The Address Hotels & Resorts has its “pipeline for global expansion clearly in its sights”, according to CEO Marc Dardenne.
With five projects now operational in Dubai since the launch of the brand in 2008, Dardenne said the focus was now on expanding the brand in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
“The first two hotels that will open in 2012 will be the France project in the Languedoc and Marrakech,” he said. “We are also just about to sign a location in Budapest and are finalising another deal in Istanbul.
“We have about another 10 potential opportunities in the Middle East region and in north Africa,” added Dardenne. “Our next move is to look at more European based hotels and I’m also going to see opportunities in Asia.”
The plan has always been to take the brand global, he said, using both strategic and opportunistic approaches to do it.
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“We’re looking at potentially London as a strategic location, where we would probably partner up with the developer and invest equity, otherwise it’s fairly opportunistic in terms of our development, since we want to have an asset light strategy of management contracts,” explained Dardenne.
However, The Address has not ruled out further properties in Dubai, added Dardenne.
“In Dubai, ideally it would be great for us to have a resort because we don’t have a pure beach resort, so if there would be an opportunity to manage a hotel on The Palm for example we would be very happy to do that, especially because we have five hotels in the city, having a beach resort would add value to the hotels in the city as well.”
Expansion in the GCC was also important, he said, because the brand has established itself in those markets very quickly, with the Downtown properties especially being favourites of GCC travellers.
Between now and the opening of the new hotels, Dardenne said he was looking at conversion opportunities, which would require a “contemporary hotel in a great location”.
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