Accor Unveils New Property Openings in 2021
Despite the past year’s “unprecedented challenges,” the hotel group is focused on its luxury and lifestyle portfolios
French hospitality group Accor has unveiled an ambitious schedule of new hotel openings throughout this year. Despite 2020’s “unprecedented challenges,” the company says it has “maintained a steady pace of development and continued to sign new projects” into the year ahead.
The hotel group is focusing on growing its portfolio in the lifestyle segment, which it says currently represents roughly five percent of the group’s annual revenue and 25 percent of the company’s development pipeline by value. Accor says it expects the number of lifestyle hotel openings to triple by 2023.
Indeed, the group recently announced that it would partner with UK-based developer Ennismore to create a new global lifestyle hotel company, encompassing 12 brands.
The group also has highlighted openings in its luxury segment, including the Banyan Tree Doha in Qatar, Raffles hotels in Udaipur and Jeddah, and a number of properties under the Fairmont flag.
These include Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, Fairmont Windsor Park in England, Carton House, a Fairmont managed hotel in Dublin, Fairmont Ramla Riyadh, Fairmont Ambassador Seoul, and Fairmont Tagazhout Bay in Morocco. The Sofitel brand will also be brought to Seoul, Hangzhou and Adelaide.
Most recently, Accor is expanding its luxury lifestyle portfolio, signing a global partnership with Faena Group to develop the Faena brand in select global destinations, beginning with Dubai.
Faena’s portfolio currently includes hotels in Miami Beach and Buenos Aires, along with residences, art and cultural spaces.
Conversion opportunities “will continue to be a growth driver in 2021 and beyond,” according to Accor. Brands The House of Originals, MGallery, Movenpick, Grand Mercure, Mercure, Ibis Styles and Greet will make up 43 percent of Accor’s opening pipeline over the next five years.
Following the December opening of the first Accor property in Bolivia, the group will continue to make inroads into the Americas in 2021. In addition to the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, other Accor openings scheduled for this year include the Novotel Mexico City Toreo, two SLS properties in Cancun, the SLS Puerto Madero, Argentina, Novotel Santa Cruz, Bolivia and JO&JOE Largo do Boticário the brand’s first property outside Europe.
“As we are all too familiar, 2020 had a profound impact on our day-to-day lives and the hospitality industry as a whole; even so, the early stages of a global rebound will be material and significant,” commented Agnes Roquefort, Accor’s global chief development officer.
“Despite the delays and temporary closures we experienced due to the pandemic, we continued to experience sustained momentum across our development pipeline and are optimistic that the worldwide rollout of Covid-19 vaccines will lead to renewed trust in travel and a much greater sense of personal safety for the entire global population.”
