The Ascott Limited CEO Kevin Goh
The Ascott Limited CEO Kevin Goh

Serviced apartment operator, The Ascott Limited, has defied all market expectations associated with the COVID-19 downturn, announcing today it has enjoyed its best year on record with signings for 25 new properties.

The company announced a 139% year-on-year signings increase for the first five months of any year in its history, which amounted to around 5,400 new apartments and cover 19 cities around the world. Signings included new cities debuting on the company’s map, including Zhengzhou and Nanchang in China; Jayapura in Indonesia and Casablanca, Morocco.

All 25 new properties were signed as management agreements, franchise contracts and leases, all of which will open between 2020 and 2024. The signing blitz builds on a strong year so far for the company, which has recently opened new serviced apartment complexes in various parts of Asia as well as in France and on the Gold Coast.

The Ascott Limited CEO, Kevin Goh, said the strong result coming despite the COVID-19 challenges shows the resilience of its lodging products.

“We have a strong base of long-stay guests who appreciate the comfort of our spacious apartments where they can live and work,” he said.

“This has enabled our serviced residences globally to maintain robust average occupancy rates. We have already taken steps to ready Ascott to be the accommodation of choice in a post COVID-19 landscape and will continue to cement Ascott’s position as a dominant lodging player and deliver more value for our guests and business partners.”

Ascott said the signings continue to propel the company towards its global target of having 160,000 units under management by 2023.