The first Sofitel Wanda hotel in the northern Chinese city of Ningbo will be opened at the end of this year. The construction of the hotel’s main body had been finished.

The hotel will be operated by Accor with its luxury hotel brand of Sofitel, in cooperation with Wanda Group, a private real estate company.

It is the fourth round of cooperation between the two companies in the hotel field in China. They have set up three Sofitel Wanda hotels in Beijing, the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, and the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin. Our illustration is of the Sofitel Wanda in Chengdu.

Sofitel was established in 1964, opening its first hotel in Strasbourg, France. In 1974, it expanded to the United States of America, opening a hotel in Minneapolis. In 1997 it became part of the French hotel group Accor. Now it is well established in China.
Source: Trading Markets

The Pullman Sanya Yalong Bay hotel opened on February 3, 2008. It faces the South China Sea. The hotel opened on February 3 and has 77 rooms and 115 villas (all with private swimming pools) and 9 adaptable meeting rooms. The hotel can host more than 800 people on the occasion of congresses or seminars, in particular with its Pacific Grand Ballroom, which can accommodate up to 350 people. Which makes it, beyond doubt, a MICE hotel.

Pullman is a new Novotel brand and the aim is that by 2009, the Pullman chain will offer 59 hotels (15,600 rooms) in 23 countries covering Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America. ooking forward, Pullman plans to build a global network of 300 hotels by 2015, with new hotels being added at the rate of 25 per year.

CEO Gilles Pélisson said, ‘Pullman will be one of fastest-growing brands of the Accor Group, especially in the Asia- Pacific region. The brand will expand rapidly this year, particularly in China. In 2009, we plan to open 18 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region, with the ultimate aim of around 100 Pullman hotels here.’

Novotel sees Pullman as a perfect fit with the Group’s overall portfolio, because its market positioning is complementary to the other non-standard brands of Sofitel, Mercure and All Seasons.
Source: eBlackboard

It is not easy being the PR for the French company hotel Accor. They have enough brands ranging from Ibis at the lower end (think high quality inexpensive) to the outright luxury end which is the Sofitel and that is moving up a fraction — not an easy trick — while Accor is positioning Pullman as an upscale hotel somewhere between the first-class hotel Sofitel and Novotel. The group aims to re-define the concept of business accommodation to make Pullman a dedicated place for living and corporate conferences.

At lunch a Novotel executive asked us — two journalists who have been working since there were wolves in Wales — if we had ever heard of Pullman. Ha!

The term Pullman was used to refer to railroad sleeping cars which were run by the Pullman Company (founded by George Pullman) in the United States. As a result (the PR person did not know this which makes one lament for modern education) every Pullman attendant thereafter was named George in his memory.

Indeed, in the splendid scene in the movie The Sting, where the card game is being manipulated on a Pullman, the organizer was the porter, name George. The real name of the actor has Larry Mann. (All of this is known because the writer used to work with one of the co-producers.)

Pullman did not keep up the insistence on staff nomenclature when the trains came to Europe. They were run by the Pullman Company or were lounge cars operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

Specifically, in Great Britain, Pullman refers to the lounge cars operated by the British Pullman Car Company. Of which the most famous example was the Brighton Belle between London and Brighton. Sir Laurence Olivier traveled on it every day. When they dropped kippers from the breakfast menu he wrote in mighty protest. So British Rail closed the line. British Rail was like that in those days.

Gilles Pelisson, the chief executive officer of Accor, undoubtedly knows all this which is why he is the boss. He said, ‘The idea of Pullman is to fill a position in the five-star sector that is left by moving Sofitel higher in the market. We are raising the Sofitel brand’s standards to what is called upper-upscale in Europe, and Pullman will fit into the five-star sector under Sofitel and ahead of Novotel.’

The phrase upper-upscale is, I think, one we can live without. Probably reads better in the original French.

Next year, Gilles Pellison said the Pullman network would have 45 hotels operating in 23 countries in Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. By 2015, the company will have 250 Pullman hotels around the world.

In the Asia Pacific region, the Pullman brand will expand rapidly this year, with openings throughout Thailand and China. Further extensive development is planned throughout the region over the coming years, with an estimate of about 40 hotels in operation by 2010.

Note these are hotels not trains. A true Pullman train needs a smooth and well maintained track to work properly. In parts of Asia these are in short supply.

One idea to set the brand differently to the other competition is that Pullman will provide every client with a personal manager to take care of any problem around the clock. The company said, ‘Honesty and transparency are our testimony. The hotel wants to offer good value for money, so whatever a client pays, they will get double.’

Thus the concierge won’t be like George in The Sting. That George organized bent poker games.

