A&O names a construction chief
A&O Hostels has appointed Gernot Porcher as senior vice president of construction. The hostel group announced the appointment in a release dated 21 October 2026 from its Berlin head office.
Porcher takes planning, construction and value retention across the A&O estate. He leads a team of ten people and plans to strengthen it soon, the release states.
Hotel Owner carried the appointment on 22 October 2026, the day after the group's release.
The chief executive's case
Oliver Winter, chief executive and founder of A&O, set out the hiring rationale in the same release. "With Gernot Porcher we gain twice over," Winter said. "He is a real estate all-rounder with wide expertise in conception and planning as well as in delivery and the upkeep of properties. He is a source of impetus for our corporate goals: solution-oriented, open-minded and quality-conscious."
Porcher's reading of the job
Porcher gave the release this description of the role: "Successful further development and the opening of new growth potential through ever more adaptable properties."
Later in the release he put the same point another way. "After completion is when it gets really interesting."
Three criteria govern the work in his account: price awareness, sustainability and durability, and flexibility.
The career behind the appointment
His training is technical. Porcher holds a Diplom-Ingenieur in architecture and qualified as a real estate economist through ebs.
He spent the years to 2015 at EY, formerly Ernst & Young, as head of project and risk management. He then moved to Deutsche Hospitality. That company traded as Steigenberger and later as H World International. His last position there was vice president of real estate.
He was born in Hesse and is 56.
Six openings on the drawing board
A&O plans six new sites in Europe by the end of 2028. Four of them open in 2027. A&O Berlin Checkpoint Charlie is among the 2027 group and will be the fourth A&O in the German capital. A&O Heidelberg opens the same year. Two further houses follow by the end of 2027 and two more by the end of 2028.
The group bought and converted houses in Manchester, London, Milan, Florence and Brussels inside the past 24 months.
The release describes A&O as Europe's largest hostel chain. The group was founded in Berlin in 2000 by Winter, who remains chief executive. It trades from 46 houses with around 31,600 beds in 32 cities across ten European countries, a count the release dates to 21 October 2026. The release does not break that count down by country.
The operating model targets price-sensitive travel. A&O runs under the motto "Everyone can travel" and counts backpackers, solo travellers, families, school classes and clubs among its core guests. The release reports a rising share of business travellers and older guests.
The release ties the group's strategy to measures that cut CO2e emissions per overnight stay.
Growth figures attached to the release
Winter attached a two-year growth figure to the expansion plan. "We have grown by around 11,500 beds in the last two years," he said. He named a doubling of the portfolio as the potential he sees.
He tied the openings to a stated aim in the same passage. The group targets affordable travel into European cities and metropolitan areas for families, young travellers and school classes.
Trading in 2025 put the group at close to three million guests, against 2.8 million in 2024. Overnight stays reached 6.6 million, against 6.2 million in 2024. Room occupancy was 76 per cent and revenue €245 million, against €232.4 million. The release calls 2025 the most successful year in the company's history.
The group completed a refinancing of €874 million with the financial investor Apollo, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange. StepStone Group and Proprium Capital Partners have owned the company since the end of 2023.
What the release leaves open
The release carries no effective date for Porcher's start. It names no predecessor in the construction role. It sets out no reporting line and no commercial targets for the build programme.