AccorHotels hits opening record last year

The group said 2015 was a record year for AccorHotels, which operates more than 3,900 hotels and 510,000 rooms in 92 countries. Last year, it opened 229 new hotels or a total of 36,172 rooms, at a rate of two hotels every three days.

At this year’s “International Hotel Investment Forum”, Gaurav Bhushan, global chief development officer for AccorHotels, said 2015 “was a historic year for AccorHotels’ expansion”. 

“We crossed the symbolic milestone of half a million rooms with a 20-per-cent increase in the number of openings last year. We have a record [number in the] pipeline of 160,000 rooms, and our objective is to maintain profitable expansion, strengthen our presence in the countries where we are leaders and rapidly acquire market share in emerging markets.” 

The accelerated expansion drive focused on the Asia-Pacific region, where 39 per cent of new rooms opened (14,000), and Europe with 37 per cent (13,500 new rooms). 

Last year also featured openings in key markets, such as Pullman’s The Park Lane Hong Kong (834 rooms), the Pullman Roissy CDG Airport in France (305 rooms) and the Novotel Muenchen City Arnulfpark in Munich, Germany (204 rooms). 

There were also landmark deals such as the signing of 50 hotels in Angola, strategic partnerships with Alesayi Group (1,650 rooms) and Al Rajhi Investment Group (2,500 rooms) in Saudi Arabia, and the opening of the Pullman Cayo Coco (518 rooms) in Cuba and of the Novotel and ibis Ikia (492 rooms) in Tehran.

 

Franchise, management deals 

Some 92 per cent of expansion was through franchise and management contracts, reflecting the strength of the brand portfolio and the group’s appeal among hotel investors, the company said.

Though the company considers the breakdown by segment generally well balanced, Mercure posted the strongest growth last year with 59 new hotels, followed by ibis, which added 44 new establishments to its network, and then by Pullman with 17 new addresses.

At the end of last year, the group had 160,000 new rooms in the pipeline, close to half in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the group’s real engine of organic growth. 

After opening 23,000 rooms in 2013, 30,000 in 2014 and 36,000 in 2015, and with more than 54,000 rooms already signed for over the past few months, the expansion is set to continue at a robust pace in the coming period, it said.

The group says it has also taken action to bolster its expertise in the luxury sector with an agreement with the Qatar Investment Authority, Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia and Oxford Properties for the acquisition of FRHI, which holds 155 prestigious establishments under the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel brands, by mid-2016.

At the beginning of this year, AccorHotels also sealed a strategic alliance with China’s Huazhu Group, which will accelerate the expansion of its brands in China with the opening of 350 to 400 hotels over the next five years.

This year, at least two hotels are scheduled to open their doors in Thailand, SO Sofitel Hua Hin and Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20.