Times look good for the backpacker hotels. There are a lot of backpackers around.

Times look even better for the economy hotels especially in China. Offering a clean, well maintained room for the night with Internet access means boom times. Look to see the number of economy hotels expand by at least five times, perhaps more, over the next few years.

At the top, the super-luxury hotels where someone else is typically paying the bill all seems to be well. There are spas, shopping arcades, superior restaurants, concierges who seem to use telepathy to guess what you want. All of it comes at a price but there are apparently many willing to pay that price.

It is in the middle echelons that times are hard, where the independents, and to a lesser extent, the chains, face lean times.

Some of the mid-range chains are rebranding to make themselves more attractive.

Holiday Inn, the world’s biggest hotel chain, is spending, as a first stage, US$1 billion in rebranding.

Accor, the French hotel giant, is going to push Sofitel from being merely an upmarket chain to a luxury brand.

The writer had an amazing lunch in the Sofitel Wentworth last week — someone else was paying — where the food, the wine and the service were worthy of a good restaurant in Paris. Except no Parisian restaurant has, I promise you, a female Irish Japanese sommelier.

There is a problem. If a mid-level hotel spends enough money to push it up at least one, preferably two levels, you are talking very serious money. Most independents in China at this level cannot afford it. They will have to either repackage as a budget hotel or suffer.
Source: Times on Line

Sofitel Riverside Qingyuan is claimed to be the first internationally-branded 5-star hotel in Qingyuan, in the Pearl River Delta.

A hour’s drive north of Guangzhou, Qingyuan is the fastest-growing city in Guangdong Province. It has broken records for GDP growth (up 23.3% in 2006), foreign trade, foreign investment, fixed-asset investment, and productivity growth.

By the end of 2006, 221 projects with a total investment of RMB50 billion were underway in Qingyuan and there are more than 1,000 foreign enterprises, processing and assembling enterprises operating within the urban district. The region is also a popular tourist area.

The Sofitel Riverside Qingyuan has 368 guest rooms and suites, with half overlooking the Beijang River. This is definitely a MICE hotel with extensive meeting facilities and over 1,800 sq meters of function space, including a Grand Ballroom and three smaller meeting rooms.

The new name is Pullman. Accor is positioning Pullman as an upscale hotel somewhere between the first-class hotel Sofitel and Novotel. Think of Pullman as being designed for the upmarket business traveler and you have it about right.

Gilles Pelisson, CEO of Accor and seen here, said ‘The idea of Pullman is to fill a position in the five-star sector that is left by moving Sofitel higher in the market. We are raising the Sofitel brand’s standards to what is called upper-upscale in Europe, and Pullman will fit into the five-star sector under Sofitel and ahead of Novotel.’

In China the Pullman brand will expand rapidly this year and there should be about 40 hotels in operation in the Asian region by 2010.

Pullman tries to differentiate itself from rivals with technology like broadband access and a television set with built-in information systems. Which, in truth, does not seem that unique. But the customer also gets a personal manager to take care of any problem right around the clock.
Source: Hotel and Motel Management

Accor said it has agreed to develop 62 new hotels in China, which, in addition to existing expansion plans, will bring its total network in the country to 180 by 2010 from 50 currently.

As part of this extra expansion, Accor will open three more hotels in Beijing before the 2008 Olympics, bringing the number of its hotels in the city to seven.

So who is Accor? You could put up an argument that it is the most varied, and possibly the largest, hotel grouping in the world. It was started in 1967 and has, moving from the top to the bottom of the de luxe scale, Sofitel, Novotel, the Mercure Network including Dorint, Libertel, Orbis Hotels, Parthenon Apartments and All Seasons, Ibis, Etap, Formule 1 and many other, lower profile chains located in the USA and in Canada including Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns.

All Seasons hotels are mainly in Australia, Dorint and Orbis in Central Europe, and Parthenon Apartments in Brazil. Accor also runs cooking schools, travel companies and casinos. If you travel and stay in hotels a lot you will undoubtedly at some point stay at an Accor establishment. They are ubiquitous.

Accor stressed its development in China will cover all segments of the market. It is easy for it to make that promise because it runs hotels in every segment of the market. At the top end there will be more 5 star Sofitel hotels.

In the economy segment, Accor said a further 50 Ibis hotels are either under construction or in advanced stages of planning.

The company said 2007 will be a record year for Accor hotel openings in China with over 20 hotels already launched. And in May that it will develop 40 Ibis hotels in China as part of an expansion program for the chain in Asia.

