With the recent opening of a hotel in BordeauxRadisson Blu, with its 13th hotel in France, is one of the key players in the upmarket and seminar segment, with Pullman as its main competitor. And there's more to come, as the group aims to have a total of 25 hotels in France by 2022, both for Radisson Blu and for its new five-star Radisson Collection.
A 14th Radisson Blu has already been announced for Rouen at the end of 2019: a 91-room establishment located near the station and the city centre. While another establishment could open in the Paris region - near an airport? - in 2019, Éric de Neef, the group's Chief Marketing Officer, sees "space for the brand in Paris, for example at La Défense, but also in Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Strasbourg". The current Radisson Blu Champs Elysées is due to be upgraded to Radisson Collection status by 2019-2020, following renovation.
The group also wants to see this prestigious collection grow both in France - in Paris or on the Côte d'Azur - and in the world's major cities. " With seven hotels in operation and 19 others signed up, it is a real success just a few months after its launch. This can be explained by the impact of its association with the Radisson name." . Until then, the group had made several attempts to position itself in the luxury sector, whether with the Cerrutti and Missoni labels or, more recently, with Quorvus. But all had proved more or less unsuccessful. This is not the case with the Radisson Collection, which can confidently look forward to a portfolio of 40 hotels by 2022 and will soon be appearing in Venice and Rome, after London, Lagos and Copenhagen.
"In Europe, we only had two brands on which to base our development: Radisson Blu for the top end and Park Inn for the mid-range," comments Éric de Neef. Hence the creation of the Radisson Collection in the luxury segment and RED in the premium lifestyle segment.". This new brand is beginning to make its mark in the hotel world, with six hotels in operation and 25 openings expected, notably in Dubai, Manchester and Liverpool. Another brand that is starting to take off, at least in the German-speaking world, is Prizeotel, an economical, contemporary and colourful brand in which Radisson has a 49% stake. Designed in partnership with the designer Karim Rashid, four hotels have already opened in Germany and 10 projects are under way.
It remains to be seen how all these brands will fit into the portfolio of the new hotel giant that the Chinese group Jin Jiang is in the process of becoming. With HNA, Radisson's over-indebted shareholder, announcing the sale of its shares to its Chinese competitor at the beginning of August, Jin Jiang should soon be officially in charge of the 1,150 hotels that make up the Radisson group: 650 in the United States, 450 in the EMEA zone and 120 in Asia, mainly in India.
This will enable Jin Jiang, on its way to becoming the world's number two hotel group, to gain a foothold in the United States for the first time. It will also strengthen its offering in Europe, where the Chinese group already heads the Louvre Hôtels group. So what role will Louvre Hotels and Radisson Louvre in Europe play in the new entity? "The question does arise," says Éric de Neef, "but one thing is certain: the offers are complementary. Louvre Hotels is mainly positioned in the budget and mid-range segments, and the Radisson Group in the top end.." Hence the probable birth of a major competitor to the current number one by far in Europe, AccorHotels.
