* With the addition of Dubai's Grosvenor House West Marina Beach Dubai in 2005, Le Meridien will operate three properties within 500m of each other. How can the luxury hotel group manage the potential conflict to maintain maximum market share for each individual property?
* Pam Wilby, general manager of Grosvenor House West Marina Beach by Le Meridien, explains.
Unlike some other international brands, Le Meridien hotels all look different, and have very individual USPs, but all are of a world-class standard in their audience segmentation type.
A degree of positioning for an individual property comes as a legacy of the corporate brand - luxury properties with their own identity. Each property then has the flexibility to fine-tune that corporate positioning, depending on their target guests and the perceived lifestyle of that target guest.
Taking Dubai as an example, all four existing properties in the group - Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi, Al Sondos Suites by Le Meridien and Le Meridien Dubai - have slightly different target audiences.
All four properties show how product positioning can be moulded and defined to suit location and audience catchment, while staying within the brand promise and standards of the corporate brand.
So, with the addition of Grosvenor House, this will not change - and indeed, the portfolio will be strengthened with the addition of a grand-deluxe landmark property on Dubai Marina. Grosvenor House will take its place as one of the group's international signature properties.
Furthermore, Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa will be our "sister" property - indeed, I am general manager of both - so Grosvenor House guests and residents will have full access to the beach facilities of the resort, and this will add another 14 food and beverage outlets to those available at the Marina property.
Le Meridien has long operated a very successful "cross sell" strategy worldwide through its properties and regional sales offices and through its head office in London. This means that any one Le Meridien property has a global sales team in excess of 1000 people.
-Ends-
Notes to editor:
London-based Le Meridien (www.lemeridien.com) is a global hotel group with a portfolio of over 135 luxury and upscale hotels (36,000 rooms) in 56 countries worldwide. The majority of its properties are located in the world's top cities and resorts throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. The company also enjoys a strategic alliance with JAL-owned Nikko Hotels, providing loyal guests access to an additional 44 properties around the world.
Details from www.lemeridien.com
Further information:
Susan Furness / Kirstie Hepburn
Strategic Solutions for Grosvenor House,
West Marina Beach
tel. +971 4 391 5390,
e-mail media@strategicsolutionsonline.com
© Press Release 2005
