Ibis wades into franchise arena
IBIS, the two-star hotel brand owned by Accor, is planning to move into franchising in the UK in a bid to add up to four more hotels by the end of 1996.
The company is looking at sites in Leicester, Manchester and Canterbury, with Edinburgh likely to be the first. Properties will probably be new-build rather than existing hotels.
The eight Ibis hotels in the UK, all of them company-owned, achieved an occupancy of 67% for the five months to the end of May, up 25% on the same period a year ago.
"Our good results mean we can think again about expansion," Pierre Alexandre Vertadier, Ibis's marketing and communication director, told Caterer.