, the owner and operator of contemporary hostels revealed in a trading update that revenues were up 39% to £14.6 million and occupancy was up 75.6%.
The company attributed the growing popularity of adventurous travellers and the increasing numbers of families doing city breaks as drivers behind the strong trading performance.
Hostels as a value offering seems to be performing well as the ability to target both younger and older travellers allow the offering to have good reach.
At an annual growth rate of 5%*, the contemporary hostel market is the fastest growing segment of the accommodation sector according to a document released by the company.
Shares in Safestay were up over 5% to 35.5p at the end of the day following the announcement.
Larry Lipman, Chairman of Safestay, said: "The focus is to grow the brand and the Company has the capital to support an increase from the 13 sites today to over 20, at which point the business will become self-funding and increasingly gain from economies of scale and brand growth."
It now has 2762 beds in Europe after the acquisition of properties in Barcelona, Brussels and Vienna, and it has 15 other cities identified to be potential further acquisitions.
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