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Tags: Accor Hotels / Vietnam Hotels / Hotel Deals / Novotel Hotels / Mercure Hotels / → All Tags
Accor is Running a Vietnam Super Sale, But You Have To Hurry
No time to twiddle your thumbs on this one: today is the last day of the Accor sale on various hotels in gorgeous Vietnam.
Similar to the Australasia-wide sale Accor had going a few months ago, this one just runs for a few days, and the rates they're offering are up to 50% off standard.
The deals work like this: at every Novotel in Vietnam — that includes the Novotel Dalat and the Novotel Nha Trang — the rates are just $45 a night across the country. At fancier Accor properties like the Grand Mercure Phu Quocor the La Residence Hue, there's a flat rate of $75 a night in this sale. There are also $45 rates on a couple of Mercure hotels due to open soon, in Hanoi and Hue.
Vietnam hotel market is definitely heating up and Accor has another ten projects in the pipeline there, with tourism booming — so this kind of sale might have the lowest prices you see in a while. You need to book through the Vietnam Super Sale website to get these prices and remember, by the end of today it'll all be over.
Tags: Hotel Technology / Accor Hotels / Paris Hotels / Geek Hotels / → All Tags
Accor Unveils Futuristic, Gadget-Heavy Hotel Room in Paris
Hotel technology doesn't get much better than a hotel room that you can open using your cell phone, does it? Well, it sure turns us on and it's already a reality at the Pullman Paris Bercy, an Accor hotel that serves as a home-base for testing rooms from the chain's Innovation and Design unit.
You can actually book the test rooms or you might just be lucky to end up in one. As well as cell phone key technology (so far it only works from Samsung phones), there is a high tech shower with glass that turns from clear to opaque at the flick of a switch as well as having different lighting options while you're washing.
As you'd expect, all the gadgets are connected to a single remote control, which means you can fiddle with the bedroom and shower lights, lightproof blinds, TV and video projector without moving more than a couple of fingers.
The Pullman Bercy is aimed at business travelers but curious hotel tech observers are no doubt dropping by as well. Rates for a double start from around €170 ($225).
[Photo: kevin2102]
Tags: Hotel Deals / Accor Hotels / Novotel Hotels / Mercure Hotels / Ibis Hotels / All Seasons Hotels / Asia Hotels / Australia Hotels / → All Tags
Accor Tempting Us With Three-Day Sale in Oz, Kiwiland and Asia
Accor Hotels in the Asia Pacific are getting ready for a three-day sale--they say there'll be a million rooms in 250 hotels up for grabs at rates discounted by more than 75%. The sale runs from February 24 to 26 and is for stays between April and July.
This region includes Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and includes a bunch of hotel chains that are all branded to Accor: Novotel, Mercure, Ibis and All Seasons are among them.
Right now at the super sale website all you can see is a tantalizing "Coming soon", but we'll be there early on February 24. We're after an Adelaide hotel room in May and we'll let you know what kind of bargain we snag.
[Photo: Wikimedia]
Tags: Sydney Hotel Reviews / Accor Hotels / → All Tags
Sydney's Menzies Hotel Lives Up To Expectations
Just before Sydney went mad with its annual New Year's Eve fireworks, we snuck into the Menzies Hotel quite pleased with a last minute rate of just A$110 ($75) a night; the average rack rate is more like A$250 so don't expect bargain prices like that all the time.
The Menzies belongs to the Accor gang of hotels and seems to live up to its four stars. Friendly service seemed the order of the day, even if the concierge team weren't really too clued up on the info we'd expect them to know like basic ferry timetables and routes. At least they admitted their failings in that friendly Aussie way we love.
The rooms were comfy and new-looking, without anything that made us spectacularly satisfied, but also nothing wrong: a good shower, air-con that dealt with Sydney's humidity well and that all-important decent bed.
With a location directly opposite Wynyard train station and easy walking access either down to Circular Quay with its famous Bridge and Opera House, or in the other direction to the shopping and eating of Darling Harbour, we can't complain, and we'd happily stop by again.
[Photo: NoneColumbus]
Tags: Accor Hotels / Sydney Hotels / Hotel Packages / → All Tags
Pullman's Gold Medal Package Doesn't Include A Medal
We mentioned last month that Sydney was stocking up on hotel rooms, including the opening of the Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park--the first five-star hotel outside of central downtown in Sydney.
Now that the Pullman is properly up and running we're hearing more about it. The pillow menu got a good reaction in a recent Sydney Morning Herald review but the lack of a driveway in the hotel got the thumbs down--although there are apparently usually porters waiting to grab your suitcase when you pull up on the road, and the staff will also valet park your car for nix.
If you're feeling sporty, which we are when we think of this Olympic Park location, then the Pullman's Gold Medal Package might appeal to you. For A$285 (US$200) a night you get a double room, two passes to use the Sydney Aquatic Centre, and two tickets to take a tour of the huge ANZ Stadium.
