AccorHotels opens 2 hotels every 3 days

2015 was a record year for AccorHotels, the world's leading hotel operator with over 3,900 hotels and 510,000 rooms in 92 countries. Last year, the Group opened 229 new hotels or a total of 36,172 rooms, at a rate of two hotels every three days.

At the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) 2016, Global Chief Development Officer for AccorHotels, Gaurav Bhushan, comments, "2015 was a historic year for AccorHotels' expansion. We crossed the symbolic milestone of half a million rooms with a 20% increase in the number of openings last year! We have a record pipeline of 160,000 rooms, and our objective is to maintain profitable expansion, strengthen our presence in the countries where we are leaders and rapidly acquire market share in emerging markets."

Geographically speaking, the accelerated expansion drive focused on Asia Pacific with 39% of rooms opened (14,000 new rooms) and Europe with 37% (13,500 new rooms). The year also featured remarkable openings in key markets like the Pullman The Park Lane Hong Kong (834 rooms), the Pullman Roissy CDG (305 rooms) or the Novotel Muenchen City Arnulfpark (204 rooms) as well as landmark deals such as the signing of 50 hotels in Angola, strategic partnerships with Alesayi Group (1,650 rooms) and Al Rajhi Investment Group (2,500 rooms) in Saudi Arabia, the opening of the Pullman Cayo Coco (518 rooms) in Cuba and of the Novotel and ibis Ikia (492 rooms) in Teheran, in Iran. 92% of expansion was through franchise and management contracts, reflecting the strength of the brand portfolio and the Group's appeal among hotel investors.

Though the breakdown by segment is generally well-balanced, this year Mercure posted the strongest growth with 59 new hotels, followed by ibis, which added 44 new establishments to its network and then by Pullman with opened 17 new addresses.