Booking Hotels Reservations

If it was not enough to announce its new Pullman line Robert Murray, Accor’s assistant president for the Greater China Region said global hotel chain Accor plans to open between 15 and 26 hotels under its economy hotel brand name of Ibis in 2008 and 2009 in China.

By the end of 2008, Ibis will be in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Harbin. The Ibis hotels are expected to serve businessmen in the country’s second-tier and third-tier cities, where costs are relatively lower.

Accor has opened 12 self-run Ibis hotels in China since its entry, compared to many other foreign hotel giants, which mainly manage hotels for local businesses.

There is still room for the growth of the Chinese economy hotel market, said Robert Murray, who disagrees with the widespread belief that it would suffer a hard landing in the near future.
Source: Trading Markets

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The first Sofitel Wanda hotel in the northern Chinese city of Ningbo will be opened at the end of this year. The construction of the hotel’s main body had been finished.

The hotel will be operated by Accor with its luxury hotel brand of Sofitel, in cooperation with Wanda Group, a private real estate company.

It is the fourth round of cooperation between the two companies in the hotel field in China. They have set up three Sofitel Wanda hotels in Beijing, the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, and the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin. Our illustration is of the Sofitel Wanda in Chengdu.

Sofitel was established in 1964, opening its first hotel in Strasbourg, France. In 1974, it expanded to the United States of America, opening a hotel in Minneapolis. In 1997 it became part of the French hotel group Accor. Now it is well established in China.
Source: Trading Markets

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Accor, Europe’s largest hotelier,will open five Pullman hotels in China by 2010, part of plans to grow its three-month-old Pullman brand globally.

The Pullman brand, which was launched last December and targets mainly business travellers, will tap Asia’s fastest growing business travel and conference markets, Accor Asia Pacific Chairman Michael Issenberg said in the statement.

Accor said last May that it expected to double revenue from Asia in three or four years by ramping up a plan to expand across China, aiming to have as many as 160 hotels in operation or under development across the country by 2010, compared with 103 at that time.

The first Pullman hotel in China was opened in Dongguan, a city in southern Guangdong province, while another four will be opened in cities including Beijing and northern Tianjin.

Pullman derives its name from the opulent Pullman railway carriages that redefined overnight railway travel in the United States, and later in Europe in the 1860’s. They were started by George Pullman.

In 1867 Pullman introduced his first hotel on wheels, the President, a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day and the service was impeccable.

A year later in 1868, he launched the Delmonico, the world’s first sleeping car devoted to fine cuisine. The Delmonico menu was prepared by chefs from New York’s famed Delmonico’s Restaurant.

Traditionally, all Pullman head porters were called George in memory of the founder. There is no suggestion that this tradition will be followed in the hotels.
Source: Reuters

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com