Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, an upscale hotel management company with 12,000 employees, is represented through over 90 hotels existing or under construction in 26 countries with a focus on its core markets in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. With its roots in Switzerland, the international hotel group is expanding and has a stated objective of increasing its hotel portfolio to 100 by the year 2010.

With two hotel types, business and conference hotels, as well as holiday resorts, Mövenpick has clearly positioned itself in the upscale segment and stands for quality, reliability and care with a personal touch.

The group is owned by Mövenpick Holding (66.7 per cent) and the Kingdom
Group (33.3 per cent).

Founded in 1960, Mövenpick is the leading Swiss hospitality brand in the world in the upscale segment in terms of number of hotels and growth activity. “The foundation upon which we stand are a sense of arrival and a quality of service, of lodging and of gastronomic experience that is second to none,” says President & CEO, Jean Gabriel Pérès. “This is something that lies at the very heart of what we stand for and is certainly the company’s USP, now and moving forward.”

With seven new projects opening over the next ten months, the company has a lot to look forward to, with a new resort hotel opening at Tala Bay in Aqaba, Jordan and new hotels opening in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia and at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. There is also a new hotel opening in Sousse, Tunisia.

“We originally had something of a mixed bag of hotels ten years ago and have worked hard to create some consistency in the portfolio, investing heavily in creating new environments, many of which are award-winning and recognised for the quality of their design,” says Pérès. “We have phased out a number of older properties that no longer belonged to the perception that we are striving for and will continue to do so.”

The company has achieved a number of accolades over the course of the year, including a Conde Nast award for ‘Best Spa in the World’ for its Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea in Jordan.

“It is so pleasing for us to see that this constant investment in quality and in the refurbishments that we have undertaken is now paying back, at a time when it is more needed then ever,” says Pérès.

There are a number of hotels in the portfolio that exemplify the Mövenpick ethos, including those in Istanbul, Stuttgart and Hamburg, and the new hotels that are opening in the Middle East and Asia – each has a very strong sense of soul and correspond to the company ideal.

What then is the company’s development plan for the next 12 months?
“This year, one of the most challenging that we have experienced, we have signed deals on six new hotels and I guess that the pattern for the next 12 months is going to be around that same level,” Pérès explains.

“Of course we continue to look at locations such as Paris, London, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Russia and Bangkok, and also at India. This is a very important territory for us and we plan to open a cluster of hotels there, including a new hotel in Bangalore in about 18 months’ time,” he says.

The company is also looking closely at China; whilst the primary cities are fairly saturated, there are a number of secondary cities that are of great interest and Mövenpick is currently looking for partners to jointly develop its hotels there.

“I truly believe that a company that does not have a strong presence in Asia in the next 10-15 years will not be a major player,” continues Pérès. “We currently have eight hotels in Asia and we want 25 pretty soon.”

Of course the key to success in hospitality is service, how easy is to maintain a fresh, exciting and ‘comfortable’ environment?

“Ours is very much a family-oriented company that cares about people,” says Pérès, “not just our guests but also our staff. There is a lot of continuity in both management and staff, and many of those people have been with us for many years; they are dedicated and share all of our values.”

For the full article please see the RLI December'January 09/10 issue