PARIS-based Concorde Hotels will unveil a totally-revised corporate look at World Travel Market in November.
The group believes its current logo, which is presented in a thin, gold typeface on a white background, has run its course.
The new look is still top secret, but sales and regional director Russell Brewerton said it has been designed to be bolder and brighter.
“We are working more and more with airline and car rental partners and when we are with them at exhibitions, we aren’t standing out enough. We also thought that, with the new millennium, we should have a fresh look,” he said.
However, while the group’s corporate look is getting a face-lift, its philosophy remains the same.
“Our hotels are traditional. We always have between 70 and 75 of them and we don’t want to grow any bigger than that. We are a privately-owned company and so we will never become a Hilton, or an SRS Hotel, or a Leading Hotels of the World,” said Brewerton.
Concorde Hotels owns 10 hotels in France, seven of which are in Paris, and acts as a representation group for the rest of its portfolio.
Although its size remains the same, hotels come and go as is the way with representation groups.
Perhaps the most significant change this year has been the departure of the St James’ Hotel in London.
The 400-room property joined Bass Hotels and Resorts under the Crowne Plaza brand at the end of August. In its place, Concorde has managed to sign the Royal Lancaster at Marble Arch, which is fortunately the same size.
The Royal Lancaster is currently represented by Summit Hotels but decided to sign with Concorde because it believes it has a stronger sales presence in the US.
It will join on November 1 when it will switch to the Concorde code CD on the global distribution systems.
Concorde has also signed a new hotel just south of Cork, in Ireland, called the Lodge and Spa.
The chain’s priority now, says Brewerton, is to bolster its presence in the US and Asia.
At present it has only four hotels in Asia, three in Japan and the other in Bangkok, and two in the US, The Colonnade Hotel in Boston and the Stanhope in New York.
Despite this, Concorde said its business continues to grow, particularly in the conference and incentive market.
The eight-strong UK sales team is on track to book 75,000 room nights in 1999 compared to 50,000 three years ago. This will translate into £8.5m worth of bookings for the year.
“There is more awareness of the London centre as a booking office now and we have improved our conference service. We guarantee that we get back to people within 12 hours now,” said Brewerton.
“We were getting 12 conference enquiries a week three years ago and we are now getting an average of 55 a week.”
Concorde expects to be able to accept on-line bookings through its Web site by the end of the year.
For agents, it has already upgraded to seamless connectivity on Galileo and Sabre and will be able to include Amadeus on the same basis by January.
This means agents will be able to see last-minute availability, negotiate rates and make real-time bookings.