Accor acquires Fairmont

Although this news is now a tad bit late, we figured it would still make for a good read. In the first week of December, Accor cemented a deal to acquire three luxury brands namely, Raffles, Fairmont & Swissotel, all of which come under what’s known as the FRHI Hotels and Resorts.

This merger should see some legendary hotels being added to the Accor stable. Fairmont is known for some of its historic hotels in North America, as well as several landmark and iconic properties across the world. Hotels such as Raffles Singapore, The Savoy in London, Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace Hotel & The Plaza Hotel in New York just to name a few, would all now come under the larger banner of the Accor hotel group. 

Fairmont Jaipur

This move interestingly comes close on the heels of the other big news from 2015, Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels. 

Coming back to Accor, this acquisition should now add strength to its luxury segment which would otherwise had only the Sofitel Legend brand. 

Accor already has multiple brands, but Fairmont will help beef up the Luxury segment

At the time of writing this, there was no end user online integration of the new brands into the Accor portfolio and one presumes this would take some time before all legal and regulatory hurdles are fully overcome.

From a global standpoint, Accor has interestingly been making some acquisitions in a slow but concise manner thereby increasing its global footprint. They acquired marketing rights to the Mirvac hotel corporation in Australia, which brought with it access to a range of pro Australian brands such as Sebel & Quay West, thereby substantially increasing their Australian footprint.

From an Indian stand point, this merger probably wouldn’t have any significant immediate ramifications, as only the Fairmont hotels are the Fairmont Jaipur and the Swissotel Kolkata, both of which can only be additive to Accors' India presence. There could be some degree of  increased value to the usage of Accor Advantage’s stay benefits across Asia Pacific once the new hotels all come online under the main brand, but it’s probably too early to tell.

We’ll be sure to write about it as the integration takes shape.