Though it’s still a relatively unknown company in the United States, CHI Hotels & Resorts is continuing its march across Europe and the Middle East. And a nearly three year old exclusive relationship with Wyndham Hotel Group is helping the company build its management business.
According to Tony Potter, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Malta based CHI Hotels & Resorts (CHI), the exclusive operator of the luxury Corinthia Hotels Brand worldwide the company is in a major expansion mode and is looking to the United States as a major destination in which to build hotels.
The company has several new projects in the works. Next year the company will debut its first property in the UK, 296-bedroom luxury Corinthia Hotel London, located in the heart of the capital in Whitehall, alongside the Thames. Additionally, negotiations are currently underway for similar upscale properties in other leading destinations, such as Paris, Moscow and Rome. This is new territory for Corinthia, which had been hyper focused on key European destinations, the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East in places like Libya and Egypt.
Their property in St.Petersbrug is actually the largest star conference facility in Russia and their hotel in Tripoli is the only 5-star hotel in the nation, getting in excess $350 per night with an occupancy higher than 60 percent, said Potter.
The development of the Corinthia Lake Resort and Spa (2011) in Romania and the Corinthia Budapest Gate and Residences (2012) in Hungary are both on schedule, while plans for the construction of a second hotel in Libya, the Corinthia Hotel Benghazi, are at an advanced stage.
“We like to take historic buildings and create a traditional environment in terms of historical approach and add classic service. The spirit of hospitality is not a quick training course. This isn’t some gimmick, it is how we live and work and what we do,” said Potter noting that getting the right projects open is a constant challenge, but well worth the fight. “It takes a long time to do this, but you eventually get the right people which breed the right people. We have to fight like David in David and Goliath especially to get properties in places such as London and Paris.”
One of their more interesting new projects is the Malo Spa at its property in Lisbon, Portugal. The $6 million spa opened last month. But it’s not a typical spa where massages are all that’s offered, this is a true wellness and medical spa where a host of noninvasive medical procedures are being performed daily.
The Malo Clinic Spa was built in conjunction with Lisbon-based Malo Health Group and is already a big hit, producing more than 4,000 room nights ahead of its opening. The idea is to give people a place with excellent ambiance in which to have a procedure and then recover, eschewing the typical hospital environment for a luxury experience. Potter said if the concept continues to be the success they expect, they’ll roll it out at other hotels. “A normal spa simply doesn’t cut it anymore.
As for the company’s relationship with Wyndham, both parties see it as a successful venture, albeit one that took some time to get rolling. According to both companies the joint venture with Wyndham Hotel Group continues to grow and provide CHI with a broader reach worldwide. Apart from the Corinthia Hotels that already form part of the exclusive Wyndham Grand Collection, CHI will also be operating a number of Wyndham and Ramada branded hotels that are currently under development – these include the Wyndham Port Lixus Resort in Morocco (2011), the Ramada Abu Dhabi Mafraq (2010) and Ramada Abu Dhabi Beach (2011) hotel in Abu Dhabi and the Ramada Hotel & Suites – Jumeira Beach in Dubai (2010).
“The Wyndham relationship is bearing fruit. They are a great organization. They have the power of distribution we need, yet we can have our own indentify within Wyndham too. We are a small business to them but we appeal to them because the find us a little different,” said Potter.
As part of the deal Corinithia gets access to Wyndham’s distribution and reservation platform and will also be able to access Wyndham Rewards. As for Wyndham, they get a competent management company will people n the ground across many emerging and critical markets and they get access to CHI’s international sales offices.
“They are very capable managers. They also have some really classic and interesting world class properties,” said Jim Alderman, Executive Vice President Development with Wyndham Hotel Group. “They are adding more properties and we are driving more properties to them to manage. We look forward to growing our partnership.
Alderman added Wyndham is also able to get access to contacts in the Middle East and Europe, markets he said are difficult for an American company to penetrate.
Source: Hotel Interactive