Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts (MHR) ended 2015 on a high note, signing 12 new properties and expanding its portfolio by 15 percent.
The Swiss hospitality firm, which currently operates 83 hotels worldwide, accelerated its expansion plans during the course of the year, inking one new hotel management agreement a month and adding 4,088 rooms to its inventory in high-growth markets across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
With another 26 properties under negotiation that will bring an additional 7,272 keys to market, MHR is aiming to cement its status as one a dynamic player in the upscale segment.
“2015 was a very successful year for us with the 12 new hotels signed consolidating our position in several strategic locations that we have earmarked for expansion,” said Jean Gabriel Pérès, CEO of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts.
“It marked the start of an unprecedented period of growth, with our portfolio set to increase by almost 50 percent until 2020, and we look to build on this momentum with exciting projects in key markets, working towards our ultimate goal of 130 properties (open and signed) by 2020.”
The regional breakdown
MHR’s 2015 expansion strategy saw the firm build on its cluster strategy in South-East Asia, where it signed five new properties totalling some 2,000 keys across Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, taking its future total portfolio in the region to 19 properties.
The five new builds include Vietnam’s first-ever integrated destination resort located on Phu Quoc – an island tipped to become the region’s next great holiday hotspot. The 500-key Mövenpick Resort Phu Quoc will open in 2017, as will the 450-key Mövenpick Resort Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam’s popular Nha Trang district. Deals to manage Mövenpick Resort Boracay in the Philippines, Mövenpick Hotel Kota Bharu in Kelantan, Malaysia, and Mövenpick Sukhumvit 15 Bangkok, Thailand, were also inked in 2015.
“We are ramping up our cluster strategy for South-East Asia’s leading markets,” said Andrew Langdon, appointed by Mövenpick to the newly created role of Senior Vice President Asia, charged with driving this development plan forward.
In the Middle East, MHR secured three properties spanning 972 keys. It consolidated its position in Saudi Arabia with high-profile property deals in Riyadh and Jeddah respectively, while in Pakistan, the firm signed an agreement to operate the 361-key Mövenpick Hotel Centaurus Islamabad, which is set to open in 2018.
MHR also penned deals for three properties in Africa, one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for hotel development, adding 1,030 keys to the mix. The new hotels, two of which are located in affluent areas of Nairobi and Abuja in Nigeria and the other, Mövenpick Hotel Mansour Eddahbi Marrakech – the group’s third property in Morocco – will take its Africa portfolio to 26 properties. The hotels in Nairobi and Marrakech are planned to open already in 2016.
In Europe, where MHR is a dominant player, the company added the 260-key Mövenpick Stuttgart Airport II to its rapidly expanding portfolio of upscale hotels.
“By rigorously accelerating our development plans in 2015, strengthening our position in both established and emerging markets, we have created a solid pipeline and laid the foundations for further growth,” said Pérès.
2015 property openings
While MHR was busy inking new property deals in 2015, the company also opened four new hotels in strategic locations across the Middle and South East Asia; one in Saudi Arabia, one in Turkey and two in Thailand.
The hospitality firm opened its first property in the Saudi capital and its 10th in the kingdom, the 438-key Mövenpick Hotel Riyadh; debuted in two new locations in Thailand with the 297-key Mövenpick Hotel Sukhumvit 15 Bangkok and the 262-room Mövenpick Siam Hotel Pattaya, taking its portfolio in the country to five properties strong; and launched its fourth hotel in Turkey, the 136-room Istanbul Golden Horn.