Yes, we're disappointed that they don't throw in a medal (even a bronze would've been enough). But the disappointment wouldn't stop us trying out this "other" side of Sydney sometime.
Tags: Melbourne Hotels / Accor Hotels / Sofitel Hotels / MGallery Hotels / → All Tags
New Label for Old Hotel :: Grand Hotel Melbourne Becomes an MGallery Hotel
We got curious when fashionable Aussie blogger Karen Cheng said that the Accor Hotels people were sending her to stay at the "brand new" Grand Hotel by Sofitel on Spencer Street in Melbourne--we didn't think it was new. But a quick investigation soon found that in some ways, it is a bit new: it's just joined the exclusive MGallery hotel collection.
As far as we can figure out, the whole MGallery thing is meant to be a fancy version of the Mercure brand, hence the "M". To kick off the collection Accor have chosen eight hotels from their Sofitel and Grand Hotel Mercure chains to become MGallery hotels, and the Grand in Melbourne is one of them. Get it? So it's new, but not new.
Tags: Motel 6 / Accor Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Renovations / → All Tags
Is This the End of Ugly Bedspreads? Motel 6 To Get Euro-Sleek Look
Where: United States
People don't normally mention Motel 6 and "sleek design" in the same sentence. After all, the chain is known as the prototypical bare-bones roadside motel, with every material and piece of furniture in one seemingly the cheapest available in order to keep the nightly room rate below the competition's.
French parent company Accor is trying to change all that though, with "a modern, European boutique-style flair" according to the official press release.
Spin or no spin, the new room design, dubbed the Phoenix design, does sound like a major improvement:
The room includes ambient lighting, wood-effect flooring rather than carpet, and a 32-inch flat-screen TV. The flat screen TV is displayed on the entertainment unit which conceals the door-less wardrobe behind it, thus combining two needs into one unit.
Also included on the entertainment unit is a cubby for personal items and a multi-media panel allowing guests to plug in their mp3 players, CD players and laptop computers - this feature allows guests to listen to their favorite tunes or use the flat-screen TV as their computer monitor while enjoying Wi-Fi internet access in their room. The room also features pedestal beds with a new taupe-colored coverlet and pillow-top platform mattress.
And of course that WiFi will be free, despite a room rate that is 1/10 or less of the hotels charging you for access.
Construction will begin on the first prototype "in the latter half of 2008." The new prototype will then be available to franchisees starting summer 2009.
After the jump, see what a Motel 6 bedspread currently looks like.
[Photo: TravelWeekly]
Tags: Australia Hotels / Easter Hotels / Sydney Hotels / Accor Hotels / → All Tags
Hoopla Happenings at Sydney's Darling Harbour
Easter's coming early this year, and in Sydney as well as hunting for chocolate Easter eggs or greeting the Easter bilby (the Australian animal version of the Easter bunny), they'll be celebrating the Darling Harbour Hoopla Festival as well.
Hoopla is a circus and acrobatic festival that will see performers juggling, busking, abseiling and doing aerial stunts and slapstick comedy routines at many locations around the Darling Harbour precinct, all for free, and it sounds like a good laugh and a lot of fun.
Tags: Hotel News / Vietnam Hotels / Accor Hotels / → All Tags
French Hotel Chain Invades Vietnam
French hotel operator Accor announced this week that they would be ramping up their presence in Vietnam, adding 12 hotels to their current 8 by the end of 2010.
Forget any visions of unspoiled hill tribe regions in the far north: the 150-room Pullman Sapa Resort and the 200-room Pullman Lao Cai Hotel are on the way. Heavily touristed Ha Long Bay will get its first international hotel: Novotel Ha Long Bay, opening this summer.
Two new Mercure brand hotels will open in Hanoi, scheduled for 2009 and 2010--the first Mercure hotels in the country. More Novotels are on the way, including one in the beach resort area of Nha Trang.
Surprisingly, there were no high-end Sofitel hotels in the announcement, despite a lack of choices for luxury travelers and a booming export economy attracting plenty of foreign business travelers. Vietnam attracted 4.2 million foreign visitors in 2007, an annual increase of over 17 percent.
Still these will probably not be the last of the announcements: Accor opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on Wednesday.
Tags: Sofitel Hotels / Green Hotels / Accor Hotels / → All Tags
Sofitel Hotels Going Green with Wind Power
Sofitels are going green or should we say "vert"?
Accor North America and its French-style Sofitel Hotels have signed a new landmark agreement with Community Energy, Inc. to purchase clean, renewable wind energy to power all nine of its U.S. Sofitel locations.
This new eco-friendly agreement gives Sofitel Hotels the distinction of being the first hotel chain to be an EPA Green Power Partner.
Tags: Sofitel Hotels / Accor Hotels / Hotel Brands / Hotel News / Gilles Pélisson / → All Tags
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]
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