Meteoric Growth & More Brands

Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer, India and South Asia, AccorHotels, talks about his India plans for the group and how important the Indian market is for them.

What are the group’s expansion plans for this year?

We will continue our strong growth momentum in 2018 as we expand our network of hotels in the country across a portfolio ranging from international luxury and upscale to midscale and economy brands. Globally and as a leading operator, AccorHotels now has 4200 hotels, resorts, and residences across 95 countries, with India as one of our significant growth markets.

In 2017, AccorHotels added seven hotels to its network and this year, we plan to add at least another four, having already opened our first hotel in 2018 – ibis Pune Hinjewadi. Chennai remains a key market for us with five existing hotels and 982 rooms, making us one of the largest hotel operators in the city. We are also the largest operators in key markets like Hyderabad and Goa. This year is going to be an exciting year for us and we look forward to accelerated growth opportunities for our luxury, upper upscale, and upscale family of hotels in India.

Will AccorHotels emphasise more on mid-segment hotels?

At AccorHotels, we believe that we have something to offer to every segment of traveller, given our expansive portfolio and dense network of hotels. In India, we have witnessed a major shift in the focus of our industry for the past decade. Today, mid-segment hotels form a larger percentage of the total room inventory, also accounting for nearly 50 percent of all the hotel rooms in the country. A significant portion of our expansion is driven by our midscale brand Novotel and smart economy brand ibis. Currently, we have 17 Novotel and 18 ibis branded hotels in the country with an active and robust pipeline across major cities.