When Tristan Capital Partners snapped up budget hotel brand EasyHotel last month, it was a clear signal that the no frills brand was gearing up for a serious European growth sprint.
And speaking exclusively with EasyHotel CEO Karim Malak, Hospitality Investor was treated to a sneak peak of the company’s course moving forward, a path that involves bigger hotels, deeper market penetration and a sharper product identity.
The recent change in ownership may have turned heads but for Malak, it’s just the next logical step in a bigger plan focused on conversions, acquisitions and tapping into demand across the top 30 cities in Europe.
Why?
But to realise that vision, the business needed more than just ambition and that’s where Tristan came in.
“ICAMAP and Ivanhoé Cambridge were nearing the end of their investment cycle,” Malak explains, adding “the past three years were about rebuilding the platform in preparation for the stage we’re about to enter which is the stage of actual rollout in gateway cities across Europe. We needed a shareholder aligned with the next stage of growth.”
Crucially, the partnership with Tristan allows EasyHotel to act quickly on attractive opportunities, particularly conversions and existing asset acquisitions that require upfront capital. The Tristan deal gives EasyHotel not only capital for development and conversions, but a partner with existing hotel sector expertise. In April 2022, Tristan’s EPISO‑6 fund acquired a majority stake in Point A Hotels, a UK-based economy boutique brand with 10 hotels across England, Scotland, and Ireland. This came after its 2021 acquisition of a 261-room 4-star hotel in Manchester Deansgate which was converted into a YOTEL-branded lifestyle hotel.
“It’s not just about their money,” Malak stresses. “They have stakes in other hotel companies. Not only are they real estate specialists, they have experience of the hotel business. We were very happy to team up with them for the development of the company.,” Malak says.
Strategy
Tristan Capital’s involvement comes as EasyHotel cements its shift from a UK-centric portfolio to a pan-European growth strategy. “When I took over, two-thirds of our rooms were in the UK. Today, only a third of our revenue comes from the UK,” Malak notes. “That proportion will continue to decrease with our new developments in Spain, Portugal, France and beyond.”
The brand is targeting the top 30 European cities including Dublin, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, and many cities in France - Marseille, Paris - and the equivalents in Spain such as Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.
Malak spotlights Spain, France and Portugal as key markets of focus, also noting a willingness to explore opportunities elsewhere such as Italy and Germany.
With a healthy pipeline already in motion including hotels in Alicante, Barcelona, Geneva and Valencia, EasyHotel and Tristan are working on finetuning the strategy moving forward.
“It’s about making sure we have perfect alignment on certain things such as what the top 30 cities are. We’re down to that kind of detail Some of us will be more inclined to densify, for instance, in the UK, and some less inclined.”
He adds: “It can also be about the kind of model we use. So for instance, Tristan have said that they want to do leases in very strategic locations rather own real estate, which is something that we absolutely share. But then the question is, what do we consider as strategic locations? So there is some fine tuning that that we need to align on.”
A noteworthy subplot to the deal is the evolving relationship with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, EasyHotel’s founder and the original force behind the easy brand who had reservations about investors getting involved in 2019.
But Malak says the founder is now singing a different tune, with Stelios being very vocal about being happy to sell his 17.38 per cent stake.
While Stelios still owns the easy brand, which EasyHotel licenses, Malak believes the change in sentiment signals a deeper vote of confidence in the brand’s current direction.
Looking ahead
As Malak sees it, EasyHotel’s value proposition which revolves around offering the essentials at the right price has never been more relevant. “We want guests to get the best night’s sleep and spend their money enjoying the city, not on the hotel,” he says. That means maintaining discipline around product simplicity and efficiency.
“It’s about focusing on a simple experience. We want the product to be very efficient in terms of an experience, very efficient for investors and very efficient in terms of use of square meters.”
There’s also an eye on technology, particularly around distribution and AI-led optimisation. But Malak insists that the core experience won’t change, stressing a focus on discipline and having perfect alignment with what the easy brand stands for, what the product is and how it’s run.
Looking ahead, he says the focus will be tapping into Tristan Capital’s expertise to see if there are other levers to pull on how to further optimise the company.
He adds: “Then it will be about continuing to expand the pipeline - we have recruited quite a heavy development team and we have ambitious targets. We want to not only develop and build hotels but also to acquire. That will be the focus for the next one to two years.”
The partnership with Tristan signals not only a financial reset but a strategic acceleration for a brand that still believes it has more to prove. “I'm looking forward to the next couple of months with Tristan because I really feel that the company, and especially the brand is a household name but it’s running under potential – we’ve done a great job in the past few years but there’s still a lot to do.”