AccorHotels to expand new luxury brand
Four hotels are to be added to AccorHotels’ ‘audacious and spirited’ luxury brand SO/, doubling the portfolio.
Properties in Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Vienna are set to open by the end of 2018 along with a hotel in Auckland, the brand’s first venture into the southern hemisphere.
The group said more than 10 other new addresses are expected to join by 2021 in destinations such as, Jakarta, Koh Samui, and Kuala Lumpur.
Existing hotels are in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Mauritius and Singapore.
Joao Rocco, vice president luxury brand management Sofitel Brands, said: "SO/ has created a stylish and playful experience, enhanced with an unconventional attitude inherited from its French roots.
"We have plans to introduce the SO/ brand into leading markets around the world and are very proud of all the new projects that will go live over the next few months."
First of the newcomers will be the SO/ Berlin Das Stue, the former Royal Danish Embassy and now a boutique with 78 guestrooms, including 20 stylish suites.
Opening this month, it has a spa including a 14m indoor swimming pool and traditional Finnish sauna.
In April the group will officially launch the 137-room SO/ St Petersburg in the heart of this Russian cultural capital, complete with a rooftop bar.
Due to open in July 2018, the SO/ Auckland features 133 bedrooms and suites and is located in the heart of Auckland’s central business district.
It will have a Club Signature lounge, indoor swimming pool and a SO/ signature spa and fitness centre situated in an old bank vault.
By the end of the year, AccorHotels will also add SO/ Vienna, designed by one of France’s top architects Jean Nouvel.
Billed as ‘a 21st-century masterpiece’, it will have 182 guestrooms, a spa and fitness centre, two bars and a Das LOFT restaurant, perched like a glass house on the 18th floor and with sweeping views of the city.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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