Elegant Hotels Share Discussion Threads

[lbo] 25/1/2018 11:40

The problem as can be seen below by the BHTA comments last year is now ongoing for a long time and has progressively worsened with all short term patch up attempts failing and the real issue being Barbados not having the money to carry out the substantial sewage works after years of under investment.

[trytotakeiteasy] 23/1/2018 09:18

LBO - not great but I am sure they will solve it eventually.

[lbo] 23/1/2018 08:08

https://globalvoices.org/2018/01/22/barbados-sewage-crisis-causes-a-flood-of-problems/

[trytotakeiteasy] 22/1/2018 17:54

With sterling now at US$1.4 it is now about 15% cheaper to have a holiday in Barbados for people in the UK than it was a year ago.

[shauney2] 22/1/2018 09:21

Looking very firm.
ST gave a buy update in this weeks IC.

[lbo] 22/1/2018 09:13

https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2018/01/17/nupw-strike-a-second-blow-to-barbados-tourism-says-symmonds/

[lbo] 18/1/2018 17:17

Sensitivity analysisAn increase of 100 basis points in interest rates would decrease profit or loss by $0.7 million on an annual basis. This analysis assumes that all other variables, in particular foreign currency rates, remain constant.The financial liabilities which have a contractual maturity greater than one year are the Group's loans and borrowings. Including estimated interest payments and excluding the effect of netting agreements, the payments due in relation to the Group's loans and borrowings are $8.6 million due within one year and $68.6 million due between one and five years (2016: $7.0 million due within one year and $65.1 million due between one and five years) (ie 2020)

[trytotakeiteasy] 18/1/2018 16:06

LBO - final report published. If you go through it and find any nasties do let us know.

[trytotakeiteasy] 17/1/2018 11:09

LBO - these are fair points. I note that Elegant does highlight competition in its results and the need to reinvest in its estate. Sandals appears to have a great brand. More generally when I was looking back the person who originally sold Elegant to private equity he told a newspaper that he was worried about increased competition from Cuba and other Caribbean destinations.

I can see why consumers prefer Sandals potentially. It offers a consistent product and should have a good level of service. On the other hand a lot of its hotels may feel the same.

The new Sandals resort in Barbados looks amazing. It is called Royal Barbados:

www.sandals.co.uk/destinations/barbados/

I haven't made an assessment but the new Sandals hotel in Barbados must increase the luxury room supply in the country by a reasonable percentage. To be fair, though, this is a growing sector with tourism and travel in long-term expansion.

One thing that is interesting is that Elegant's hotels are quite small compared to the Sandals hotel in Barbados. This means a smaller swimming pool and other facilities such as gym. Some of pools in Elegant's portfolio look pretty small. I would probably prefer to stay at a Sandals resort but then other people might prefer smaller hotels. See slide 23:

www.eleganthotelsgroup.com/media/1164/ehg-2017-fy-presentation-final.pdf

[lbo] 16/1/2018 15:25

Reminds me when some posted on here that Elegant Hotels would not be affected by Brexit as the Elegant hotels UK customer base had higher disposable income and their spending on Luxury holidays would not be effected. Yet it has been and Elegant themselves admit in the results that their regular repeat customers are not returning like they used to. But all the while UK arrivals to Barbados have not fallen and other operators are increasing Revpar, Occupancy and EBITDA again unlike what's going on with Elegant even as they acquire more rooms. Also we must remember that demand for Barbados is now higher then normal as other areas of the carribean have been decimated by hurricane IRMA but they will rebuild and recover their tourists resulting in only a short term and temporary spike in demand for Barbados this winter season. This is all points to a big internal problem in the whole group and the offering as Elegant is not really experiencing much uplift unlike others.

From the Elegant results;
"Waves' occupancy was the highest in the Group at 73%"

Then we see Sandals just open the new Royal and report



“The bookings for the season look very, very good. We opened today with a good 80 rooms arriving . . . By tomorrow another 80 rooms [will be occupied]. [And] by the time we hit January 12, this resort will be running 90 [to] 92 per cent,” he said, adding that “for 2018, we already have on the books an average 97 per cent occupancy across the board

And Sandals is a direct competitor that Analysts have flagged as a risk factor for Elegant since 2015

[stemis] 16/1/2018 14:27

Do you not know the LBO has a negative take on any fact (occupancy - high, all risk is to the downside; occupancy - low, the business is failing; occupancy in the middle - I don't know but I'm sure he'd come up with something).

