Travelodge makes way for Mercure in Salter hotels portfolio

Accor chief executive Sarah Derry.

French hotel giant Accor has revealed that its new Salter portfolio of hotels, which added 10 properties to its existing portfolio of 340, will be largely branded Mercure hotels.

From July, Accor will rebrand flagship properties near Wynyard in Sydney, as well as in Perth and Melbourne, as Mercure hotels.

Another property in Sydney’s CBD will be rebadged the Ibis Styles Sydney Central.

The more high-profile hotels include the Mercure Sydney Wynyard, the Mercure Melbourne Southbank and the Mercure Perth on Hay.

Newly appointed Accor chief executive Sarah Derry said that with the addition of the Salter property portfolio of former Travelodges, 2000 additional keys would be added to her network.

“It’s an exciting time as we start to see signs of recovery for the tourism sector,” she told The Australian, just eight weeks after starting her new role.

Ms Derry said Queensland’s tourism recovery was going strong and while regional business was good, business was soft for some city hotels – a reaction that has been reiterated by Dr Jerry Schwartz, who owns 15 hotels spread through city and regional areas.

The deal will increase Mercure properties in Australia from 44 to 53, making it the largest and fastest growing global mid-scale brand in Australia with more than 50 hotels.

It is Accor’s largest integration since the $1.2bn acquisition of Mantra in 2018 which saw it purchase the Mantra, Art Series and Peppers hotel brands.

Ms Derry said that the hotels were located in amazing central city and metropolitan locations. “We are working with Salter Brothers to reinvigorate the portfolio, setting them up for success with the next generation of travellers and signalling our confidence in the return of corporate travel,” she told The ­Australian.

Australian-run global fund manager Salter Brothers appointed Accor to run the hotels in its newly acquired Travelodge portfolio.

It acquired the properties last year for $620m from Mirvac and the NRMA motoring organisation.

The fund has around $2bn in assets under a separate portfolio with operators including InterContinental and Hyatt Regency.