Accor Details Growth Plans for Luxury Brands, Teases All-Inclusive Expansion
Here’s what’s next for the Fairmont, Raffles, and Orient Express brands.
Fairmont Breakers Long Beach. Photo: Accor
Accor is refining its expansion plans for its lifestyle and luxury products. That was the topic of conversation among the hotel group’s top executives and members of the travel trade media in New York City on Feb. 27.
The company is a big player in European hospitality with 47 brands ranging from economy to ultra luxury. Its luxury and lifestyle portfolios are spread all over the world and produced record revenue growth in 2024 – up 10% in Q4 2024 from the year before.
Now, Accor is strategically expanding its upscale brands – a mission the team does not take lightly, especially in the Americas. While Fairmont and Sofitel have a strong presence on the continent, Raffles has just one U.S. property – Raffles Boston – which opened in September 2023.
“Accor is a leader in all the other geographies in the world. It’s much tougher but it’s what makes Accor different,” said Sébastien Bazin, Accor’s group president and CEO.
While Accor once boasted opening a hotel a day (365 in a year), the company opened 293 in 2024, and that’s on purpose. The hotel operator is refining its palette for the new, even stripping hotels from its portfolio that do not meet its standards.
In the lifestyle space, which for Accor includes brands like SLS, Mondrian, and SO/, Bazin said the company would expand in the Americas “with an American partner.”
Notably, 75% of Accor’s North and Central America rooms are in the luxury segment, and more than 90% of Accor’s total North and Central America revenue is from hotels in the luxury segment.
Here are the segments where Accor does anticipate growth in years to come:
Heritage Luxury Brands: Following the success of Raffles Boston and Fairmont Breakers in Long Beach, California, the company has a few destinations in mind to expand these brands in the Americas. Accor is in advanced discussions to bring Raffles to Beverly Hills; Brickel, Miami; and Mayacoba, according to Omer Acar, CEO of Raffles and Fairmont.
“Raffles is an ultra-luxury product. You don’t get Raffles in secondary, tertiary cities – that would be a mistake,” Bazin said. “So we would be very happy to have less than 10 Raffles in America and it’s meant that way.”
For the Fairmont brand, Accor is in advanced discussions for new properties in Nashville and New Orleans. The company is also looking to bring ski resorts, which Accor has successfully deployed in Europe, to Telluride and other parts of the U.S.
Fairmont Tokyo, Fairmont Golden Prague, and Faena New York are other luxury hotel openings to look out for in 2025.
All-Inclusive Resorts: Travelers can expect Accor to pop up more in the all-inclusive market in Central America. The company has partnered with Rixos, a European resort operator, to deploy seven to eight Accor brands as all-inclusives that Rixos will manage. “We realized it only six years ago, how fabulous that market it,” Bazin said. “We’re catching up quickly.”
Ultra-Luxury Products: Accor has also placed a strong focus on Orient Express yachts, trains, and hotels, starting with La Dolce Vita Orient Express launching in Italy this spring and the new Orient Express La Minerva hotel in Rome. Bazin said the yacht, launching in May 2026, “will have the ‘wow’ effect. It is beyond this world in terms of luxury.”
