Accor to ramp up presence

By Sharen Kaur

KUALA LUMPUR: France-based hotel group Accor S.A. is ramping up its presence in Malaysia as it is upbeat on the local tourism industry, says Eric Tan, the general manager for Pullman Kuala Lumpur Bangsar.

According to him, Accor will manage hotels for operators in Langkawi, Penang, Malacca, Port Dickson, Kota Baru, Johor Baru and Sandakan.

"There are many places in Malaysia that require hotel rooms. We are in talks with hotel owners who have approached us to manage their properties under our brands.

"We will do our own assessment and study the development theme to see if it suits any of our brands.

"We will also evaluate the potential of our brand in that area. We are very strict and will not compromise on the brand," he told Business Times in an interview, here, recently.

Accor is the world's largest hotel chain manager with a presence in 92 countries and operates close to 4,000 hotels with more than 600,000 rooms.

The group provides an extensive range of accommodations - from luxury to budget, and serviced apartment facilities - operating under 13 brands.

In Malaysia, it manages eight hotels with 2,520 rooms under the Pullman, Novotel and Ibis Styles brands in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Kuching.

Tan said Accor will be adding more hotels to its portfolio over the next two years.

These include Mercure Kota Kinabalu, Mercure Selayang, Mercure Bandar Sri Damansara, Mercure Shaw Parade, Ibis Styles Sandakan and Novotel Malacca.

For fiscal year 2013, the Accor group reported a profit of Euro126 million (RM567 million) and Euro5.5 billion revenue. As as the end-2013, it has total assets of Euro7 billion.

"Indonesia is the best performer for Accor in Asia and Malaysia is catching up. Accor will focus on growth in Malaysia," Tan said.

New Pullman head upbeat revenue will grow by 5-8pc

By Sharen Kaur
Published in NST on April 28, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: The new head of Pullman Kuala Lumpur Bangsar is upbeat the hotel will break even on a revenue of RM50 million in its first year of operation.

“It is a tough target, and it is given to motivate and drive the team,” said Eric Tan, the hotel general manager who came on board last month.

Tan told Business Times recently he is upbeat that revenue will also grow by between five and eight per cent on a yearly basis.

Pullman Bangsar, which is the Accor Group’s largest hotel in Southeast Asia by rooms, started operations five months ago.

The hotel has 513 rooms but only 350 are open at the moment. Based on that count, the hotel’s occupancy is at 60 per cent.

Tan has no qualms of achieving 50 to 55 per cent occupancy once all the rooms are opened and to raise that to over 65 per cent from the third year of operation.

He said the light rail transit (LRT) line extension and MRT projects, and the KL Sentral transport hub in Brickfields, which is linked to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 will help the hotel to grow.

“Many people see this area as very secluded and not central but I take it as a plus point. If you look at the city hotels, their location is quite congested because of the on-going LRT and MRT works.

“That is a plus point for us as many local and foreign leisure travellers are now coming over to this side. We have a LRT station within walking distance from the hotel, which is connected to KL Sentral, and it is attracting a lot of corporate and MICE business for us.”

Meanwhile, Tan said the building owner, Cygal Development Sdn Bhd, will invest between US$4 million and US$5 million (RM13 million and RM16 million) to improve the facade and open two new outlets.

“We are adding two iconic outlets, including a Skybar on the 28th floor. All these improvements will be completed by the first or second quarter of next year,” Tan said.

Accor, which is a French hotel operator, is managing and operating Pullman Bangsar for Cygal Development.

It also manages seven other properties in Malaysia, including Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside, Pullman Kuching, Novotel Kuala Lumpur City Centre and ibis Styles Kuala Lumpur Cheras hotel.