PHILADELPHIA—Le Méridien marked five years with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide by establishing a strategy for North American growth upon a foundation of refined identity and a leaner portfolio worldwide.
A Paris-born brand, Le Méridien was founded by Air France in 1972. As such, the portfolio is predominantly Europe, Middle East and Africa distribution, but Starwood wants to bring the brand stateside in a bigger way.
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Party guests mingle in the library of Le Méridien Philadelphia. |
There are 63 Le Méridien hotels in the EMEA region, 27 in Asia, 11 in North America and two in Latin America.
The new push for North America comes after cutting 45 hotels from the system, according to Eva Ziegler, global brand leader for Le Méridien and W Hotels Worldwide. There have been 15 large-scale renovations and another 40 will be completed.
“This shows that our owners see the value of the brand,” she said. “It’s a new horizon coming for our existing owners.”
For future owners, it’s about finding a way to create a branded experience that matches the economic model, CEO Frits van Paasschen said. “To bring a Europe brand into the U.S., it was about thinking through the balance of global consistency and local relevance.”
The brand was well-known globally, but the positioning wasn’t where Starwood would like it, he added.
Brand clarity
Before Starwood, brand standards at upper-upscale Le Méridien were more like suggestions, Ziegler said. Now, everything is about engaging the guest in curiosity and creativity.
“We’re not hiding the French heritage, but it’s not overwhelming,” van Paasschen said.
The service culture also is beginning to take shape around this concept, she said.
“It’s all about being responsive to our guests and when the moment is right to invoke curiosity,” van Paasschen said.
The key concept of the new Le Méridien is a relationship with the arts. This begins with the brand’s cultural curator, Jérôme Sans, and LM100, a community of artists who contribute curated cultural experiences to Le Méridien guests.
Other elements at the property level include:
- the arrival experience: entry artwork, the lobby as a social hub, soundscape, signature scent and curated keycard art;
- coffee culture;
- art fair partnerships; and
- A New Perspective event series.
Many executives referenced the book, “The Rise of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida when discussing why the identity of Le Méridien works.
“The juxtaposition of different design elements is allowed in creativity,” said Simon Turner, president, global development, in reference to the fifth-floor atrium of the flagship Le Méridien Philadelphia, where the exterior of a historic building and a modern interpretation of the decks of the Titanic create the walls of the atrium. This flexibility and eclectic feel make the brand more accessible to guests and developers.
Turner believes the established, sophisticated owner and manager community in the United States will make franchising a possibility for Le Méridien, where it doesn’t exist elsewhere.
HEI Hotels & Resorts, which opened the first U.S. Le Méridien in 2006 in San Francisco and owns the Philadelphia and Dallas installments, has been a great partner, Turner said. “They were very helpful to us as we refined the positioning and operating model in the U.S.,” he said.
As the transaction market returns in the U.S., Le Méridien will be a perfect conversion brand, Turner said. The primary targets for growth are coastal cities: Miami, Atlanta, Washington, Boston and eventually Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Secondary cities such as Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, where a strong local culture exists, could also work.
Turner said he would like to see 25 Le Méridien hotels in North America by 2015. “That’s realistic and achievable,” he said.