Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #40

ELITE TRAVEL TRENDS
THE ACCORHOTELS
LUXURY PIPELINE:
+ 32% BY 2021
Luxury Hotels CEO gives bullish outlook
and outlines new acquisitions
Chris Cahill
CEO Luxury Hotels, AccorHotels
ONE OF THE
THINGS ABOUT
RESTORING GRAND,
ICONIC HOTELS, IS THAT
WHEN YOU START TO
PAIR BACK THE WALLS,
YOU ARE NEVER QUITE
SURE WHAT YOU ARE
GOING TO FIND
At the annual AccorHotels
Virtuoso breakfast in Las Vegas,
Luxury Hotels CEO Chris Cahill
gave an overview of new luxury
hotels in the pipeline, explaining
that between 2018 and 2021,
32% growth is expected, from a
current 507 properties, up to 671.
“We recently opened the Raffles in
Warsaw. It has had tremendous press,
and tremendous coverage. It was an
exciting opening for us. The Singapore
property has been under a restoration
programme over the past twelve
to eighteen months, and will open
probably in the first quarter of next
year. One of the things about restoring
grand, iconic hotels, is that when you
start to pair back the walls, you are
never quite sure what you are going to
find, so there has been a bit of a delay.
Raffles in London – the old war office –
will open probably in ‘21.”
One of the most exciting announcements
by Cahill was the fact that the group
is “quite aggressively” working on five
projects with the aim of launching the
Orient Express brand in their portfolio,
after the announcement in October
2017 of a strategic partnership with
the SNCF for the development of
the brand. “As of this date, we can’t
announce an opening date”, said
Cahill. AccorHotels announced late
last year that it intends to build on this
partnership to strengthen its leadership
in the luxury segment, by developing
a new collection of prestigious hotels
under the Orient Express banner.
On the acquisition of European-based
Mövenpick hotels this year, Cahill said,
“We are the largest operator of hotels
in Asia-Pacific outside of China. We are
the largest operator in Europe, and in
South America. In the Middle East and
Africa, we were number two. So, in
terms of building platform, which drives
all kinds of not only efficiencies, but
effectiveness in terms of growing your
portfolio of brands, the acquisition of
Mövenpick moves us into the number
one position in MEA. The second thing
it did for us, is that in our array of brands
from eco to luxury, this was a brand
that sat on top of Novotel in the midscale
category, and it sits in the upscale
category below our upper-upscale
portfolio. That just happens to be one
of the fastest growing segments from a
development standpoint globally.”
Cahill also explained that due diligence
had been progressing on the SBE group,
with lifestyle brands such as Mondrion,
Delano and SBS brands