Ascott kicks off European expansion following hotel partnership with Chelsea Football Club

Citadines-owner Ascott Limited is set to launch its first stadium hotel at Chelsea Football Club amid plans to expand its presence in Europe and “scale up through franchise management”.

 

The Singaporean real estate and hotel company will take over the management of the 232-bedroom Millennium & Copthorne Hotels at Chelsea Football Club and rebrand the property as its first Lyf hotel in the UK by the end of 2025 under a multi-year partnership with the Premier League team.

 

At a press conference hosted at the Stamford Bridge stadium in London, Ascott’s chief commercial officer, Tan Bee Leng, told attendees Lyf was chosen over its 13 other brands because of its “strong appeal with the younger demographic” and its “experience-driven” offering.

 

The Lyf brand was created in 2016 and started in Singapore before expanding into Europe for the first time last year. It now operates in 21 cities and is aiming to reach 150 sites by 2030.

 

Members of the Ascott Star Rewards (ASR) loyalty programme will also receive exclusive access to matches at Chelsea Football Stadium and visits to the Blues Cobham Training Ground.

 

Ascott’s partnership with Chelsea Football Club, terms of which were not disclosed, comes as the CapitaLand Investment (CLI)-owned hotel business has identified Europe as a growth market.

 

Speaking at the conference, Kevin Goh, chief executive officer for Ascott and CLI Lodging, said: “We want to bring authentic experiences to our guests and at the same time grow our presence in Europe. We bought a portfolio of aparthotels, Citadines, in 2004, which has since grown four times to 200 properties across 30 countries. Europe is also a very important source market. A lot of our guests are actually from Europe and having collaborations like Chelsea will bring more to Asia and vice versa, as a large part of Chelsea’s 600 million fans are in Asia.”

 

While the majority of Ascott’s UK portfolio is based in London under the Citadines brand, the group is due to  expand into Scotland following signings in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

 

It is also due to launch hotels in Leicester, Manchester, and Colmar in France, consolidating its base of over 60 European properties both in operation and the pipeline.

 

It comes after Ascott delivered ADR at 30% higher than the pandemic, with Europe contributing to 16% of the group’s global revenue in 2023, making it one of its strongest performing regions.

 

Goh added: “With five of the six new signings in Europe year to date being conversion projects, Ascott’s established conversion capabilities has already been proven as effective in gaining the confidence of property owners. We expect franchise management to be our next pillar of growth in Europe, where market conditions are conducive for this business segment. For our existing owners, we will continue to deliver sustained value by embarking on asset enhancement initiatives that update and elevate the stay experiences of guests.”

 

Longer term, the group sees itself “moving more and more into franchise”, in line with its Australian business, almost 95% of which operate under this model.

 

Ascott was founded in 1984 with the launch of the Ascott Singapore and has since grown to over 960 properties globally across 40 countries.