After the pass of three, the transformation. Minor Hotels made its debut in Paris just before the 2024 Olympics with the takeover of three establishments, but the Thai group, which has owned NH Hotels since 2018, has given all these addresses a facelift. Opened under the NH brand, the former Beauchamps hotel had already moved upmarket at the end of last year to become part of the NH Collection premium brand. This positioning is in keeping with its privileged location - rue de Ponthieu, a stone's throw from the Champs Elysées - and its 90 rooms, which have been redesigned in an elegant, contemporary style.
To keep pace with this development, the renovation of the other two hotels has just been completed. In this context, housed in a Haussmann building on rue Lafayette, the NH Paris Opéra Faubourg - a former Best Western - now offers 101 rooms and suites, some with balconies, plus a lobby bar, all in its new setting inspired by the style of the 50s and 60s. For its part, also housed in a building emblematic of 19thᵉ century Parisian architecture, the NH Paris Gare de l'Est - a former Holiday Inn - faces the terminus of TGV trains from eastern France, and further afield from Germany or Luxembourg. Pending the arrival next year of the CDG Express.
This convenient location for business travellers - especially as the Gare du Nord station is also just a few minutes' walk away - gives the hotel a business dimension, with five flexibly-configured meeting rooms. All with views of the station. This link with the railway world is not just visual. It is also reflected in the new interior concept, with the 207 rooms decorated with graphic nods to the history of the station and the great European routes.
Minor's ambitions in France
Will Minor Hotels' first steps in the capital lead to others? This is naturally one of the group's objectives, both in Paris and throughout France. Minor currently has nine hotels in France: an NH Collection and a Nhow in Marseille, the luxurious Anantara Plaza and an NH Hotel in Nice, plus other NH Hotels near Lyon and Toulouse airports. But with a worldwide coverage of more than 640 establishments, 34 million members for its loyalty programme and now 12 brands ranging from budget to luxury, the Minor group believes it has arguments to convince owners to join its portfolio, for example as an alternative to the brands of the Accor group.
" The situation is similar to that in Madrid, where there are 28 NH hotels. An owner in Madrid who wants to stand out from the crowd might want to choose an Accor brand. It's exactly the same logic in Franceexplains Irene Fernandez, VP Communications at Minor Hotels Europe & Americas. We can offer an alternative that brings different added value, experience and brands. ". And even more so since the launch of the Colbert Collection at the top end of the market and iStay by NH in the budget segment, which Irene Fernandez would like to see arrive in France one day.
As Minor Hotels still owns or leases over 80% of its properties, the group intends to move towards an asset light model, or at least an asset right model. To this end, at a time when the conversion of existing hotels is a major trend in hotel development, last year Minor unveiled four new brands aimed at franchising and joining independent hotels or small family groups. These include iStay by NH, which made its debut in Spain with the conversion of former NH hotels in Valencia and Zaragoza and will soon appear in Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels, while at the other end of the spectrum, the Minor Reserve Collection aims to bring together luxury hotels, including the Aventora Resort Baía Formosa, expected in 2028 in Brazil, its first signature.
At the same time, while the Minor group is one of the major players in the chain restaurant sector in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in the United Kingdom, Minor wanted to give a hotel dimension to two of its London restaurants. Playing on the heritage of the Art Deco brasserie The Wolseley, in Piccadilly, The Wolseley Hotels brand is positioned in a limited range of exclusive hotels in some of the world's major destinations, whether in Europe, Asia, the Middle East or North America. In New York in particular, the brand's first hotel will open early next year in what was once the Lambs Club.
Luxury from London to New York
Located a stone's throw from Bryant Park, in the heart of Manhattan, the listed building designed in the 1900s to accommodate New York's cultural elite became a hotel in the 2000s, the Chatwal, until now a member of Hyatt's Unbound Collection, which will interpret its future in "Minor" mode. For its new debut, the Wolseley Hotel New York will offer 76 rooms and suites, a speakeasy bar and, naturally, a restaurant.
