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Sofitel Hotels To Get New Looks

The Financial Times reports that Accor Hotels will be upgrading its Sofitel Hotel brand to accommodate more luxury and business travellers.

Gilles Pélisson, chief executive of Accor, is hoping to tap into the luxury brand market first. Afterall Accor is French and so is Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and Cartier, all luxury exports. Using these fashion brands as models, Accor will bring a new structure to the Sofitel brand.

Mr Pélisson believes that some less inspiring venues have compromised the brand's image. Accor plans to hive off 35 such hotels into a new chain aimed mainly at business travellers, where they will trade under the Pullman name, a brand from the golden age of luxury train travel that the French company is resuscitating.

Particularly atmospheric properties will be dubbed Sofitel Legends, while boutique-style venues will bear the name So by Sofitel.

If this means that more Sofitels will look like the Sofitel Los Angeles (above), then we can't wait. But of course, such upmarket changes will be reflected in room rates which will increase about $60 in the next few years. Let's just hope they can put some money into spell-checking for their blogs.

Related Stories:
· Accor chief plans luxury refit for Sofitel [MSNBC]