Accor Group eyes second property in A'bad

With the launch of its first property in Gujarat, Hotel Formule 1, Accor, a European hotel operator, is mulling to have another property in the city soon. Without giving out further details, a senior official said that the upcoming hotel could be any one of the seven to eight major brands that the group owns.

The group owns brands like Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, ibis, and Formule 1, which range from budget to luxury hotels.

Accor has 19 hotels with 3780 rooms and two convention centers in India. Formule 1 is its low-cost brand. After opening a Formule1 in Greater Noida recently, the Ahmedabad property is the Group's second Formule 1 in India. It is all set to launch a third in Pune next month and plans to have 15 Formule 1 hotels in India over the next few years.

"The Group is looking at three or four more locations within Gujarat to set up the Accor range of hotels. We will be soon having another property in Ahmedabad. It would be an Accor brand", informed Philip Logan, vice president Formule1 Hotels, India. He, however, did not wish to give out further details. "We decided to enter Gujarat with a low-cost brand as this is a cost-sensitive market", Logan added.

The 132-room Formule 1 hotel in Ahmedabad is a bed-and-breakfast offering with two cafes operating within the premises that are run by independent operators. "We have carefully chosen a location that has many restaurants operating in the vicinity, and also the city's central business district (CBD) is moving to this part of the city. Right now, it is the best alternate location apart from the CBD which brings down our cost of property and we can offer competitive tariff", Logan explained.

The average stay at Formule 1 hotels globally is 1.1 nights, while at Formule 1 Greater Noida, the average is slightly up a 2 nights. "We decided to enter Gujarat with a low-cost brand as this is a cost-sensitive market", Logan added.

Accor is present in 92 countries with nearly 3,500 hotels and 440,000 rooms. With more than 160,000 employees in Accor brand hotels worldwide, the Group's revenues as on June 30, 2012 was 2.7 billion euros ( roughly Rs 19377 crore).