Accor is proud to announce a record year for ibis hotels and a strong performance for the Mercure brand which has been awarded “most improved brand of the year”.The BDRC hotel guest survey reports that ibis is now one of Britain’s top three budget hotel brands. In terms of growing brand awareness and consumers’ preferred choice, ibis ranked highly.
The ibis megabrand programme has sought to revolutionize Accor’s economy hotel portfolio around its ibis brand. This included the evolution of three strong, innovative, modernised brands—ibis, ibis styles and ibis budget—and has formed the keystone of Accor’s economy portfolio.
Thomas Dubaere, Managing Director, Accor UK & Ireland said: “This is a great result particularly since we are just at the start of the ibis megabrand roll out programme. Throughout 2013 we have ambitious plans to continue our refurbishment programme across our ibis UK properties, and we hope to complete this scheme in record speed. Such robust customer endorsement of the new brand is very encouraging to see at this early stage.”
The research also shows that awareness of the Mercure brand has made giant steps. Mercure was awarded the “most improved brand of the year”.
Jonathan Sheard, Senior Vice President MGallery and Mercure, Northern Europe said: “Mercure has seen the largest increase in prompted brand awareness in the BDRC research. This shows not only our customers’ confidence in the Mercure brand, but also that they are increasingly recommending the brand. This customer support is great news for Mercure hotels as the brand expands rapidly in the UK primarily through franchise and management contracts.”
