CHICAGO -- "Life is magnifique." That's the slogan Sofitel has attached to its revamped luxury hotels, with the emphasis on magnifique.
Two years after the French hotel giant Accor made Sofitel an independent business unit led by CEO Yann Caillere, the company is nearing completion of a systemwide overhaul of its top-tier brand and has launched two sub-brands, Sofitel Legend and So by Sofitel.
The Legend brand will encompass some of Sofitel's older properties, and So will be its edgier, lifestyle brand.
The aim is to raise the bar on luxury and service and make sure its hotels offer a touch of the brand's French roots.
It also is pushing to expand both its presence and awareness of the brand in the U.S., where Accor is better known as the parent of Motel 6.
Caillere and a group of Sofitel executives recently hosted a group of luxury travel agents at the Sofitel Chicago to showcase its top properties and unveil special packages and training programs for agents.
"The outbound market for our hotels from the United States is so strong. We need, and we have, strong links with travel agents," Caillere said.
During the Chicago meeting, Sofitel introduced an online university, www.sofitel-university.com, where agents can take five courses teaching them about Sofitel and its luxury standards, and the Sofitel Travel Experience Program for select luxury agents.
STEP includes packages that pay agents 20% commissions.
Agents in STEP will also have 24-hour contact numbers for key people at all of its properties and a contact for a dedicated "hero" to help resolve any issues an agent's client might have.
"These people are going to have the power to make decisions and make sure your guests are treated the way you expect," said Don Kelly, senior vice president of sales.
Sofitel also announced it is centralizing its commission payment system so all payments are processed by Sofitel, not by the individual hotels.
Kelly said the idea was to eliminate confusion about whether guests did or did not actually arrive for their stay.
"If the hotel does not notify us in writing that a guest was a no-show, we are making the payment," Kelly said.
Although there are 139 Sofitels around the world, the company and its online training program highlight the top 31 properties.
The company also detailed its expansion plans, which Caillere said he hopes would include several new properties in key U.S. markets such as Boston and San Francisco.
"Basically, we would love to have an additional eight to 10 hotels in the United States," he said.
Globally, he said, Sofitel hopes to expand its network to 250 hotels over the next several years.
$157 million in upgrades
Right now, it is focusing on promoting the Sofitel upgrades, which Caillere said have cost the company about $157 million.
That estimate does not include the investments by individual properties; the Cairo hotel alone spent $50 million.
In addition to ensuring that the properties offer top luxury amenities, Sofitel will put employees through extensive retraining, executives said.
Caillere said the overhaul began in 2006, when he returned to Accor after a stint with Disneyland Paris.
"It started with a screening of the network," he said, which at the time was 206 hotels. We are down to 139, and we will go down further."
Some of those hotels were taken out of the Accor system completely, he said, while others were transferred into other Accor brands.
About 25 are being converted to Pullman, a new brand announced by Accor at the same time it launched the Sofitel overhaul.
Caillere said Pullman was a more traditional brand, along the lines of Hilton or Marriott.
Currently, Pullman is being rolled out in Europe, but Caillere said the company hoped eventually to have 20 to 30 Pullman hotels in the U.S.