The Accor group is maintaining its development course in Morocco by having, to date, 38 hotels with a total capacity of 5,459 rooms in 14 cities and employing a total of 2,500 employees serving more than 2 million customers. Seven strong brands with distinct personalities are present there: Sofitel, the luxury brand, Pullman, the brand with a contemporary spirit, MGallery by Sofitel, luxury boutique hotels, Novotel, the family brand, Mercure, the regional brand with local culture, ibis, leader in economy hotels and ibis budget, the low cost brand of the ibis family.
It must be said that to date, the ibis network in Morocco has 17 hotels located in 12 cities (Casablanca, Mohammedia, Rabat, El Jadida, Fez, Meknes, Tangier, Oujda, Fnideq, Marrakech, Agadir and Ouarzazate), with a total hotel capacity of 2,150 rooms and employing a staff of 560 employees.
In order to support the evolving expectations of this target and adapt to the profound changes that travel preparation, reservation and consumption methods are experiencing today, “the ibis brand has begun a repositioning intended to provide the best possible services for a hotel in its category. ibis is therefore part of a contemporary spirit, and aims to be a caring and efficient brand that places the customer at the center of its concerns,” explains Hamid Bentahar.
Rightly so, the new positioning offered in the ibises of Morocco, embodied by the promise of “well-being at the best price”, is based on characteristics of “welcome, comfort and service, unprecedented for its category”, affirms, for his part, Ismail Loubaris. These will, according to him, be deployed in phases in all ibis hotels in Morocco. For ibis, this repositioning takes place through “intrinsic changes to the hotel (design, layout of spaces, comfort in the rooms, etc.) and the services offered, with the same objective of offering the best quality of services in the economic category”, he continues.
For Hamid Bentahar, the development strategy implemented by the AccorHotels group in Morocco aims to achieve the following objectives:
– Position Sofitel as an “authentic luxury hotel with a French soul”, bringing together local culture and the French art of living;
– Position Pullman as a “contemporary upscale hotel”, international and cosmopolitan;
– Strengthen its leadership in the mid-range segment with Novotel, which establishes a new standard of “simple and elegant art of living”
– Consolidate the Mercure brand, particularly suited to the conversion of existing hotels since it aims to imbue itself with the local spirit;
– Continue the deployment of the ibis budget brand in Morocco, and promote the ibis brand to strengthen its position as leader in the economy category, notably through openings and upgrades planned for the period 2016 – 2018, including:
– The reopening of a 170-room ibis in Rabat on February 16, 2017;
– The reopening of ibis Casa Voyageurs planned for the end of 2017, after renovation and updating work;
– The opening of a 98-room ibis in Mohammedia planned for the end of 2017.
For its part, the upgrade of ibis rooms and common areas will result in the generalization of the Sweet Room by ibis at ibis Casablanca City Center, ibis Sidi Maârouf, ibis Marrakech Gare and ibis Oujda between the end of 2016 and 2018. As well as an “optimized upgrade of general services at ibis Casablanca City Center, ibis Sidi Maârouf, ibis Marrakech Gare, ibis Oujda, ibis El Jadida, ibis Fès and ibis Meknès between 2017 and 2019,” specifies H. Bentahar.