[trytotakeiteasy] 16/1/2018 14:23

LBO - Do you not think though that occupancy is partly operator determined? They can cut prices to boost occupancy but choose not to. Maybe they prefer to not have it fully occupied to have a premium feel? If they cut prices 30% I am pretty sure they would beat Sandals on occupancy but would we want that? It is hard making comparisons on Revenue per available room given that no two hotels are the same. So it isn't necessarily easy to compare Sandals with Elegant. However, I do concede that Sandals has a great brand, a great presence across the Caribbean and I am sure a great marketing and distribution operation.

[lbo] 16/1/2018 12:59

If you go back you will see Elegant have had declining occupancy for a few years now and even just after the IPO their occupancy was low. Also looking back into 2017 and in link below we can see Sandals has increased occupancy from averaging above 85% to over 90% so it's others who are really increasing occupancy not Elegant. Elegant has only just increased from 62.9% to 63.9% and prior to that Elegant's occupancy had fallen from 69% to 66%. Elegant is clearly continuing to underperform as the BHTA also said occupancy overall for their members during the year had increased well above the only 1% Elegant just reported.

[trytotakeiteasy] 16/1/2018 12:07

LBO - These are fair points you are making. Sandals has a very strong brand and reputation for quality. A lower occupancy rate at Elegant does point to a weaker performance. However, it can also be spun the other way in that Elegant has greater scope for improvement. I was looking at Wizz Air a while ago and thought that the flight load factor was weak and didn't like the fact that the group had to lease its planes. However, it has turned both of these around and the shares have performed extremely well. If Elegant can tap into the US/Canada market and build up its brand maybe it can boost occupancy? Tourism is a growth sector and there is only so much land by the sea in the Caribbean. Although I was looking at the Bahamas appears to have cheaper flights available than Barbados. The sewage issue in Barbados also points to poor infrastructure and a weak government.

[lbo] 15/1/2018 18:39

Yet nothing from Elegant Hotels on their actual occupancy rates?



Risha Daniel, public relations manager at Sandy Lane Hotel, one of the country’s most luxurious West Coast properties, told the SUNDAY SUN they were happy about their bookings.
“We have a two-week minimum stay for our guests, and at the moment we are completely full, and will be fully booked for the rest of the year. We expect the same levels of occupancy in January as well, which is a great way to start 2018,” Daniel said.
General manager of the Fairmont Royal Pavilion, Tom Lefkovits, was over the moon because his property had surpassed projections for the first quarter of 2018. “We are over 90 per cent for the New Year’s holidays so we are very happy about that.




The two current Sandals resorts are presently enjoying occupancy levels over 90%, and with such a positive and brisk start to the season

[lbo] 15/1/2018 18:30

Yes I agree the peak season is still ongoing but the Christmas holiday period is one of the very important parts of the peak season in Barbados and as I said many other hotels on the West Coast and even others like Sandals who are not even public companies all openly reported occupancy well above 90% to the press. Yet Elegant have not said anything definitive about its Occupancy rates which suggests they are still way below the occupancy of others even in the highest demand and busiest Christmas period of the peak season.

[lbo] 15/1/2018 14:00

I would not be so sure. A lot of West Coast hotels and Sandals in particular which are not public companies openly reported occupancy rates in the press of well over 90% for Christmas yet Elegant Hotels has hidden theirs and not given any detail in their latest results of the occupancy over the peak Christmas period. This is very worrying. Also in the results they say"Occupancy was 63.9% for the Group, up from 62.9% in the prior year". This is still very low and a 1% increase is minimal after all the refurbishment and upgrade works which were supposedly to significantly improve the offering and occupancy rates. Yet they are still well below others including Sandals. They even say Waves is now its best performing Hotel in terms of Occupancy and that's only at 73%.

[trytotakeiteasy] 15/1/2018 12:49

Not great. All their other hotels are on the West of the island. On a plus note the value of sterling is now at US$1.38. This makes it 15% cheaper to go to Barbados from the UK versus the low of US$1.2 in January 2017. We shall see but the last fiscal year (to September 2017) may have been the low point for Elegant Hotels.

[trytotakeiteasy] 15/1/2018 12:49

Not great. All their other hotels are on the West of the island. On a plus note the value of sterling is now at US$1.38. This makes it 15% cheaper to go to Barbados from the UK versus the low of US$1.2 in January 2017. We shall see but the last fiscal year (to September 2017) may have been the low point for Elegant Hotels.

[lbo] 12/1/2018 07:28

May impact Elegant's Turtle Beach hotel

[stemis] 11/1/2018 13:58

And the covenants?