Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #40

ELITE TRAVEL TRENDS
MANY OF THE
WORLD’S LEADERS
HAVE STAYED AT
THE METROPOLE
William J. Haandrikman
General Manager, Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi
Area Manager, AccorHotels North Vietnam
NEW BRANCHES
GROWING ON
OLD ROOTS
AccorHotels promotes Sofitel Legend
Metropole in Hanoi, but announces new
properties in North Vietnam
27 years with the AccorHotels group,
William J. Haandrikman has worked
in ten countries in three continents,
from sales and marketing to
GM positions at Sofitels in The
Hague, Paris, Vienna, Shanghai
and Bangkok, before taking over
as area general manager – North
Vietnam – at the helm of the Sofitel
Metropole Hanoi. He speaks about
its exceptional history.
The property was built in 1901 by two
Frenchmen who had seen the Raffles
in Singapore, and said “Whatever the
English can do, we can do better in
Hanoi – the Paris of the East”. Thus,
the Metropole came to be (indeed there
is humor in this). During the conflict
periods, antiwar activists like Joan Baez
and prominent journalists lyke Sy Hersh
stayed at the Metropole. In 1988, Accor
took over the management contract. First
it was a Pullman, and then within 4 years
it was brought into the Sofitel chain. In
2007, when the decision was made to
create the Legend brand, it became the
first Sofitel Legend in the world.
What other notable guests have
stayed at the property?
We have a list of several hundred, starting
with Charlie Chaplin, who honeymooned
at the hotel in the 1930’s. Many of
the world’s leaders have stayed at the
Metropole. In the past 20 months, Prince
William stayed, as did the Queen of
Holland, coincidentally on the day I took
over as GM.
What are the trends in visitors to
Hanoi?
Overall it is positive for us. Some markets
that had been a bit flat have been on
the rise this year while just a few are
slightly down. The US is up, France is up
a little bit, Australia is down after a slight
recovery due to currency fluctuation.
The Americans still make up our biggest
clientele with a lot of multi-generation
travel by South and Central Americans as
well as honeymooners. We are also seeing
an increase in Vietnamese travellers from
the south and centre wanting to visit
the city, not forgetting Taiwan and more
recently Korea as strong source markets.
What’s in the pipeline?
We are opening an M Gallery Hotel in
Sapa, in Northern Vietnam, a mountain
retreat of the French in the past – where
you can find the highest mountain in
Indochina. The hotel is the brainchild
of Bill Bensley. We are opening another
Bensley-designed M Gallery property in
Yen Tu – a more “zen” retreat. There will
be other M Gallery properties opening, as
well new Sofitels, a new Novotel in Hanoi.
In Northern Vietnam, we hadn’t opened
many new hotels in past years, but now
we see the change and the Vietnamese
owners see a stronger interest in investing
with AccorHotels, as we can really drive
business for them