The upscale Sonesta International Hotels Corp. is on track to become a bigger player in the corporate travel market as it embarks on an aggressive growth plan, begins courting domestic franchising opportunities and readies for the launch of a new rewards program.
To aid in its growth, the Boston-based Sonesta in September brought in a new executive vice president of development, Philip Silberstein, who has spent the past 15 years in that role for Carlson Hotels. Silberstein said Sonesta now is poised to grow from its present 27 locations.
"Our development efforts in the past few years have not yielded the results the company hoped for," Silberstein said. "I'm being brought in to jumpstart that effort."
Silberstein said Sonesta properties could double during the next 10 years, although he has no specific goal. The growing popularity of boutique-style hotels
(BTNonline, Sept. 8) would aid development, he said. New properties will continue to fit within upscale and upper upscale tiers, but the Sonesta brand does not carry rigid design standards.
"Market conditions dictate our standards," he said. "We're less of a cookie-cutter brand and more of a unique, softer brand. I'd like to think that when you've seen one Sonesta, you've seen one Sonesta."
Sonesta currently has only four U.S. properties open—one in Miami, two in New Orleans and one in Boston—and has others opening soon in Miami and Orlando, Fla. Silberstein is keeping a close eye on other markets of opportunity.
"Typically, I would say city center and urban locations," Silberstein said. "Clearly, our strength is the Eastern Seaboard and the Caribbean, but that doesn't rule out any opportunities that might be available in other markets."
Sonesta soon will begin to court franchise agreements for U.S. properties. The company currently franchises properties in Brazil, Peru and the Caribbean but has not yet done so in the United States, Silberstein said. The company plans to be out to market by the end of the first quarter of 2009, though Silberstein said the focus would be on quality.
"The franchise program is not meant to open the floodgates and immediately add 30 new hotels. We will be very selective," Silberstein said. "Be they owned, managed, leased or franchised, the hotels must adhere to our quality experience."
In BTN's
2008 Business Travel Survey, Sonesta reported 75 percent of its business as corporate travel. While regional offices handle group sales activity, Sonesta for about three years has had a sales manager dedicated specifically to transient corporate travel, Silberstein said. The manager solicits accounts, handles consortiums, works with hotels and makes sure requests for proposals receive responses. "Commercial travel obviously is a major market for all of our hotels."
Other plans include introducing a loyalty program next year, Silberstein said. Called the Sonesta Travel Pass, the program will center more around rewarding travelers with perks—early checkin, late departure, welcome amenities and upgrades—rather than a traditional points-accrual system, he said.