At the same time, another restaurant, the London bistro Colbert, which revisits the great Parisian cafés in the Chelsea district, has served as the foundation stone for a new upmarket brand, which is due to make its debut in spring 2026 in Florence, Italy, in addition to projects well advanced in Madrid, London and Austria. With her focus on gastronomy, Irene Fernandez sees the Colbert Collection as "the most important part of the Colbert Collection". I Stay, for that matter. There are a lot of small and medium-sized hotels with independent owners who want to keep their name and identity, but who can benefit from our ecosystem. "
But France is far from Minor's only playground in Europe and the rest of the world. Last year, the Thai group set a new record by signing 40 new contracts, a trend that is set to continue this year. While the acquisition of the NH group has given it a strong foothold in Europe, which currently accounts for more than half of its offering, Minor is focusing its development on rebalancing its portfolio on a global scale. This has resulted in the conclusion of a joint venture with Royal Holdings in Japan, involving some twenty establishments to be opened by 2035, and another joint venture in Egypt with Sunrise Resorts & Cruises, aimed at developing 50 establishments over the next decade.
Still in Africa, while Minor has a luxury brand focused on safaris, the Elewana Collection, the group is also preparing for expansion in the continent's major cities. Following the success of NH Johannesburg Sandton, an NH Collection will open in Accra, Ghana, in 2030, in addition to an NH Collection resort with MICE facilities on the island of Pemba in Tanzania.
However, Europe has not been forgotten in this programme of openings. Among the most noteworthy recent or forthcoming openings is the NH Collection in Ghent and Cordoba, following the conversion and upgrading of former NH hotels, the latter in an 18th century palace.e century hotel in the heart of the Unesco-listed Jewish quarter, close to the Mosque-Cathedral. This is ahead of the planned openings this summer of hotels in Ibiza and Marbella, also based on a completely transformed former NH.
New addresses from Milan to Rome via Porto
For its part, the luxury brand Tivoli will no doubt see its projects in Oman and Bahrain postponed in the wake of current events. However, this Portuguese brand, acquired by Minor in 2016, is working on renovating the Tivoli Coimbra, which will be upgraded to a five-star hotel this year. On the new front, last year the brand moved the Tivoli Kopke Porto Gaia into one of Porto's oldest wine houses, adding a unique venue for meetings and receptions with 10 event rooms and 9,000 m² of gardens as a playground.
This year, however, the brand's future lies in Italy. In addition to an expected 57-room boutique hotel in Puglia, overlooking Lecce Cathedral, the brand will offer the Minor group " one of its biggest openings of the year "says Luis Hernandez, Communications Director for Southern Europe at Minor Hotels Europe & Americas. Expected to open in April, just a five-minute walk from the Duomo, this new five-star hotel will have 239 rooms, including 60 suites and 6 Duomo suites with views of the cathedral, as well as a spa and a restaurant run by a renowned chef. The 145 m² presidential suite, adjoining the rooftop, can accommodate meetings and events for around fifty people.
Still in Italy and in the MICE sector, a larger-scale hotel was added to the Minor Hotels offering last September: the Nhow Rome. Underneath its disruptive exterior, with contemporary hotels designed by renowned architects and designers such as Matteo Thun, Rem Koolhaas and Karim Rashid, this lifestyle brand is also and above all geared towards business tourism, with large-capacity guests. " Nhows are generally located on the outskirts of city centres, close to convention centres. This makes them ideal destinations for creative corporate seminars. The Nhow RAI Amsterdam, with its 650 rooms and large MICE areas, is an example of this," explains Yaiza Cardo, in charge of press relations.
In this sense, " Rome is a special case "says Yaiza Cardo. Not because of its capacity - 260 rooms - or its MICE offering - with 10 meeting rooms that can accommodate up to 375 people - or even because of its fun factor, with lifts that can be transformed into karaoke or its design combining Roman history and contemporary aesthetics, but because of its location. Right in the heart of the Italian capital, on Corso d'Italia, a stone's throw from the gardens of Villa Borghese and Via Veneto. This flagship opening follows that of the first Nhow hotel on the American continent, in Lima, in the Miraflores district. Colour, lots of colour in a décor inspired by Peruvian culture as well as pop culture, a rooftop bar, 243 rooms, seven conference rooms and four meeting rooms: the fundamentals of the brand remain unchanged on either side of the Atlantic.
