Australian hotel chains are upgrading their support for franchisees and that’s helping boost business for everyone. So what are the hotel brands doing?
Quest Apartment Hotels
Franchisees are achieving record numbers at Quest.
David Mansfield, Quest managing director, reveals 92 per cent of franchisees are making money, a substantially higher percentage than pre-Covid. He says this is partly a result of strong support and a brand realignment during the pandemic.
“We had the opportunities to be better, to consider how do we do what’s right from a franchisee’s view. We’ve been steadfast in supporting franchisees and they are now making record money.”
David says there’s also increased interest in the brand, particularly from corporate individuals.
“We’re seeing highly qualified business entrepreneurs wanting to invest in Quest. Our problem now is disappointing people who went through the panel selection and put in bids.”
The apartment hotel chain now has more properties lined up for development than it has ever had.
The corporate-guest-oriented chain has a 200-hotel target for 2030 and has eight hotels under construction right now.
Quest currently has a 122-hotel portfolio in Australia, and another 26 with leases signed or under negotiation.
Choice Hotels
Choice Hotels Asia Pacific has helped boost franchisee business with a new digital marketing service.
The partnership with Digital Stack has boosted online website traffic and direct online hotel bookings. A 60 per cent rise in social media followers has helped drive website traffic growth of 206 percent. Direct online bookings rose 106 percent in the last six months.
Choice Hotels Asia Pacific senior director of strategy, sales and marketing Kari Hunter explains the benefits to franchisees.
She says the platform allows franchisees to easily localise brand campaigns and digital assets.
“Managing consistent, on brand digital marketing can be a time consuming and expensive
exercise for small businesses. We are excited to be able to support our franchisees with this
service and turn social media marketing from an intimidating exercise into something that is
effortless,” she says.
Choice Hotels holds five brands in its portfolio: Ascend Hotel Collection, Clarion, Quality, Comfort
and Econo Lodge.
Franchisees can leverage the group promotion and content calendar, can schedule posts in advance, access and monitor reporting metrics on their social media pages and campaigns, and request specific one-off designs as needed.
Accor
The Accor business has just opened its 400th hotel in the Asia Pacific region 31 years after it launched the Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour.
Today the heritage-listed boutique property The Porter House Hotel – MGallery in Sydney joins 19 international brands across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and French Polynesia.
Accor Pacific CEO, Sarah Derry, says “Sydney is experiencing its fastest growth since March 2020, with recovery in corporate, conference and events business, and continued strength in the domestic leisure market.
“We are seeing similar revivals in other key cities around the Pacific, complementing the success of regional holiday destinations in Australia and New Zealand.”
Accor’s portfolio stretches from economy brands to luxury, with properties in city centres, airport precincts, regional centres and booming suburbs.
The Accor portfolio includes SO/, Sofitel, MGallery, Art Series, Pullman, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, Peppers, The Sebel, Mantra, Novotel, Mercure, Mondrian, Tribe, BreakFree, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget.
Sarah says the company’s pioneering approach to sales, marketing and distribution accounts for its growth across a wide range of hotel options.
“While there is still some way to go before international travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, the ramping up of international flight schedules and growing confidence in long-haul travel bodes well for the renaissance of the region’s hotel industry for the rest of 2022 and 2023,” she says.