It’s been another year marked by economic uncertainty, rising costs and shifting market dynamics yet, at Aimbridge EMEA, we’re proud to have navigated the headwinds and continued to deliver for our owners, their hotels and their guests, outperforming our competitor set by almost two points on gross operating profit (GOP) year-to-date.*

The EMEA leadership team gathered recently to reflect on the year gone by and what has driven this success. For President David Anderson, the answer lies in resilience and focus.

“The last 12 months have been strong for Aimbridge EMEA,” he says. “Despite the industry headwinds the industry continues to face, including the well-documented increases in National Insurance, the Living Wage and rising utility costs, we’re on track to complete the year outperforming our competitor set in areas including gross operating profit (GOP) and cost of sales.”

However, Aimbridge’s positive performance is not just about numbers, it’s about growth and agility and welcoming new names to the portfolio.

Niall Kelly, Head of Business Development, reflecting on the year, points to the company’s newest hotel brands and properties: “We’ve had 10 new hotels coming into our portfolio during 2025, plus two new brands that we haven’t worked with before – Hyatt and Radisson RED – both of which were conversions.

“It’s been fantastic to welcome these new names into our portfolio, proving testimony to our adaptability to working with so many diverse brand names and requirements.”

Operational excellence

For Aimbridge, it’s also the focus on delivering operational excellence at every level, across its balanced scorecard, that has supported its performance during the year.

Barry Dawson, Senior VP Finance, explains how a focus on the fundamentals has paid off: “Our performance has been strong during 2025 and our figures demonstrate that against our competitor set, with GOP almost two points higher than our comp set.

“This has largely been driven by our focus on our Balanced Scorecard, which ensures we’re performing against key metrics including RGI improvement, Gross Operating Profit Margin Improvement, General Manager Retention, Guest Service Satisfaction, Loyalty Enrolment, and Net Growth.

“We’ve cascaded the focus on these vital metrics right across the business, which has resulted in year-on-year improvements both from a top-line and a bottom-line perspective and, in turn, driven strong results.”

New sales strategy

Will Bishop, VP Commercial Operations, describes how a new approach to sales has been rolled out across the business: “Another key driver of our success during 2025 has been the deployment of our new sales team strategy in response to the current market conditions, making our central team entirely responsible for generating demand and driving business into all hotels across the Aimbridge portfolio.

“This, combined with our refreshed sales tools and initiatives, has driven increased revenue and market share for Aimbridge-managed properties, supporting our future international growth ambitions, too.

“It has also provided a clear pathway for the development of sales talent within the organisation, with a number of key appointments and internal promotions being made to support the changes.”

Nurturing talent

Lorna Abercrombie, VP Human Resources, supports this, highlighting the company’s commitment to nurturing talent and building a culture where individuals can thrive.

“A real highlight this year has been welcoming new talent with key appointments across the business, as well as the successful transition and onboarding of new hotels and teams,” says Lorna.

“Our innovative onboarding solution for General Managers has fostered cross-functional collaboration and set the tone for a culture of continuous learning. We’ve seen the evolution of our Leadership Development Programme and the introduction of the Enterprise Prospectus, too, alongside the launch of our Early Careers and Work-Based Learning Guide. These initiatives have been instrumental in engaging our future talent pipelines and ensuring we’re investing in the leaders of tomorrow.”

“I’m also particularly proud that we’ve retained critical talent through increased internal promotions, and that we’ve completed four cohorts in our Senior Leadership Development Programme, Amplify. These milestones reflect our ongoing commitment to nurturing and retaining talent across the business.”

Technology to drive results

Technology, too, has played a vital role. Liz Dixon, VP IT, highlights the behind-the-scenes work that has delivered tangible benefits for owners and teams alike:

“From an IT perspective, during 2025 we have had a strong continued focus on security and Privacy compliance across the business, as well as supplier compliance. These workflows are all designed to improve hotel day-to-day experience and keep downtime to a minimum, and through our new supplier management framework, we’ve already shown positive supplier performance uplift results.

“Our continued evolution of automation across the business, exploration of AI capability and enhancing our enterprise systems is ensuring we continue to get the best out of our platforms, whilst driving process efficiencies.

“This, overlaid with strategic Data Management workflows, are enabling improved reporting and delivery metrics, with more to come in 2026.”

*(Hotstats performance index for Q3 (Jan-Sept) in England & Wales.)