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Accor sets 400 luxury mark

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Accor’s newest hotel in Dubai is the Pullman Deira City Centre

FRANCE’ S Accor hotel group plans to expand its current network of 300 upscale hotels to 400 by 2015 under its four luxury brands – Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery and Grand Mercure.

Its latest hotel launch was the Pullman Deira City Centre hotel in Dubai, UAE, following a massive overhaul of the hotel by owner Majid Al Futtaim Properties.

Speaking to TTN, Yann Caillère, president and chief operating officer for Accor Hospitality, said: “When a company is expanding so rapidly with big numbers in terms of development, it is a sign of good performance. Otherwise owners would not continue to show faith in our brands.

“In Dubai, on the economy and mid-market segment, business has remained strong across all our brands. Our luxury brand Sofitel has a strong presence in the market now and we plan to further boost our presence with the Sofitel Dubai Palm Jumeirah Resort & Spa offering 543 rooms on the Palm Jumeirah. For us the region and the UAE in particular is not a new destination. We understand how it works, having had a presence here for so many years,” said Caillère.

Speaking about performance across the various Accor brands, Caillère says that the economy segment is more resilient than the upscale segment because it caters largely to the domestic markets. This however has not stopped or slowed down Accor’s development plans for their upscale brand Sofitel.

“The Arab Spring never had an impact on our plans for the region. We opened during this period two Sofitel properties in Morocco and Bahrain. Our partners are here for the long-term and we understand that the market will recover. We need to be ready for the market at that time,” he added.

Today the Accor brand caters to every market segment. “We have a hotel brand that caters to every category – be it the price approach or guest behaviour approach. All our hotels in the budget or mid-scale segment offer the same standards, packaged differently. In the upscale segment, however there is no standardisation. Every Pullman hotel is unique. Likewise with the Sofitel hotels.

“What remains constant is the level of service and attitude of our staff because the guest is an Accor guest at the end of the day,” added Caillère.

Caillère is keen to expand their portfolio in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman. “We also see a high growth potential in Saudi Arabia, as we gear up to open our first ibis hotel there.”

Currently there is a lot of focus on expanding the Pullman brand in the Middle East region, with a portfolio of 15 properties in key Middle East market in the pipeline. This includes the Pullman Dubai Jumeirah Lakes Towers scheduled to open by the end of 2013. The Pullman Zamzam Makkah and the Jeddah Al Hamra Hotel managed by Pullman in Saudi Arabia and the Pullman Doha West Bay scheduled to open in 2015.

“The sky is the limit with the Pullman brand. We want to reach a target of 150 Pullman hotels globally by 2016. Besides the Middle East region we will also develop the brand in South-east Asian markets as well as Europe, with plans to take the brand to Latin America in the future,” he added.

Accor will also introduce its newest hotel brand, Adagio City Aparthotel, with the launch of the first Adagio hotel in Abu Dhabi in late 2013 followed by the Adagio Fujairah Town Centre and Adagio Al Barsha in Dubai.

Novotel is also on a rapid expansion plan with three new hotels in the UAE – Novotel Dubai Al Barsha, Novotel Abu Dhabi Al Bustan, Novotel Fujairah Town Centre and the Suite Novotel Riyadh Olaya in Saudi Arabia.

 “Guests today are looking for efficiency, design, well-being and technologically ahead of the game. This is a constant value we are looking for all our hotels,” he concluded.

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