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Looking to transplant an established American hotel brand into foreign markets is always challenging. Essentially it’s like launching an entirely new brand. The brand’s potential customer base in the local market has no idea as to what the flag means, and well entrenched competition has every advantage.
But over at Embassy Suites Hotels, Jim Holthouser, SVP brand management, is looking both north and south of the border as virgin territory in which to expand the brand to as many as 300 hotels by 2010. There are currently 190 Embassy’s open.
Last November, Embassy raised the flag on its first Mexico City property, and just this week it debuted the Embassy Suites by Hilton Montréal, its second Canadian property. That property is a 210 suite hotel owned by by Vancouver-based Aquilini Group Properties LP and will be managed by Pacrim Hospitality Services Inc.
You’ll note the subtle shift in the brand’s name above. Holthouser said the Hilton name is being added to these international markets as a means of enhanced recognition. It’s a strategy he employed when he was running Homewood Suites by Hilton. It helped Homewood gain traction in the market and development of new hotels soared shortly after the Hilton name incorporation.
The expansion into the new markets signals a seminal shift for the brand. Though the upscale all-suite brand has had success, its development pipeline had stalled. Holthouser was brought in to create a similar success story as he had done with Homewood and immediately set out to create a more developer friendly prototype. It’s a more flexible design and allows variation on the brand’s signature atrium to be more space conscious in urban markets. It has proven to be the shot of adrenaline the brand needed to get the development pipeline rolling again.
“When you look at where we were 15 months ago, we had little to talk about. But we have come a long way. We have lots of good stuff happening and it all started with the prototype. In today’s development arenas flexibility is the name of the game,” said Holthouser. “Adding the Hilton name has added legitimacy and credibility when you enter markets like Panama, for example, where Embassy is not well known. It helps from a customer standpoint and gives developers a much higher degree of comfort.”
The prototype philosophy, Holthouser said, is to give developers a “kit of parts,” including a scalable design that works from 156 to 300 keys. The brand can also be plugged into high rises, mixed use developments and more traditional suburban and tertiary markets.
Because of this flexibility, Holthouser is bullish there can be up to 20 Embassy Suites in Canada alone in markets such as each province’s capital city. In Toronto and Montreal he sees three to four alone. Already the largest Embassy in the system is in the Niagara Falls area in Canada, a property he said does boffo business.
South of the border, the company is targeting about seven markets in addition to Mexico City and has a pair of deals already signed in Central America; one for San Jose Costa Rica and the other in Panama City. Already under construction is a 200-suite property in Valencia, Venezuela which will open in the first quarter 2008. It will be followed by a 165-suite property in Lima, Peru one year later, which is set to break ground early next year.
The brand is already established in Caracas and Bogota.
To support its Latin American expansion, Embassy has been beefing up its ranks with multi-lingual brand support staff and created a Latin American owners advisory board. Their job is to assist in the brand’s understanding of varying cultural nuances and business styles. “They also educate me,” said Holthouser.
Meanwhile, back in the Great White North the property in Montreal, the property’s development and ownership group is thrilled to be helping to carve out a Embassy niche. “We are excited to open the first Embassy Suites by Hilton in Montréal and introduce award-winning and renowned level of hospitality and professionalism for which Embassy Suites is known. We are convinced the Embassy Suites will be an exciting addition to the Montreal business and leisure market," said Roberto Aquilini of Aquilini Investments.
The property is located in downtown Montréal and features two-room suites -- most with a fireplace - comprised of a separate living area with a sofa bed and desk, private bedroom and bath, HDTV flat screen televisions , two dual-line phones, wired and wireless high-speed Internet access, a wet bar, refrigerator, microwave oven, and an iron and ironing board. In addition, the Embassy Suites by Hilton- Montréal offers the EmbassyDirect™ Registration Kiosk, with boarding pass printing capabilities, complimentary business center access, a convenient complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast each morning and a complimentary two-hour Manager’s Reception* each evening.
The hotel also features an auto-sensing remote Jack Pack in each suite. This unit allows guests to plug all electronic gear into the television providing a multi-media interface for hotel guests. It allows for a wide range of portable devices such as laptop computers, video game players, MP3 players and iPods, camcorders, DVD/CD players to be connected and played through the hotel television panel.
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