Accor has opened its 400th hotel in Australia, the milestone coming a little more than three decades since the France-based hotel company entered the market with the Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour in 1991.
Accor's recent growth in Australia can be linked to October 2017, when Accor acquired the Mantra brand and its portfolio of 127 hotels.
Accor plans a further 11 properties with a combined 1,569 rooms in Australia and New Zealand before the end of 2023, including the Antipodean debut of its 25hours brand.
Overall, Accor has 19 of its 40-plus brands in its Pacific region, which also includes Fiji and French Polynesia.
Its 400th hotel, which opened Sept. 19, is the 122-room Porter House Hotel Sydney, part of the French hotel company’s MGallery Hotel Collection.
The heritage-listed building dates to 1876 and was originally commissioned by Hugh Dixson, who held chairmanships of British-Australasian Tobacco, City Bank of Sydney and Strand Electric Lighting, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Dixson also instigated profit-sharing schemes with employees in the 1880s and was a president of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.
The hotel is within the first 10 floors of the 36-floor building, which also contains 131 residential apartments.
“Sydney is experiencing its fastest growth since March 2020, with recovery in corporate, conference and events business and continued strength in the domestic leisure market. We are seeing similar revivals in other key cities around the Pacific,” Sarah Derry, Accor’s CEO for the Pacific region, said in the release.