In June, the China Daily cited Accor China vice president Robert Murray as saying the group planned to open 80 hotels in China over the next two years.
Source: Forbes

The reason I am a failure in life is because I do not play golf. It has not been for lack of chances. Indeed, my house is very close to a golf course. But, sadly, my personality does not allow me to spend time walking around artificial hillocks hitting small white balls towards holes in the ground. However, for those who do play the game it is a major business asset. More deals are done on golf courses than, perhaps, are ever done in board rooms.

Sofitel, the upmarket hotel group which is part of the French based Accor, understands this and has signed a landmark agreement with the Asian Tour to become an Official Corporate Partner and the first Official Hotel Brand for the Tour.

The Asian Tour will have 27 events offering $27 million in total prize money. They will run through until December.

Sofitel will receive exposure by way of the Asian Tour’s commercial media platforms which includes the official website, www.asiantour.com, Asian Tour Weekly magazine show which is beamed on ESPN StarSports, and on-course branding opportunities. It has the added advantage that, unlike with other sports, the participants are not given to wrecking hotel rooms or upsetting guests.

Ray Stone, Accor Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, Asia Pacific said: ‘We are delighted to forge this important new alliance with the Asian Tour. Sofitel and golf are a natural combination in Asia, especially in countries like Thailand, Vietnam and China where the brand enjoys a leadership position in the market.’

Sofitel is already heavily involved with golf in Europe, where the brand is a major partner of the Evian Masters in France. In addition, Sofitel Thalassa Miramar in Biarritz is a long-term sponsor of France’s oldest and most important amateur competition, the Biarritz Cup, first played in 1898. In 2006 it was renamed the Sofitel Biarritz Cup.

Sofitel also operates some hotels which are also golf clubs. In China these are the Sofitel Boa & BFA International Convention Centre Golf Club on Hainan Island, the 27-hole Gary Player designed golf course at Sofitel Zhongshan Golf and Resort Nanjing and Hill View Golf Club next to Sofitel Royal Lagoon.
Source: Bunker Shot

China’s rapid expansion as an economic powerhouse, coupled with a growing and affluent workforce, is driving a new wave of investment into the Chinese hotels and leisure sector.

The figures are remarkable:

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHT) is well on track to open 125 outlets in China by the end of 2008.
Hilton Hotels has teamed with Rreef, the property arm of Deutsche Bank and private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific, to develop 25 hotels at a cost of £272 million.
French hotels group Accor plans to open 80 hotels in the country over the next two years.
Starwood, the operator of the Sheraton and Westin chains is looking to open at least 12 new hotels in Shanghai alone this year.

IHG’s chief executive Andrew Cosslett said, ‘China has unmatched market potential. IHG has the largest pipeline of hotels in the industry and we are on track to meet our objective of between 50,000 and 60,000 new net room additions by the end of 2008. This is equivalent to opening one new hotel a day.’

Apart from the flagship InterContinental Hotel brand, the group also operates the Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotel chains.

China is currently IHG’s third largest market with 22,665 rooms and 67 hotels. Its current pipeline envisages an additional 84 hotels and an extra 29,771 rooms.

So all those rooms have to be filled. IHG, like other hotel groups, is banking on a sharp increase in overseas visitors to China and more internal travel as the country opens up.

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the number of inbound tourists is expected to climb from 50 million in 2006 to between 150-180 million by 2020. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China the number of domestic trips is expected to reach three billion by 2020.

China’s internet penetration is now second only to the US, with 137 million users — 10% of all hotel rooms are booked through the internet — while China will spend $17.2 billion on improving its airport infrastructure network between 2006 and 2010.

Road spending is also soaring with the number of highway kilometers set to double to 85,000 by 2020.
Source: Birmingham Post

China Central Place in Beijing’s Central Business District, providing more than 230,000 square meters of office space, 160,000 square meters of retail shopping space and eight residential areas. Plus three soon-to-be operational luxury hotels.

Sofitel Wanda is expected to open this summer, followed by Ritz-Carlton Beijing and JW Marriott Hotel Beijing, both part of the same group, are scheduled to open in the fourth quarter.

The 590-room Marriott is the brand’s third in China, along with Shanghai and Chongqing. The 305-room Ritz-Carlton is the country’s fourth — adding to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing’s Financial Street.

Because of the hotels’ close proximity, the Marriot and Ritz-Carlton will be jointly operated under the same sales, marketing and finance groups — a first for Marriot.

Robert J. Lohrmann will be the managing director of The Ritz-Carlton Beijing and JW Marriott Hotel Beijing, overseeing two general managers. The illustration is from The Portman Ritz Carlton but it neatly gives you the idea of the standard of luxury to expect.
Source: People’s Daily Online