 17.9%, accounting for 57% and 10% of the total revenue.

however, the growth of the retail business is faster than that of the main hotel business. in the second quarter, the gmv (gross merchandise volume) of the retail business was 620 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 157.6%, and the online channel accounted for more than 90%; the revenue was 536 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 153.6%, accounting for 29.8% of the total revenue. in the first half of the year, the sales of atour's retail business exceeded 1.1 billion yuan.

in comparison, in 2022, yaduo's retail business revenue was only 254 million yuan, accounting for only 11.2% of total revenue. in 2023, it soared to 20.83%, and in the first half of this year it was 29.8%.

"based on the strong performance in the first half of the year, we expect atour's retail business revenue to double year-on-year for the full year." atour's management said in a conference call that based on this calculation, the retail business revenue this year will reach at least 1.944 billion yuan.

at the same time, atour raised its full-year revenue growth guidance from the 40% estimated last quarter to a range of 48%-52%. "although revpar may face some fluctuations, we still expect revenue to maintain rapid growth in 2024, mainly due to the continued expansion of the hotel network and the rapid development of the retail business."

the profits of bedding retail products are also considerable. in the second quarter, the gross profit margin of atour's retail business reached nearly 51%, which is higher than the general gross profit level of hotel accommodation business. according to atour planet tmall flagship store, more than 300,000 people paid for the best-selling deep sleep pillow pro, and more than 200,000 people paid for the memory foam pillow. the discounted prices after coupons were 309 yuan and 169 yuan respectively.

however, the promotion of retail business also pushed up marketing expenses.

the financial report shows that atour's sales and marketing expenses in the second quarter were 225 million yuan, and 94 million yuan in the same period of 2023, an increase of about 1.4 times year-on-year, accounting for 12.5% ​​of revenue. atour explained that it was due to the increased investment in brand awareness and the effective development of online channels, which was consistent with the growth trend of the retail business. in the first half of the year, sales and marketing expenses were 399 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 times.

not only the scene retail business, but also because atour pursues differentiated brand positioning and cultural atmosphere, the overall expenses such as marketing expenses and hotel operating costs have continued to rise.

in the early days, atour became popular due to its collaboration with a number of ips, such as the wu hotel with wu xiaobo, and various theme hotels with netease yanxuan, zhihu, netease cloud music, and qq super members. in august this year, light home hotel collaborated with the comic ip "little seal".

in the first half of the year, yaduo's total operating costs and expenses reached 2.553 billion yuan, an increase of more than 60% year-on-year, accounting for nearly 80% of total revenue.