BRAZIL Three regional hotel groups in Brazil are merging, creating the country’s third largest hotel company by number of properties.
Bristol Hotels, Plaza Inn Hotéis and Solare Hotel Group are combining to form Allia Hotels. With 40 properties and more than 3,000 guestrooms open, the group will be the largest hotel chain based entirely within Brazil.
The companies will initially operate their respective brands with an alliance structure under the Allia Hotels flag, but the merger will be complete within two years. The new company will be headed by André Monegaglia, along with a board of directors and management committees.
Allia Hotels—an abbreviation of Alliance, and meaning “fortune” in Latin—already has some firm expansion plans. The group has confirmed investments of US$263 million by 2014, and contracts have already signed by investors and developers. The funds will be invested into 30 new buildings and is expected to capture additional new features to the market.
“This alliance will give us more ability to grow and invest in expansion, at a time when the prospects are very favorable for the hospitality industry and tourism, besides increasing the management capacity of our enterprises,” said Monegaglia says.
In 2014, the Allia Hotels has plans to have 70 properties.
The presidents of the three companies—José Adalto Silva of Bristol Hotels, Claudio Monegaglia of Plaza Inn Hotéis and Rogério Tavares of Grupo Solare—began negotiating the alliance at the start of this year. Their aim was to expand the scale of operations, the range services and the regions of operation.
The three networks will operate initially through partnerships in reservation, sales, IT and marketing, with standardization of operations, tools and corporate policies, with economies of scale and synergy.