3 Questions to Emilie Sarda, Marketing Director of Park & Suites

Park & Suites is one of the many hotel residence brands to have flourished in France in recent years. How do you stand out from the competition?
Since our creation in 2000, we have opened around fifty business hotel residences, ranging from two to four stars. We are the only chain to offer the full range. And we always try to be at the cutting edge. We are currently testing a new technology-based suite concept at the Park & Suites Élégance in Montpellier.

Will you continue to grow at the same rate?
We're aiming for 65 residences by the end of 2012 and 100 by the end of 2014. For us, 2011 will be a year of building brand awareness. We're going to be stepping up our communications efforts to establish our brand. For example, for every three nights spent at the Park & Suites in Cannes, we are giving away an iPad. Until 2009, our residences were split between several brands - My SuiteAppart-hotel, My SuiteInn, My SuiteVillage and Park & Suites. For greater visibility, we have only kept the latter, introducing a segmentation based on the range of services: Prestige, Élégance, Confort and Village.

Are you planning to move abroad?
From 2014, we want to be present in Europe, concentrating on business destinations. We have projects underway in Geneva, which will open first, before Barcelona, Liège and Madrid.