The Mercure and ibis Styles brands are driving new UK openings for AccorHotels in 2018, with AccorHotels crediting the popularity of these brands to an appetite for flexibility and local feel amongst hotel owners and franchisees.
Six out of seven AccorHotels UK & Ireland hotel openings in 2018 to date were either an ibis Styles or a Mercure, with two further Mercure hotels signed in the first half of the year. Hotels already opened by AccorHotels in 2018 are ibis Styles London Gloucester Road, Novotel London Heathrow Airport T1*, T2 and T3, ibis Styles Glasgow Centre West, Mercure Honiley Court, Mercure Birmingham North Barons Court, ibis Styles Oldbury and ibis Styles Ealing.
Ibis Styles Ealing is just five minutes’ walk from Ealing Green, popular for local bars and restaurants and only 15 minutes from London’s Heathrow airport. Embracing the hallmarks of creativity and good humour of ibis Styles hotels, the property has cinematic-themed rooms.
The hotel group has also signed six new hotels in 2018 to date: MGallery York, Mercure Newbury West Grange, Mercure Leeds, ibis Budget Manchester Airport and two Adagio properties in Glasgow and Brentford respectively.
AccorHotels says it is positive about the outlook for the growth of its UK network too, particularly given the increased range of brands in its portfolio, following recent acquisitions and brand innovations. This includes the strategic partnership that saw AccorHotels take a 50% stake in Mantis Hotels earlier this year. Following that announcement the world-renowned Devonshire Club was added to the Mantis collection of hotels in the UK joining the Lord Milner and The Draycott Hotel both of which are also in London and the Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands.
Phillip Lassman, Vice President of Development, AccorHotels UK & Ireland explained: “We’re seeing a lot of appetite from investors, owners and franchisees for brands that are internationally recognised but still offer an element of flexibility and local feel. The ibis Styles and Mercure brands are particularly ideal for this, but we try to take a more flexible and tailored approach to design across our brand portfolio, with our more established brands also providing innovative options to owners who want flexibility alongside globally recognised standards.
“We feel it’s important to challenge traditional practices and be flexible about tailoring a brand or a concept to fit a particular hotel and its geography. This is important to enable owners to generate more revenue per square metre.”
The 12 hotels in total, opened and signed, represent a mixture of new build properties, building conversion and brand conversions, another indicator of the flexibility of the brands in the portfolio.
Thomas Dubaere, Chief Operating Officer AccorHotels Northern Europe, said, “Our comprehensive portfolio from luxury to economy, and from lifestyle to aparthotels, offers prospective owners an unrivalled brand and format choice which has created a lot of development opportunities for us in the UK. We’re confident that our varied and distinct brands will help us to drive continued growth for AccorHotels and deliver continued success to our partners. Over the past few years we have opened ten new hotels a year, and we are confident we can accelerate this growth rate.”