TAMPA, Florida—Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts is taking aim at North America for additional development over the next few years. At a “first night” opening event last week at the brand’s property in Tampa, Florida, executives outlined a development path to add to its nearly 100-hotel global portfolio.
“It’s taken us quite awhile to get to the point where we have a clearly defined brand that the development community in the United States has latched on to,” said Anthony Ingham, VP of North American brand management for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s luxury and design brands, including Le Méridien.
“When Starwood bought Le Méridien in 2005, it was a heavily international portfolio with very limited exposure in the U.S.”
With recent openings in Tampa and in suburban Chicago, the brand has 18 properties in the U.S. with four more slated in the next four months: Charlotte, North Carolina, in November; Indianapolis and New Orleans in December; and Columbus, Ohio, in January. Another property under development in Cleveland is scheduled to open by the end of 2015.
Six of the seven recent openings or properties under development in the U.S. are conversions of existing hotels or adaptive reuses of other types of buildings. The 130-room Le Méridien Tampa was a $26-million transformation of a century-old federal courthouse. The Chicago-area property in Oakbrook, Illinois, was a conversion of a former Renaissance Hotel that had been closed for several years.
The sole new build is the 135-room Columbus hotel in the city’s Short North Arts District.
Transforming a brand
Ingham said that since purchasing the chain the Starwood team has worked to reposition it as design-led lifestyle brand. The portfolio included 130 properties at the time of the sale; since then, 60 hotels left the system and nearly 30 were added. About half of the legacy properties have been renovated, and 30 are under renovation, Ingham said.
Openings in 2013 included two hotels in China; one each in Bali, Indonesia, and Cairo; and four in the U.S. in Dallas, Atlanta and Santa Monica, California.
The brand also is expanding on a global scale. From early 2014 into 2015, Le Méridien properties will have opened in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Bangkok; Gujarat, India; Mahabaleshwar, India; Thimphu, Bhutan; and Qingdao, China.
Localizing a European heritage
The Le Méridien brand team created a design and programming scheme that reflects the brand’s French heritage but takes advantage of local cultures, themes and cuisine. The chain was founded in 1972 as the hotel arm of Air France.
Julie Frank, the global design director for the brand, said Le Méridien “exudes a design consistency with a boutique feel.”
“It’s a kind of timeless chic inspired by our Parisian roots juxtaposed with mid-century modernism,” she said.
Ingham said the brand positioning is “destination unlocked,” or the idea of introducing a destination to guests in a way that is unexpected and contemporary.
“In the U.S., the industries really succeeding are idea-driven, whether it is technology, Internet-based startups, consultancies, architects, marketers or others,” he said. “As a result of this industrial trend, there is a large and growing creative class that is looking for their curiosity to be peaked when they are traveling—whether it is for business or leisure.”
He said each of the brand’s hotels unlocks the destination for guests through three “filters of discovery”: culture and the arts; cuisine; and coordinates, or things that relate to the physical surroundings of the hotel.
While each Le Méridien has different architecture and design, a number of specific touchstones are present in each property.
“All these elements exist in every Le Méridien, but they are localized to use local flavors, local ingredients and local creativity,” Ingham said. “It’s how we create consistency when every hotel is different.”
Art is a common theme. Each property partners with a local arts institution to cooperate on programming and packaging. In Tampa, the Le Méridien works with the nearby Tampa Museum of Art, and by showing their room keys guests receive free admission to the museum.
The localization of brand touchstones is most evident in food and beverage. The chain encourages a coffee culture, and each property has a master barista on staff to create drinks reflective of local tastes. Éclairs, a common French pastry, are served at each hotel in three standard flavors—vanilla, chocolate and coffee—plus one created by the hotel.
Breakfast menus include four items common in a European brasserie but reinterpreted so they’re relevant to the destination. Eye openers, drink blends of local juices, are another staple.
In the evening, each hotel hosts Sparkling, an aperitif hour in which sparkling cocktails are offered for sale, with each of the properties’ staff concocting their own recipes.
Editor’s note: Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts paid for all travel expenses to Tampa, including airfare, amenities and hotel accommodation. Complete editorial control was at the discretion of the Hotel News Now editorial team; Le Méridien had no influence over the coverage provided.