Minor Hotels is set to grow its global sales team amid its expansion in Europe and India, following a record fiscal year for the company in 2023.
The international hotel owner, which boasts a portfolio of 540 properties in 56 countries, has seen a post-pandemic recovery that even its highest-level executives couldn’t have predicted. It enjoyed its most successful year ever in 2023 across its eight brands (Anantara, Avani, Elena Collection, Oaks, NH Hotels & Resorts, NH Collection, Nhow and Tivoli), reporting a record core revenue of $3.4 billion – a result that propelled its core net profit to grow by 450% compared to the previous year.
The figures for the past few months are looking even more promising, with Q1 of 2024 emerging as yet another record season for the Bangkok-based multi-brand group.
“Honestly, we didn’t see this coming,” Dillip Rajakarier, chief executive officer at Minor Hotels, told TTG Luxury. It may not have foreseen such a strong comeback, but the company is more than ready for a renaissance, as it aims to add 200 hotels to its collection by the end of 2026, move its European brands into Asia and expand into India for the first time.
What Minor had expected to be a trundle towards recovery following the pandemic has quickly morphed into a full-throttle ascent. The organisation’s first step towards managing such an accelerated growth has been to build its presence across the world, starting with hiring the right people.
Sales investment
With regards to the sales team in Europe and Americas regions, Minor has 12 global sales offices with specialists in all key segments such as luxury, consortia, global corporate accounts, MICE and leisure.
In addition, the position of global head of sales (based in Madrid) has been created to oversee the sales strategy across all markets. Minor is currently looking to grow its sales department, however, to ensure that it has adequate representation across all of its destinations.
“We’re expanding our sales team, looking at it by speciality, rather than by brand. We do expertise by segment,” said Marion Walsh-Hedouin, global head of communications and public relations at Minor Hotels.
Another priority for Minor, amid this exponential growth, is working closely with the trade. “We do a lot of fam trips both on the PR side and trade side, and we work with networks like Virtuoso,” Walsh-Hedouin added. “We’re also very involved with trade events that specialise in luxury.”
European growth
Minor also plans to open 40 new properties across Europe, in light of business on the continent achieving its highest-ever third quarter, thanks to robust leisure demand and a substantial increase in business travel.
Its latest European opening is the Tivoli Palazzo Gaddi Firenze Hotel, but it’s also currently focused on building its presence in the Nordic countries.
“We’re quite strong in southern Europe, but northern Europe is where we’re expanding now,” said Rajakarier.
Minor made its Finland debut last October with the NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa, a 224-room luxury hotel in the heart of the port city. Its launch succeeded the 2021 opening of NH Collection Copenhagen, which marked the first ever Nordic property for the company.
Buoyed by these early steps, Minor now plans to expand its brands across Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, as research revealed higher demand for high-quality hotels in the northern European region.
“Our move north is based on footprint,” Rajakarier explained. “We already have a lot of guests from the Nordic countries, and so now, we want to come to them.” He added that Minor Hotels is also looking to break into Central Asia, in light of “very strong outbound business from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan into Maldives and Asia, especially in March and April.”
India expansion
Minor also plans to open 50 new properties across India within the next 10 years as part of its global expansion. It currently only has one hotel in the country, the Oaks Bodhgaya in Bihar, but it will be launching its Anantara brand in the Rajasthan capital of Jaipur later this year.
“I think the time is right,” said Rajakarier. “There’s so much happening in India and it’s a mega economy on our doorstep. The mid-market is also growing really fast in India because of the tech world, and the good thing is, the Indians love our brands because they’ve experienced them everywhere - Europe, the Maldives, Thailand.”
The expansion into India coincides with the appointment of Puneet Dhawan as head of Asia. Formerly the senior vice president of operations for India and South Asia at Accor, the hotelier will be responsible for the performance of all Minor Hotels across the continent.
“We feel Puneet has a wealth of experience,” said Rajakarier. “He’s been in India for a long time, and before that, he was in the Middle East. With our plan, expanding into India, it’s an opportune time to bring him in.”
