Hostelworld’s chairman, Ulrik Bengtsson, has been named as the next chief executive officer (CEO) of a South African gaming and leisure group, after announcing last week that he plans to step down from the Irish company later this year.
Mr Bengtsson, whose most recent executive role was as chief commercial officer at Virgin Media O2 between 2023 and 2024, joined Hostelworld’s board last May after deciding to focus on non-executive roles.
However, the Swedish native said last week that a “compelling” CEO opportunity had arisen for him at an unnamed company.
Johannesburg-listed sun International, which pioneered gaming in the country by introducing casinos there in the 1970s, has said that Mr Bengtsson will become its CEO from July, replacing the group’s long-term head, Anthony Lemming, who is retiring after 26 years.
Sun International owns a number of high-profile South African resorts and five-star hotels.
Mr Bengtsson, Swedish national, had previously served as CEO of Stockholm-listed online gambling company Betsson Group and head of UK-based William Hill. He oversaw the sale of William Hill in 2021 to Caesars Entertainment for £2.9 billion (€3.5 billion).
William Hill’s non-US assets were subsequently bought by Gibraltar-headquartered Evoke, formerly 888 Holdings.
Hostelworld, the hostel-booking company that targets millennial and Gen-Z backpackers, reported last Thursday that its net profit jumped by 78 per cent to €5.1 million and announced that it will be unveiling a detailed growth strategy on April 29th.
Hostelworld had previously disclosed that its net bookings rose 6 per cent last year to 6.9 million. However, revenues dipped 1 per cent to €92 million as customer demand shifted towards low-cost destinations in Asia and Central America.
Hostelworld reached an important milestone in 2023 when it repaid €28.8 million of high-cost loans drawn down from US specialist lender HPS Investments three years ahead of schedule with the help of €17.4 million of much cheaper loans from AIB, all of which has since been paid back ahead of schedule. It had net cash of €2 million at the end of 2024.
The company also agreed with Revenue early last year to repay what then stood at €9.6 million of warehoused taxes, racked up during the Covid-19 pandemic, over the next three years.
Hostelworld has been winning back hostel bookings market share that had been ceded to general online travel agents such as Booking.com before the pandemic, helped by the introduction of a pioneering social network that invites customers into city and hostel chat groups before checking in.
Some 80 per cent of company’s bookings came from social members last year, which helped reduce marketing spend as a percentage of revenue.
