16 May 2023
Words John Miller Informer 106

Accor’s Golden Appetite

There’s good reason why the world’s leading hotel group is calling the Gold Coast “the leisure capital of Australia.” The French hospitality giant has coined the slogan as a working mantra among its team for the country’s most popular holiday destination.

“Leisure is all about enjoyment,” says John Warn, Accor’s COO. “It’s about engaging in different experiences, and that’s what the Gold Coast has in abundance.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s theme parks or small boutique experiences in the hinterland or hot-air ballooning or sky diving or fine dining, the Gold Coast is the ultimate playground for leisure.

“We also think the Gold Coast is a real hub for travel, whether it’s Queenslanders or interstate and now international travellers. The expansion of the Gold Coast Airport in 2022 cements the idea of it being the leisure capital because people from all over come here looking for a break.

“We think it’s an apt description. And, of course, the climate is perfect.”

Accor’s extensive investments in the Gold Coast backs up the French multinational’s belief in the city as a holiday playground. Accor has 27 properties on the coast centred around Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Coolangatta. 

Accor’s Gold Coast portfolio includes 11 of its popular Mantra brand, as well as fellow midscale brands Novotel (Surfers Paradise) and Mercure (Carrara), and premium and luxury brands Peppers (Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach) and Sofitel (Broadbeach). In June last year, Accor opened The Sebel Twin Towns Coolangatta, a first for Accor’s premium Sebel brand, following an extensive upgrade of Mantra Twin Towns Coolangatta.

  
Photo credit: Left, Kirra Smith Photography. Right, Adrienne Dufficy

The Sebel Twin Towns Coolangatta features 120 superior guestrooms across five floors, including a suite of king, queen and twin rooms. Accor also recently relaunched its hugely popular Hyde Paradiso restaurant at Peppers Soul in Surfers Paradise.

“The pandemic disrupted travel behaviours and now people are even more inclined to travel domestically and stay local,” says Warn. “It reminded us of how incredible Australia is. We saw an upsurge in demand for properties on the Gold Coast last year and there are positive early signs for this year. Booking demand for quarter one is solid and Easter is looking excellent, and winter is also looking very promising.” 

Accor’s $1.2 billion acquisition of the Mantra business in 2018 had its roots on the Gold Coast and the company is now firmly entrenched there. Corporately, Accor has more people employed in its Gold Coast support office than it does in Sydney, including Warn himself.

Warn says Accor is looking at the Gold Coast to expand both its traditional hotel base and beyond. Accor’s first internationally branded residences in Australia under its luxury/leisure Ennismore brand, Mondrian Residences Gold Coast, is currently under development on The Esplanade in Burleigh Heads. 

The prestige $450 million property comprising 84 apartments over 25 levels will give owners an ultrapremium private residence, fully serviced by an international five-star hotel.

Owners will have full access to the adjacent Mondrian hotel’s five-star services and amenities, including 24-hour room service. Demand was so high, residences at the property were already fully sold out within the first six months and the waiting list of potential buyers continues to grow.

  
Photo credit: Left, Adrienne Dufficy. Right, Kasey Funnell

“We’re actively exploring other opportunities,” says Warn. “We think the Gold Coast is a great city and that the existing infrastructure and future planning between the local council and state government is working optimally for the city. We’re very excited about its future.”

Despite the upsides, Warn says it hasn’t all been plain sailing, especially regarding employment challenges for the industry.

“We’ve been at 90, 95, 98 per cent occupancy with different properties on the Gold Coast, and it’s been a hard time for our teams. The amount of team member vacancies in the middle of last year was a concern. I’m pleased to say we’re now on top of it, but our teams had to work very hard through those tough months. 

“There were two cyclical factors responsible for it. The pandemic pushed out all backpackers who were part of the workforce, around eight to 10 per cent. When Covid started we went to many of our staff and said, unfortunately, we can’t give you as many hours or you don’t have a role in the short term. What happened to those people is they went and found employment in another sector. When hotel business returned, we got some of them back but not all of them back. Of the new employees, many didn’t have hospitality experience. I’m sure when you’ve gone out to dinner in the last few months you’ve had a really indifferent or poor experience, less than what it was pre-Covid because often the person waiting the table has never waited table before or poured a drink or served a meal.” 

Warn says Accor is proactively working with both state and federal governments to bring back holiday workers. It has also done a lot of work with smaller organisations including indigenous groups to encourage work placement into the hospitality sector. Accor’s other big focus is offering career development and career pathways around the world in its business.

“So, when you come and work for us in hospitality it’s not just about pulling beers for making a bed,” says Warn. “You can head up finance one day, you can run a hotel, work in commercial, you can run distribution, or you can be working in the acquisition and development space.” END

Photo credit: Main image (top of page), Adrienne Dufficy.