THE INTERVIEW : ARNE SORENSON
to travel . Markets like Paris , London and Rome are spectacular destinations , and while there may be a decline in European visitation to those markets , global visitation will protect them .
H : Where does Marriott stand with the Edition brand ?
AS : Our timing rolling out the brand was horrible at the peak in 2007 . When we got off the ground , there was a great response from third-party owners who were developing . We had close to 10 deals signed , or close to being signed , as the recession started to take hold . Only two deals survived ( Waikiki and Istanbul ).
Istanbul is a lovely hotel , and business is building nicely . Waikiki opened to really positive guest and critical response , but obviously we have had our own saga there that has been extremely frustrating . In some respects , if we were asked what we would have done differently , the thing I would focus on is that we should have taken control of some assets sooner to
“ AS BAD AS THE RECESSION WAS , WE ARE BACK TO A POINT WHERE IN MOST MARKETS HOTEL- LEVEL REVENUES ARE APPROACHING THEIR PEAK IN
NOMINAL TERMS . IN 2012 , WE ARE LIKELY TO SEE A MAJORITY OF MARKETS GETTING CLOSER TO PEAK REVENUES .” – Arne Sorenson
make sure we can bring them to market and control the brand ' s destiny — even in the midst of the economic crisis . But in the real world I am not sure I can necessarily sit here and tell you we would have done it differently .
Today we have three hotels we are developing ourselves — Miami , New
York City and London . They will be fabulous hotels and will be a huge incremental launch for the brand . We are already seeing a number of partners step up as the economy recovers , and they see our commitment to the brand . We have Abu Dhabi , Bangkok and Gurgaon ( India ) under development , and we have a number of others we are exploring . I expect we will see a good pipeline built over the next few years .
H : How is Autograph Collection performing right now ?
AS : Autograph Collection is , in our view , the best full-service brand launch in the hotel business — ever . It has gone from zero to 35 or so hotels with dozens behind it in a very short time with great hotels seeing huge increases in RevPAR index . The owners that have signed on love it and love the returns they are seeing .
H : What is your take on the state of the luxury hotel business ?
AS : Luxury is going to do great going forward , in part due to the global
See you at Internorga , Hamburg Stand A4.315 www . hotelsmag . com March 2012 HOTELS 39