LOS ANGELES — While there are certainly challenges to new hotel development, Accor's Agnès Roquefort said owners have enough confidence in hotel performance to keep investing.
In a video interview with HNN at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Roquefort, chief development officer luxury and lifestyle at Accor, said the fact that topline revenue and revenue per available room continue to grow, combined with the overall pace of the industry's recovery from the pandemic, particularly in 2022, give investors reason to believe in hospitality.
"I think they will continue to develop and to sign new projects," she said.
Accor has projects in the works around the world, but there are several countries and regions with strong performance that are more resilient considering current conditions, Roquefort said. The Middle East and Southeast Asia were particularly strong regions for the company in 2022.
The company has several projects in the works in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia in particular, and most are luxury and lifestyle brands, she said. Egypt is also a dynamic country with strong performance thanks to leisure and business demand.
“There is a kind of redevelopment of Egypt with a lot of conversion and renovation of existing historical buildings,” she said.
Southeast Asia is a different story, Roquefort said. Even in early 2022, the region was dealing with COVID-19 restrictions, but as countries started opening up, the region has started to catch up. Accor saw strong development activity there in 2022, and the expectation is that trend will continue in 2023.
There’s hope Greater China will follow the trend as well, she said. The country is more open now in regard to COVID-19 restrictions, a promising sign it will follow the same dynamics as Southeast Asia.
Looking at development globally, Accor can count on certain markets to overcome issues like inflation, labor shortages and the rising cost of debt, Roquefort said. One positive development is that top line is back to 2019 records, and that has given investors and partners confidence to invest again.
Accor has an extensive list of development partners, and every year 60% of its projects are through existing partners, Roquefort said. The remaining 40% comes from new partners who support the company’s growth.
“This is particularly true on the luxury and lifestyle segment, where new partners, new investors interested by the innovation from Accor, are coming to us to develop lifestyle and luxury brands,” she said. “We have nearly 30 to 40 years of history with some of our partners that are very loyal to us, and so we continue to count on them. Economy, midscale and premium is very much driven by our existing database of partners and investors.”