The Paris-based hotel group Accor,
looking to enter the top-tier luxury hotel market, is retooling its
top-of-line brand, Sofitel, and hoping to attract more incentive
business.
Over the next three years, 120 Sofitel
hotels will be upgraded from upscale to luxury. Accor plans to make
the transition by improving food and beverage offerings, developing
unique spas and investing in staff training.
Seven of the upgraded properties -- the
Grand in Amsterdam, Netherlands; the Old Cata-ract in Aswan, Egypt;
the Santa Clara in Cartagena, Colombia; the Palais Jamai in Fez,
Morocco; the Metropole in Hanoi, Vietnam; the Hua Hin resort in
Thailand; and the Winter Palace in Luxor, Egypt -- will fall under
the new Sofitel Legends banner, offering top-tier services such as
personal butlers.
Launching in 2009 will be a
boutique-style brand called So by Sofitel, the first of which will
open in Paris and Berlin. The company plans to open up to 20 hotels
in this brand category.
According to Ann Shutte, Accor vice
president, global sales, North America, “For Sofitel, incentives
have been an untapped source of business, but with the emergence of
the new brands, we believe we will have exactly the right product
in the right places.”