After a decade of unstable ownership and a lack of brand clarity in the marketplace, Le Méridien is poised to not only recapture but to exceed the allure and infinite promise of its early days in 1970’s Paris with the support of new owner Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT). Since its acquisition by the hotel giant in November 2005, Le Méridien’s financial performance has exceeded all forecasts and the brand is set to substantially grow its footprint worldwide. In addition, Starwood, well known for its innovations and branding prowess, has developed a unique brand positioning that capitalises on Le Méridien’s heritage and distinguishes it from competitors in the upper upscale hotel arena. Over the next few months, Le Méridien will reveal a series of brand defining initiatives, partnerships and artistic events that signal a fresh approach aimed at attracting the world’s creative class.
Le Méridien Thriving in Starwood System, Exceeding Financial Expectations
When it acquired Le Méridien less than two years ago, Starwood anticipated that the alignment of the Le Méridien brand with a larger, stable, multi-branded hotel group would enable the brand to thrive. In fact today, Le Méridien has outperformed Starwood’s lofty financial expectations, with RevPar (revenue per available room), a key industry measure, up 12.2% in 2006, largely attributed to the strength of Starwood’s systems. For instance, when Le Méridien “plugged into” Starwood’s call centres, its inbound reservation calls lifted 30%, while the brand’s website experienced a 43% surge in revenue following the integration into Starwood’s branded websites. Le Méridien’s global sales organisation saw a 28% increase in revenue after joining Starwood’s Global Sales organisation. Finally, Le Méridien’s loyalty stays are up an astounding 230% following the integration of the previous loyalty programme, Méridien Moments, into the award winning Starwood Preferred Guest programme.

“The immediate lift in performance by the brand is a testament to Starwood’s successful integration of Le Méridien, and that it is the perfect compliment for the brand, giving it a highly robust and effective operational platform.” said Eva Ziegler, Senior Vice President, Le Méridien Brand.

Starwood to Grow Le Méridien’s Global Footprint
Starwood Hotels & Resorts saw Le Méridien’s global distribution, and particularly its significant presence in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as a perfect complement to its geographical footprint. According to Ziegler, Le Méridien hotels are located in many markets where Starwood does not have a strong presence. Likewise, Le Méridien sees tremendous opportunity to develop in regions where its current presence is light, particularly North America and Asia Pacific by being part of Starwood.

Plans call for the brand to continue to expand thoughtfully in key European markets where the brand does not yet have a foothold, including St. Petersburg, Prague and Dusseldorf, where Le Méridien will open properties in the coming years. Other destinations in the pipeline include locations in Serbia, Morocco, South Africa, Qatar and Oman. Le Méridien is also looking to strengthen its resort portfolio with several new resorts in traditional leisure locales in Spain.

In the United States and Canada, where Le Méridien currently only has seven hotels, expansion plans are focused on major gateway cities and alternative markets catering to creative professionals. According to Ziegler, the brand’s European caché and unique point of view make it attractive to developers looking for alternatives to more established brands. The development community also sees great potential in developing Le Méridien in mixed use residential properties as well as anchor hotels in high end retail developments featuring luxury brands.

The pipeline of Le Méridien hotels in Asia Pacific is comparable to two of Starwood’s other hotel brands, Westin and W Hotels, with a focus on city centre hotels and resorts in leisure destinations, which complements the brand’s resort stronghold in Southeast Asia.

Refocus on Brand Standards
A key area of focus for the brand since the acquisition, following several years of uncertainty and lack of direction and investment, has been to provide a more consistent guest experience across the global portfolio. According to Ziegler, there is currently some variation in brand standards evident which needs to be rectified as an additional development objective for the brand. A major aspect of the new brand direction is to ensure that Le Méridien guests are assured of the same level of excellence of service and experience, whichever property they are guests of.

Fresh Brand Positioning to Attract the Creative Class
From a marketing perspective, Le Méridien has successfully defined itself as the hotel for the “creative class” and is currently launching global marketing initiatives to enhance its new positioning, and part of this was appointing Jérôme Sans, an acclaimed, non-traditional innovator within the art world, as Cultural Curator. Following the success in late 2006 of Le Méridien’s FIRST NIGHT events in Shanghai and San Francisco, where Le Méridien commissioned acclaimed Parisian lighting artist Thierry Dreyfus to artfully re-imagine newly opened Le Méridien hotels into large-scale interactive works of art, Jérôme Sans will continue to forge exclusive partnerships with cutting-edge arts institutions and associations, providing unique experiences for guests at Le Méridien properties around the world.

tags: le-meridien, starwood, success, hotels, resorts, hospitality, travel, tourism, finance, branding, paris, french, european, growth, development