SAN DIEGO, California—The Accor North America team had a significant milestone to celebrate last week at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit. With its 1,000th Motel 6 opening in Biloxi, Mississippi, Olivier Poirot discussed the brand’s progress as well as the company’s position in the region.
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| Olivier Poirot |
Poirot, CEO of Accor North America and Motel 6, said during an interview at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront that the company had prepared for the 2008 recession by cutting operating costs beforehand. “We are keeping a focus on what makes the brand stronger,” he said.
First, that meant keeping true to the price-value promise. According to Poirot, Motel 6 has the lowest rate of a national chain in its segment.
“We will continue to invest in properties,” he said. “But in ’09, we will reduce (capital expenditure) a bit.”
To this point, Accor released a new prototype in March 2008 for Motel 6—the first in 12 years for the brand—called the Phoenix. The new look focuses on modern design with bright accent colors. A new logo also was released at ALIS.
The company renovated 24 properties last year and expects to renovate about 60 percent of the Motel 6 network over four years, according to Poirot.
“We are trying to be better at consistency,” he said. “And we wanted to be certain that when it launched it would be cheap to build and it
Accor owns 70 percent of the Motel 6/Studio 6 portfolio, with the remainder franchised.
Franchising is a focus for growth—50 properties were signed in 2008.
“We had to be less shy about letting franchisees into our territories,” Poirot said. “In California, we were hesitant to let franchisees in, but it’s a calculated risk for bigger markets.”
Another objective was to promote increased revenue—which the brand has increased 30 percent year over year in the business travel portion of its business.
“We were historically shy about raising revenue,” Poirot said.
Sofitel and such
Accor currently has 10 Sofitel properties open in North America.
Poirot said the company just signed a deal for a Sofitel in Toronto.
The Canadian market presents much opportunity for Motel 6 (15 hotels open) and Novotel (seven hotels open) as well, he said.
“We’re focusing on a few segments,” Poirot said. “These still have years of development ahead of them.”
Realstar Hospitality has the master franchise agreement for Motel 6 in Canada.
Down South, there are currently six Ibis and two Novotel properties open in Mexico with the possibility of Motel 6 being launched there too. There also are 15 Ibis projects in preplanning, according to Poirot.
He also suggested that Accor’s newest upscale brand—Pullman—could work in the U.S. “If we do it, we would want five to 10 properties at one go.”
Currently Pullman is being pushed in Asia and is primarily being used for ex-Sofitel product, Poirot said.