You're opening La Clef Champs Elysées. Does this third prestigious establishment in Paris embody the spirit of your Crest Collection brand?
Yes, it really is the new flagship of this luxurious collection, a little jewel housed in a beautiful Haussmann-style residence (see article). This residence of just 70 rooms and suites boasts an exceptional location on rue de Bassano, just a stone's throw from the Champs-Elysées. Behind its historic façade, the building has been given a contemporary makeover by Jean-Philippe Nuel. We went into great detail to create a living space inspired by Parisian life, emblematic of French refinement. But with a Far Eastern touch too, since the gourmet restaurant will be run by Imperial Treasure, which has several Michelin-starred restaurants in Asia.
What are your ambitions with the Crest Collection? Are there any more openings to come?
This new residence confirms the Ascott group's desire to position itself in the luxury segment. However, we are not setting targets for the Crest Collection. Our development is focused more on the Citadines and Ascott brands. Finding exceptional locations that combine charm, prestige and history is a question of opportunity. Of course, we have other projects for this brand, particularly in Europe, but I can't say more than that.
More generally, the Ascott Group has enjoyed very strong growth for several years, even exceeding its stated targets. Will this momentum continue?
The Ascott Group is focused on growth. Our ambition was to achieve 80,000 units by 2020. Today, we have 100,000, thanks in particular to the acquisition of Quest residences in Australia and a majority stake in the American group Synergy, which specialises in corporate housing. We're ahead of schedule, but we're not going to rest on our laurels. We hope to have 160,000 rooms by 2023. Within this framework, there are obviously many opportunities for development in Asia, especially in China. But we don't want to rest on our laurels, when I took up my post as Director for EuropeI've set myself the same target as for the rest of the world, namely to double our portfolio on this continent. Keeping pace with Asia is ambitious, but achievable. The momentum is positive.
We're ahead of schedule, but we're not going to rest on our laurels.
You're now growing not just through long-stay residences, but also through the hotel business. Why has your strategy changed?
We can see that behaviour is changing in Europe and around the world. The average length of stay for long-haul travellers is falling. All over the world, the efficiency of transport hubs means that travellers are staying for shorter periods. So we need to adapt our products to meet these new expectations. This strategy took shape last September with our first acquisition in the hotel sector, that of Tauzia, one of the top five groups in Indonesia, with 120 establishments and 20,000 rooms. As a leader in the residential hotel sector, Ascott needed to diversify its offering in order to grow significantly. We therefore want to be present not only in the hotel sector, but also in senior and student residences.
What are your ambitions with this new hotel branch?
We are going to open 20,000 additional hotel rooms over the next five years. Tauzia brings together six brands, ranging from lifestyle to luxury, and we plan to roll them out outside Indonesia. This means mainly in South-East Asia - Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines - but also in China. Tauzia's products are aimed primarily at the middle class, a segment that is booming all over the continent. Europe is not a priority for Tauzia, except perhaps opportunistically. There's already so much to do in Asia!
Could this recent foray into the hotel business also benefit your residences offering?
In recent years, we have acquired a number of establishments under hotel brands in the United States, which will gradually be converted to our own brands when the franchise contracts come to an end. This is already the case in New York, on 5th Avenue, where we have opened our first Citadines by converting a former independent hotel. Soon, another Citadines will open in Sunnyvale, near Cupertino. We are also considering the launch in New York of Lyf, our new brand of residences aimed at millennialsFor business travellers who are young in body or spirit. New York is a city where there is a demand for this type of lifestyle product. We still have a few hotels under their original brands, so we could consider it.
When will this new Lyf brand, announced at the end of 2016, unveil its first establishments?
The first two Lyf residences will open this year, first in Shenzhen, then in Singapore. By 2020-2021, other projects are due to open in Bangkok, Cebu in the Philippines, two more in Singapore and another in Japan. At the same time, we are actively working towards having a Lyf in Europe, with London, Berlin and above all Paris as our targets. As well as diversifying our offering away from the long-stay segment, Lyf represents our other area of development. We want to have residence products adapted to all types of customer. We already had Citadines for business travellers and Somerset for expatriate executives and their families. We also had Ascott at the top end of the market and the Crest Collection in the luxury segment. With the explosion in coworking and coliving, we saw the need for a different concept to cater for young entrepreneurs who work in project mode. Hence, in the Lyf residences, larger communal spaces and smaller rooms than in Citadines or Ascott to encourage experience and sharing.
Could the spirit inspired by Lyf influence the development of your other brands?
That's right. Without revealing the design of our future Citadines establishments, there will be variations that reflect this spirit, with, in particular, take-away sales areas in the residences, easy check-in/check-out, and waiting lounges for people arriving early or leaving at the end of the day. However, in the Citadines, we will always keep the size of the rooms to a minimum to guarantee travellers' privacy. In the end, it all depends on the location. Some locations are not suited to this type of product. However, the Citadines New York 5th Avenue is already inspired by this development.
What about the development of Citadines in Europe?
We will be continuing our renovation cycle, with three Citadines having been brought up to date last year in Munich, Strasbourg and Paris, near the Trocadero. At the same time, other establishments will be opening, notably in London's Islington district. Expected to open in summer 2019, this 108-apartment residence is part of a residential and leisure complex and will be the result of the conversion of the former Royal Mail postal sorting centre. In addition to other possible acquisitions, we are also looking at other management models to achieve our development objectives, in particular with franchised residences.
This demonstrates the brand's appeal to hotel owners.
For them, having a long-stay product alongside other establishments franchised to major hotel groups is a real advantage. Another advantage, as we are very well known in Asia and China, is that we can attract a greater proportion of Asian customers. Three Citadines franchises will open in Amsterdam in the coming weeks, followed by Nantes next June and Strasbourg in 2020. In the last two cases, our partner is Domytis, a player specialising in senior residences, with whom we are also working to develop this offering outside France, because they have real expertise in this field.
Are there any innovations to be expected in terms of services?
Of course we are. We're starting to roll out Chromecast systems in some of our residences, including the Citadines Barbican and our La Clef establishments. This will enable our customers to view their entertainment content on the television, so that they really feel at home. We are working hard on digital communication in our establishments, but also on a secure and easy check-in/check-out process. For example, in Singapore we are testing a check-in kiosk that uses facial recognition. Connected objects are also one of the areas we are looking at. These days, we hear a lot about home automation and connected rooms. In my opinion, this is still a little premature. But in five years' time, things will be much more stable, much more industrialised and integrated. It's clearly a direction we're going to take.
