Created in 1990 in Brest in Bretagne, B&B Hotels, the third largest budget hotel chain in France, is expanding fast, especially internationally, since its acquisition by the French fund PAI Partners in 2016, which paid out €790M. The hotel group is once more going to change hands. PAI Partners is selling B&B to the American bank Goldman Sachs for an estimated €2 billion, proof that the hotel group is strong and healthy.

 

Growth of 61% in three years

 

In three years the hotel group has increased from 320 hotels with 31,000 rooms to 486 establishments with 42,832 rooms in twelve countries, including some 280 in France. Today, the group has a turnover of €559M, i.e. 61% growth in this same period. Its “Econo-chic” concept has helped to increase the B&B market share, the fastest in this budget accommodation segment. The group has always favoured a direct, more efficient distribution method, by avoiding going through resale platforms like Booking.com.

 

International growth

 

In recent years, B&B Hotels has benefited from a major roll-out programme, with one new hotel per week on average, together with a heavy investment programme in renovating its existing hotels.

The hotel chain is already established in Italy and Germany, where it has risen to the top of its budget category, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic. It is beginning to establish itself in Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium, a country where it plans to open some fifteen hotels by 2023. Austria and Slovenia are also among its short-term targets.

B&B Hotels is also moving outside Europe, mainly in Brazil where the group already has two establishments, with three more scheduled to open in 2019. But this is just a start, as the group wishes to make Brazil its new growth driver. It is banking on several hundred hotels in this country in the medium term. In 2019, the group will open about fifty establishments, as in 2018.