a&o Hostels record almost 3 million overnight stays and 10 percent revenue growth as last minute bookings soar

a&o Hostels, Europe’s largest privately owned hostel chain, has revealed the company’s performance figures for the first half of 2024, with 2.98 million overnight stays, a five percent increase on the previous year. With an average room occupancy rate of 75 percent and two more new openings scheduled before the end of the year, a&o Founder and CEO Oliver Winter said: "This is the strongest first half-year in our almost 25-year company history. We are very much on track."

a&o Hostels currently offers 38 properties in 25 cities and nine European countries, with plans in place for continued expansion and growth. With a total turnover of over 111 million euros, the Berlin based hostel chain exceeded its previous year's result by ten percent, making the first half of 2024 the strongest in the company's history.

May and June were the best months with a room occupancy rate of over 80%. Around 1.4 million overnight stays in the first quarter alone already promised a strong first half of the year. The most popular hotels in Germany were a&o Berlin Mitte, a&o Hamburg City and a&o Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Outside of Germany, a&o Prague Rhea, a&o Vienna Hauptbahnhof and a&o Venice Mestre were most popular.

The new a&o Firenze Campo di Marte is scheduled to open later this year, and a&o are "happy to have a new address with charm". Another property in the UK will be added to the a&o portfolio in the coming months.

Half-year figures at a glance:

Top 3 source markets: Germany, Poland and the UK
54% domestic guests (2022: 66%)
More than 200,000 calls to the service centre and more than 180,000 bot messages
75 percent room occupancy (2023: 72 percent)
Average room occupancy of 80 percent in May and 82 percent in June
Summer occupancy rate of up to 90 percent expected

"Sustainable, affordable, transparent offers"

"We focus on sustainable, affordable, transparent offers", says Winter. With families, school classes and groups as core clientele, a&o are always looking at ways to find affordable and quality alternatives to expensive foods and to avoid price increases for guests. For example, orange juice has been removed from the breakfast menu until further notice, thanks to alternatives such as apple or multi-fruit juice.

European Championships, Taylor Swift and Coldplay – event travel is becoming increasingly more important

Whether it's football or concerts, high occupancy is virtually guaranteed on match and tour dates across a&o properties. a&o benefitted from several events in the first half of the year, with an occupancy rate of 100 percent on match days and around 90 percent over the entire duration of the European Championship. The performances by Taylor Swift and Coldplay also saw high demand for beds. "The number of event travellers is increasing all the time, regardless of the day of the week. Concerts and sporting events are crowd pullers, and people book well in advance", says Winter. The a&o club membership provides substantial discounts even at peak times for a&o guests, with price reductions of up to 25 percent.

77 percent less CO₂e emissions since 2015

a&o reduced its CO₂e emissions by a further 410 grams per overnight stay last year, reaching the calculated average value of 3.32 kilograms (2022: 3.73 kg). This corresponds to a reduction of over 77 percent since measurements began in 2015. "The figures are really good", comments Winter, "but there is still a lot to do, with a goal to be Net Zero by 2025."

"In future, the travel experience will go much further than accommodation and food. It will be more and more about engagement, interaction and awareness", he added.

The 37-page a&o Sustainability Report for the year 2023 has been available to download since the end of June.