Fifth largest hotel group in the world with 531,714 rooms as of January 1, 2012 for over 4,400 hotels in the world, Accor is going to lose almost 1,102 hotels and 107,000 rooms once the sale of Motel 6 and Studio 6 is finalised later this year. By removing these two brands from its network, Accor slides back a notch behindChoice Hotels International (taking into account their figures as of 1/1/2012), as per MKG Analysis in hospitality-on.com. According to the analysis, the structure of the American hotel market makes the situation for economy brands more difficult during a period of crisis. During the phases where hotels lower their prices, the important size of the mid and upper-range sector, compared to the lower range sector, makes the latter lose market shares that are hard to get back. Contrary to Europe, the economy sector is the base that plays a role in easing the cycle, said the analysis. Accor remains largely on top of the podium in Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, the analysis said. The scheduled development (40,000 rooms/year) and the pipeline already set-up are focused on both continents: Asia Pacific and Latin America, where the group wants to improve even further its positions. In Europe, even if the rhythm is slowing down, growth needs to be secured by an extra effort from franchising within economy brands. This is the reason why there is such a strong communication campaign for the ibis brand. Now that the group is totally out of debt, and a ‘money-arsenal’ immediately available, Denis Hennequin, Chairman and CEO, Accor hasn’t given up on other external development campaigns, like Mirvac in Australia, to reach the group’s announced objective, which is to be one of the top-three hotel groups in the world. As it is already a shareholder of many hotel groups (Hilton Worldwide, La Quinta, Simply Hotels (formerly known as Mister Bed)), through the acquisition of Motel 6 Studio 6, Blackstone becomes the largest hotel owner in the world with direct control of over 850,000 rooms across the world.
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