Thomas Cook has confirmed it is to open a further 20 own-brand hotels by the end of 2019, including six more Sentido hotels, four SunConnect properties and two Aldiana properties.

The expansion also includes six new hotels in Spain, four in Greece and three in Turkey.

However, Thomas Cook admitted today that it had had to remove nine own-brand hotels that 'did not meet brand quality standards'.

A spokesman said it was not unusual for the company to remove hotels it was not entirely happy with. "Nine out of a portfolio of 180 own-branded hotels is not a lot," he added.

The company has not named the hotels that have been axed.

New openings include Thomas Cook's first Casa Cook property Ibiza, the first family Casa Cook, and seven other Cook hotels.

Further new openings are set to be confirmed within the coming months, said the company, taking its portfolio up to 200 hotels with around 40,000 rooms and making it one of the top 40 largest hotel groups in the world.

Thomas Cook said the expansion was part of its strategy to deliver sustainable profitable growth through a carefully-curated portfolio of own-brand hotels that have higher customer satisfaction, more repeat guests and deliver higher margins than the holiday company's broader selection of hotels.

Casa Cook Ibiza will open next summer as one of the key assets of Thomas Cook Hotel Investments, the hotel fund that the company launched earlier this year with hotel development company LMEY.

The 189-room hotel will be managed by Thomas Cook and is expected to continue the success of the first two openings for the brand where more than 75% of guests have been new to the company.

The second Casa Cook for summer 2019 will be the first for families and open in Chania, Crete. The 106-room hotel, delayed from summer 2018.

Building on the success of the first Cook's Club in Crete, this summer, Thomas Cook has also named seven new hotels and expects to confirm a further three in the coming months.

The new Cook's Clubs include a managed hotel in Palma Beach, Majorca which Thomas Cook will convert from an existing smartline hotel, as well as two franchised hotels in Turkey, a further two in Greece, and another in Italy.

The brand will also open in Gambia in winter 2019. Three further Cook's Club properties in Bulgaria, Egypt and Greece are expected to be confirmed soon.

Thomas Cook's largest own-brand is SENTIDO hotels which will add a further six hotels next year to take the total to 70. The new openings include a 184-room hotel in Majorca that will sit in Thomas Cook Hotel Investments and will undergo refurbishment.

SunConnect, the holiday company's other family-focused hotel brand, will open four hotels next summer taking it to 20 hotels across Europe and North Africa.

Aldiana, the club resort that Thomas Cook now owns 42% of following an investment last year, will open a club in Ampflwang, Austria as well as a new-build resort in Calabria.

Enric Noguer, chief of Hotels & Resorts, said: "Expanding our own-brand hotel portfolio is central to the success of the whole business. Operating and overseeing a group of well-managed and high-quality hotels that our customers recognise and turn to for the better service and reliability they experience is an important part of our strategy as a group.

"These latest announcements demonstrate further progress in developing our Hotels and Resorts division into a hotel company within Thomas Cook, working with strong partners and focused around hotel management, franchising, and sales and distribution.

"Next year we will add three more managed hotels taking our total to 24 hotels as we accelerate our ambitions to take on more management contracts for hotels around the Mediterranean."

Courtesy of Travelmole