Madrid, Jun 29 (EFECOM).- The Valencian company Casual Hoteles, with 25 establishments open in Spain, Portugal and Italy, expects to open six establishments in 2025 and aims to double its portfolio by 2030, its founder and CEO, Juan Carlos Sanjuán, explained in an interview with EFE.
The company, founded in 2013 with a catalog of themed hotels in urban centers, only recorded losses in the years of the pandemic (2020 and 2021) and closed 2023 with revenues of 31.6 million euros and an ebitda (gross result of 6.5 million, which by 2025 is expected to rise to 8.5 million euros.
To mitigate the effects of Covid, it received a loan backed by the ICO for six million euros, of which it has already repaid approximately half. Although the sector is making money, says Sanjuan, “a lot of that money is going down the pipeline.”
At the beginning of July it will open a hotel in Bilbao – where it will add six under a franchise regime – and by 2025 it plans two openings in Ibiza and Naples and hopes to add four more, which are not yet closed.
It is looking for projects in other Spanish cities – such as Madrid, Valencia, Santiago and Malaga – and Italian cities – especially in Rome, Florence and Milan – and is analyzing the market in the Netherlands and Greece, as well as in other European countries, with which it aspires to reach 50 establishments in 2030.
Casual is growing at a rate of 9% over 2023, but Sanjuán notes that in the last two months sales “have been slower” than budgeted. June was a “weaker” month, and for July “the feeling” is that it is going very well, but August “is struggling.”
Even so, it advances that both 2024 and 2025 are going to be very positive years, supported above all by foreign tourism, which represents around 60% of its clientele and is the one that reserves the most nights and the one that pays the most, in addition to consume more services in the hotel.
However, it understands that “it is not sustainable” to grow at double digits, so it is committed to maintaining prices. The client, he says, has reversed his priorities after the pandemic “but that cannot be maintained.”
It is worth noting here that in Germany, leisure has fallen from fifth place in spending priorities to second place after food.
“People are spending beyond their means” and are postponing other investment decisions, such as renovating their home or buying a car, in favor of tourism.
Casual’s business model, based on themed hotels in city centres, does not contemplate entering the holiday segment, which requires more powerful food and beverage services.
“I decided to focus on hotels where others don’t go; I don’t believe in stars, it’s ‘demodé'” says the founder of Casual, who remembers that one of his one-star hotels in Cádiz has been recognized as the best in the city. .
The client understands that at Fitur in Madrid, at Fallas in Valencia, at the Cádiz Carnival or at the Seville Fair they have to pay more “but what the client does not understand is that you multiply the price by four,” he says.
The company only has four-star hotels in Portugal, because the investor they are associated with there wanted that product, but “I’m more in favor of a good three-star,” he says.
With a staff of 327 people, of which 80% are permanent and 20% permanent, Carlos Sanjuán defends that talent has fled the sector “because we pay little” and he will have to offer better salaries since the rest of the Industries are paying more.
He also believes that it is necessary to start giving employees “other things”, such as time freedom in those positions where it is possible (especially in management) or complements such as the health insurance that this hotel company offers to its workers.
He explains that loyalty among middle managers and hotel directors is high, although it is more difficult among chambermaids, a position occupied almost entirely by women, who migrate to other, somewhat better-paid sectors.
He complains about the “extra-legalisation” of working conditions because “now they ask me to control the working hours”, but “I don’t want to control them, they want to control those who do things wrong”.
“If an employee does his job in five hours, what’s the problem? He’s done his job, he’s efficient… go and be with your children, with your family, do sports… whatever you think you have to do,” he argues.
In the interview with EFE, Sanjuán is blunt about tourist housing: the problem is illegal housing, which is what must be pursued, but prohibitions “do not stop the problem.”
“Our politicians have no idea what housing facilities the cities have,” and what they should do is “close the illegal apartments” and not dictate measures “for those who are doing things well,” he points out.
He also believes that tourismophobia “is a trend that the extreme left is using for populist reasons. The problem is that we have a political class that goes as far as it goes,” he says.
People, he points out, “do not see what tourism contributes”, which generates an activity much higher than that collected by the tourist GDP, where means of transport are not involved, for example. EFECOM
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