Bangkok-based Hotel Company Puts Profile on NYC Skyline

While it has built an inventory of some 525 owned or managed hotels in 53 countries around the world, the Bangkok-based Minor Hotels never put its brand in the U.S. That’s going to change early next year with the opening of the NH Collection New York Madison Avenue.

Two years ago, NH Hotel Group acquired the Jolly Madison Hotel, closed it and undertook a sweeping renovation to cost “millions and millions”, according to one source. To debut as an “upper four-star premium hotel”, the property will offer 288 rooms and suites, a 24-hour fitness center, 24-hour room service, a function room accommodating up to 30 attendees, and F&B facilities yet to be announced. All rooms are at least 255 square feet and come with free wif-fi and cable TV.

Originally built in the 1920s Renaissance Revival style, the 16-story hotel was designed by renowned architects E. Murgatroyd & P. Ogden. It was called the Fraternity Clubs and evolved in time into the Jolly Madison, a three-star property. However, its location in the Murray Hill neighborhood at 38th Street and Madison Avenue thrust it into in the heart of New York City’s then-thriving advertising industry.

The NH Hotel Group has come about as a result of Minor Hotels International (MINT) acquiring, by way of a tender offer in April last year, 47.8% of outstanding shares of NH Hotel Group. Together with shares already held by Minor, it secured a 94.1% stake in NH Hotel Group representing a total investment of $2.6 billion. The company said that “acquisition of NH Hotel Group is transformative for MINT,” giving it a combined platform of 525 hotels across Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the U.S.

To run these components Minor has regional offices in Brisbane, Australia, Bangkok (separate from the corporate headquarters), Dubai, UAE, and Johannesburg, South Africa. With the acquisition of NH last year, Minor maintained the head office for that brand in Madrid. NH Madrid will now also act as the regional office for its brands which include Tivoli, Avani and Anantara.

Last year Minor also took a 10% share worth $3.2 million of the Global Hotel Alliance.  GHA has a loyalty program called Discovery with 13 million members that GHA says produced $1.7 billion in room revenues last year.

While all other Minor brands have their footprints in multiple continents, the nhow brand is currently focused entirely in western Europe but it’s on a high-speed expansion program. Currently there are NH properties in Milan, Berlin, Rotterdam and Marseille. But joining them this year will be new openings in London and Amsterdam followed in 2020 with openings in Santiago de Chile, Brussels and Rome. In 2021 there will be new NH hotels in Frankfurt and Lima.

Guests at the new NYC hotel will be able to take advantage of NH Rewards, which has nine million members globally. Through its four categories (Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum), the  program acknowledges and rewards habitual customers in each stay with benefits that range from obtaining points –equivalent to euros — that can be redeemed for free nights or extra service at the hotel with no date restrictions; flexibility to pay using points and cash; special price conditions; exclusive privileges when booking on the website; as well as a range of differential service that enrich the experience in the hotels of all the NH Hotel Group brands.

The program was created in 2004 and in the last five years alone its members have redeemed more than 15 million points on more than 500,000 stays at more than 350 NH Hotel Group hotels in 30 countries.