Kurt Ritter, one of the hotel sector’s longest- serving CEOs, has been at the helm of the Rezidor group since 1989. He talks to ABTN editor Rob Gill about Rezidor’s partnership with Carlson
Kurt Ritter is president and CEO of The Rezidor Hotel Group. Under his leadership, Rezidor has developed into a major global player in the hotel industry, featuring five distinctive brands and almost 350 hotels with more than 74,000 rooms in operation and under development in 53 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ritter has been with Rezidor for 35 years, including 23 years as president and CEO.
The Swiss national was born into the business, learning the
trade at his parents’ hotel in Interlaken. He worked in a variety of positions including GM at SAS Lulea Hotel in Sweden and the SAS Kuwait Hotel. In 1984 he was promoted to Middle East vice- president for Rezidor (then called the SAS International Hotels) and moved to Singapore. He was appointed president and CEO 1989.
Rezidor announced the partnership with Carlson
in January – what progress have you made since then? Although we announced the partnership in January, we were talking about it for a lot
longer. We’ve had a relationship with Carlson for 17 years – they also own 50 per cent of Rezidor – and we said we should look at how we can do more while still remaining as two different companies. We decided the main issue was
putting the sales and marketing efforts together. We wanted to work on things we can do easily and not lose time looking at things we can’t do. So we have created the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group where we can do joint sales and marketing, as well as aligning the brands globally.
What do you hope to achieve through
this partnership? 34
Our aim is to increase the group’s global sales by more than $400 million over the
next four years, and increase revpar by more than nine percentage points over the same period. Our analysis over the first 100 days is that we are on the way with all the activities we’re doing together, and we’re already starting to see it bear fruit. But
we will need a little more time before we come out with any figures. We don’t want the market to think all the benefits will be back-loaded and come in 2015 – it will be gradual and more linear than that. We have to do everything at arm’s length because we are two companies: Carlson is private and Rezidor is listed. We also have very different business models: Rezidor is a management company, while Carlson is more a franchise company, although it is growing as a management company. We have to explain to our shareholders that we are not helping Carlson with Rezidor money. We have
are now using this. The programme does daily rate calculations and is a wonderful tool that helps planning and pricing. About 80 per cent of our hotels are now equipped with it, which is a higher take-up than we expected, and they are already seeing the benefits. It makes sense that Carlson’s good tools are applied in our company, too.
What are the next steps in the developments of your
hotels and brands?
I talked before about aligning the brands. If you look at Park Inn, it is different in the UK than in the US and India. But it’s very
“The brands are still growing – we are much less mature than the big US brands such as Marriott, Sheraton and Hilton. We’re the new kid on the block”
a global steering committee where I meet with Carlson’s CEO Hubert Joly fairly frequently. It is about growing revenue rather than cutting costs. The brands are still growing – we are much less mature than the big US brands such as Marriott, Sheraton and Hilton. We’re the new kid on the block.
What practical differences will travel buyers and travel management companies notice when dealing with Carlson Rezidor? There will be a global alignment of the brands that we have in common: Park Inn
and Radisson. A hotel brand has to be consistent because a brand is a promise – guests get used to a brand and then they are disappointed if they get something different. The other major change is that any big corporation will have one contact for Carlson Rezidor – one point of contact makes it much easier. Carlson’s strength has always been its reservations system, SNAP [stay night automated pricing], and we
important to have common architecture with a three-star brand – to have the same standards. Carlson has signed up with an Indian company for 50 Park Inns where we will take the basic concept and give it some Indian elements. In Europe, Park Inns have a simple restaurant whereas in India and the Middle East you have to provide more public areas, such as more restaurants and big lobbies. But even with these differences, you can see that it’s one brand.
Which areas of the world does Rezidor have
a key focus on? Rezidor’s area is the Middle East, Europe and Africa, while Carlson has the Far East and
the Americas. They are doing well in Asia with growth and our African growth is fantastic. What’s planned in Africa is mind-boggling – 30 per cent of the world’s minerals come from Africa. But it’s not easy doing business there as there are 56 countries and probably as many languages and cultures. There’s an imbalance for