François Bacchetta appointed EasyHotel chief executive

François Bacchetta has been appointed chief executive of EasyHotel and is expected to join the company and board in spring 2020.

Bacchetta joins EasyHotel from sister company, budget airline EasyJet, where he has spent the last 15 years, including as EasyJet’s country director for France and Italy.

He previously held senior marketing positions at global cosmetics group L'Oréal.

Bacchetta replaces Guy Parsons, who stepped down late last year after four years in the role, and Scott Christie has since been acting as non-executive interim chairman.

Investor consortium Bidco took control of the board of the budget hotel chain last year. The company launched a successful £138.7m takeover bid for EasyHotel, despite EasyGroup founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou saying the bid undervalued the company.

Harm Meijer, non-executive chairman of EasyHotel, said: “Following a comprehensive search, we are pleased that François is joining us to lead EasyHotel in its aspiration to become a European leader in the super budget hotel segment. He knows the Easy brand and understands its values extremely well. He also brings a wealth of experience in developing businesses, strategy, business optimisation, leadership, marketing and revenue management. We look forward to working with François in the future.”

Bacchetta added: “EasyHotel is a business I greatly admire and I am thrilled to be appointed. With a strong hotel network established in the UK, I believe this is a very exciting time for the brand and I look forward to leading the expansion in Europe as the group seeks to become a leader in the budget hotel space.”

EasyHotel is one of the spin-off brands from Sir Stelios’ EasyGroup, best known for its budget airline EasyJet. The brand was launched in 2005 with its first property, a 34-bedroom hotel in London’s Kensington, and now owns 11 hotels in the UK and franchises eight.