Major international hotel brands seize opportunities in Australia
As domestic leisure and business travel picks up, international hotel operators are swooping on city and suburban hotels signing management agreements and introducing new brands to Australia.
In Sydney, IHG’s Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands have just signed on two newly built hotels in the western suburbs of Burwood and Parramatta.
IHG has a further 34 more hotel openings in the pipeline on top of the 56 hotels it presently operates here, under the four brands Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Voco and InterContinental. Conquest’s newly built Burwood hotel has been rebadged as the IHG-operated Crowne Plaza Sydney Burwood and will be marketed at both business and leisure travellers.
In Parramatta, another Conquest hotel, which opened two years ago has been rebranded as Holiday Inn & Suites Parramatta Marsden Street. Parramatta sports around a third of Australia’s top 100 businesses and is within 30 minutes drive of the forthcoming Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek.
Conquest chief executive Michael Akkawi said the hotels in Burwood and Parramatta had quickly built a loyal customer base.
“As we look to the future after a challenging 2020, we recognise the benefit of partnering with the world’s best brands and distribution channels to build on our past successes,” Mr Akkawi said.
This year Crowne Plaza has opened new properties in Hobart, Adelaide and at Sydney’s Darling Harbour while IHG has 12 Holiday Inn properties in the pipeline for next year including in Melbourne’s Werribee, Richmond, Geelong and Bourke Street Mall.
New research from London-based STR said the Australian hotel sector started improving in October, which was the best month since the start of the pandemic. STR said the occupancy levels were the highest since February, while the occupancy rate and average daily room rate were the highest since March.
Meanwhile, other states are seeing more hotel openings with the Movenpick brand announcing a hotel in Hobart, while Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is further expanding into Australia with Wyndham Grand Adelaide, that will become one of the tallest hotels in South Australia and the first Wyndham Grand hotel in Australia when it opens in 2024.
Equinox Property will develop the $150m tower above Adelaide’s King William Street with the hotel to have 347 rooms and suites.
“The South Australian capital has been experiencing a surge of investment, with new infrastructure projects such as the expansion of Adelaide Airport, the revamp of the Adelaide Oval, and now, the creation of one of the city’s tallest hotels,” said Joon Aun Ooi, president, Asia Pacific, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Adelaide’s new five-star Eos by SkyCity also launches this week.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
