With their takeover of Movenpick Hotels approved on Tuesday, AccorHotels has become the largest hotel group in Europe. They’re also now number one in South America, Africa and the Middle East, and the number one in Asia if you exclude China.

It’s a major shift on the world hotel scene. Yet the company is not terribly well known to many consumers, largely because there aren’t any hotels anywhere in the world that carry the Accor name on the side of the building. Instead, AccorHotels is a company that runs an amazing array of properties around the globe, including Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis, Swissotel, Pullman and, of course, Toronto-based Fairmont; one of the world’s best and most recognized brands. There are, in fact, now 33 brands under the AccorHotels umbrella.

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts operates in 27 countries with 84 hotels and 20,000 rooms. Movenpick has a particularly strong presence in Europe and the Middle East. There are 42 added Movenpick Hotels planned by 2021, with significant expansion in Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Accor is reported to have paid $736 million CAD for the Movenpick properties.

As of June 2018, Accor had 4,530 hotels around the world, with more than 650,000 rooms. Roughly one-half of those rooms were in Europe and almost 200,000 in Asia/Pacific.

“Strategically, we want to grow where we have strength and a large platform,” Chris Cahill, CEO Luxury Brands/Deputy CEO, AccorHotels, told TravelPulse Canada in a recent telephone interview from Washington D.C.

Cahill, a Canadian who has two degrees from the University of Ottawa and an MBA from the University of Toronto, said the Novotel brand is growing in North America and appeals to families and corporate travellers. The economy brand Ibis (I’ve stayed at several in the UK and find them clean, efficient and reasonably priced) is better known in Europe but he said there’s one in New York City near La Guardia Airport and that there are several in Mexico. There also are Ibis Styles hotels, which offer more of a “contemporary economy” feel.

Fairmont properties are being added in Asia, the Middle East and around the world, as are Raffles and Sofitel properties.

The Raffles Singapore is undergoing major changes and should re-open in the first three months of 2019. The Century Plaza Fairmont in Los Angeles is being given an incredible, $2.5 billion US renovation and should be open again by the middle of next year. Fairmont recently opened in Austin Texas and Riyadh. The Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile also has been given a makeover.

“You have to have a certain scale and we have it,” Cahill said of the Accor group. “We have a lot of strength in markets around the world and we want to reinforce and protect that. We need enough brands to satisfy all our customers, but it’s not a matter of being bigger than Company X.”

“With a footprint in more than 20 countries, we strongly believe Mövenpick represents a strategic opportunity to bring synergies and new developments in key areas,” said Sebastien Bazin, chairman of AccorHotels. “Mövenpick’s European-Swiss heritage and its combination of modernity and authenticity embodied by committed and talented teams fit perfectly with AccorHotels’ core value.”

AccorHotels has signed an agreement to acquire 85 per cent of 21c Museum Hotels, an award-winning hospitality management company that is “pushing the boundaries of the museum and hotel worlds to create a new kind of travel experience,” officials said. “The hotels combine multi-venue contemporary art museums, boutique hotels and chef-driven restaurants, with 11 properties in the United States.”

Cahill said Accor continues to work with travel agents; providing education and agent rewards. Accor and Fairmont both have their own programs, but the company is working with a travel advisory group to come up with a new, single program. Cahill said details should be available soon.