PARSIPANNY, NJ— Cendant Corp.’s Hotel Group is looking outside North America as a main component of its growth for 2004 and beyond and has already inked three international agreements, two in Ireland and one in China.
“The next logical step for us is to take a look at expansion opportunities outside the U.S. and North America,” Steve Rudnitsky, chairman and CEO of Cendant Hotel Group told HOTEL BUSINESS®. “We do believe there is significant opportunities outside the U.S. market,” he said adding that Cendant will also continue to grow its U.S. presence as well.
First, Cendant has signed two 10-year agreements with Premier Hotel Management, better known as the Prem Group, to develop Days Inn and Wingate hotels in Ireland. The Prem Group currently operates seven hotels in Ireland, including a Days Inn Serviced Apartment, four Days Inn Serviced Apartments in the U.K and six Premier Business Centers in Ireland.
These two agreements include the opening of 18 Days Inn properties and 12 Wingate properties for the first five years, Rudnitsky said. This year alone, five Wingate and four Days Inn hotels are expected to open in Ireland, he said, adding that this month five of the Prem Group’s Ireland hotels will be converted, three joining Wingate and two joining Days Inn.
Further, under the master development agreement, the Prem Group will also work with Cendant to recruit independent developers to franchise the two brands in Ireland, Rudnitsky said.
“We have built up a relationship with Cendant over the last few years,” said Jim Murphy, managing director of the Prem Group in Dublin. “We need secure brands. It is critical to the success of our hotels. Very few hotels in Ireland are branded, in fact less than 5%. There is a huge opportunity there for strong brands,” he said.
Specifically, the Wingate agreement marks the debut of the brand outside of North America, according to Murphy. Because of sensitivity to cultural and language differences, however, the brand will be marketed under the Wingate trademark instead of Wingate Inn, he said.
And while new construction will continue to be the game plan for Wingate’s growth in the U.S, converting high quality, existing hotel properties will be the strategy in Europe, according to Rudnitsky. However, all the amenities travelers have come to expect from Wingate in the U.S.— high-speed Internet access, all-inclusive pricing, business centers and fitness facilities in the hotel or nearby— will also be found in the converted properties in Ireland, he said.
“We decided the luxury, four-star segment is the most appropriate for our Wingate market strategy overseas,” Rudnitsky said. “The properties will adapt to Wingate standards. These are [considered]amenity properties already and are consistent with Wingate standards,” he said.
The first hotel to be converted to Wingate in Ireland is the Wingate Hibernian Hotel, a 40-room property in the Ballsbridge district of Dublin. The hotel features a full-service restaurant, bar, 24-hour room service, meeting and banquet facilities, a drawing room, library and sun lounge.
From Castle To Wingate
The next property to be converted is the Wingate Tulfarris Hotel & Golf Resort in Blessington Lakes. The Tulfarris, built in 1760 on the ruins of Tulfarris Castle, is a four-star luxury hotel with 80 guestrooms. The property also features an 18-hole championship golf course, two tennis courts, leisure center with swimming pool, tanning, beauty parlor, fine dining as well as casual dining, and conference rooms for up to 150 people.
The third property will be the Wingate Woodstock Hotel in Ennis. It is a 67-room hotel located on 155 acres of rolling hills and surrounded by the Woodstock Golf Course.
All three of these properties are owned and operated by the Prem Group.
“If you look at some of these hotels, they are four-star products. It will take very little to convert them over,” Murphy said. “Most of the hotels we are involved in are un-branded. These hotels will benefit enormously from this relationship with Cendant,” he said.
Under the Days Inn agreement, the first new property will be the Days Hotel Charleville, a modern property located one mile from Ireland’s city center. It’s a three star, 66-room property featuring 37 standard rooms, 20 one-bedroom suites and meeting facilities for up to 20 people.
The second Days property will be the three-star Days Inn Talbot St. in Dublin. This is a four-story with 60 guestrooms.
Opening China
Finally, also as part of its international expansion strategy, Cendant signed a master license agreement to franchise Days Inn hotels in China with Frontier Group Pte Ltd., a privately-held company based in Singapore, according to Rudnitsky. The agreement calls for the development of more than 40 Days Inn hotels during the first five years, with five hotels in the first year, he said.
There are currently two Days Inn hotels in China, one in Beijing and one in Harbin, which will be included in the franchise agreement with Frontier. “We are very bullish on franchising Days Inn in China. The timing is right for limited-service brands for many reasons— the economy is booming, fast growing population, emerging middle class, an increase in American visitors looking for American brands, travelers will be visiting China for the 2008 Olympics and 2010 World’s Fair, and an increase demand of motor vehicles will increase the demand for roadside hotels,” Rudnitsky said.