the new NH
Key Initiatives in 2015
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Improvements in the exclusive website for
NH Collection
NH Collection launches its new website with a modern
design based on the quality of the pictures and focused
on the visual culture of the Internet user. With this graphic
approach, NH Collection seeks to bring the extraordinary
experience and carefully crafted image of its upper-
upscale brand into the web environment, integrating
colours, styles and even typography.
Likewise, a new search engine has been integrated and
contents concerning the location of NH Collection hotels
have been updated.
The new websites use a responsive design for mobiles
and tablets that automatically adapts layouts to the
viewing device.
expansion plan
The Expansion Plan is part of the Company’s five-year
Strategic Plan and it is aimed at:
•
Reinforcing the presence in Europe
(France, UK,
Germany and Italy) and creating a larger platform in
Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru).
With the acquisition of Hoteles Royal at the beginning
of 2015 the Group went from two to 21 hotels (2,379
rooms) in Colombia, Chile and Ecuador, incorporating
a hotel portfolio with significant strategic value.
With this transaction, NH strengthens its network
in the region in attractive locations and becomes
a leading player in Bogota, with ten hotels, five of
them under the NH Collection brand, and one of the
leading operators in Santiago de Chile; destinations
where the Company already operated and which had
been targeted by NH Hotel Group for growth. The
Group also starts operating in Ecuador. As a result,
NH accelerates the growth plans contemplated in its
five-year Strategic Plan, taking advantage of a unique
opportunity to achieve a leadership position in various
destinations throughout the region.
portfolio optimization
One of the main goals of NH Hotel Group’s five-year
Strategic Plan is to increase the quality of the portfolio
through the disposal of low-profitability or non-strategic
hotels, renegotiations and the sale of assets. Of the 15
hotels NH Hotel Group expected to exit as a result of
their lack of strategic character and/or profitability,
four remained within the portfolio after the agreed re-
negotiations. The impact of these agreements meant an
increase of €7M in EBITDA in 2015, with an investment
of €2.8M. The investment planned for 2016 amounts to
€3.7M, with an EBITDA growth of €1.6M.
improvement in direct
online sales
On 2015 NH Hotel Group’s commercial website marked
one year since it became fully operational, a process
that started back in 2013. This milestone is part of the
Company’s Digital Transformation Plan.
The website’s consolidation process, including both
the Group’s web page and the pages of its different
brands, took place in 2015, with substantial technical
and performance improvements, a smoother navigation
experience, updated contents and photos, and the
optimization of the investment in traffic generation. The
commercial offer was also reinforced, with special focus
on the NH Rewards loyalty programme.
Thanks to this process, NH Hotel Group’s commercial
website received a record 35 million visits in 2015.
According to an external study, it also has a conversion
rate 2.5x higher than the industry’s average.
These improvements contributed to a double-digit
growth in sales through direct channels in the second
half of the year.
APPs for mobile devices and the new members-only
areas for the NH Rewards and corporate and business
programmes will be launched in 2016. The UK, Colombia,
Mexico and Argentina localized websites will also be
developed.
•
Opening new markets in China.
At the end of February
2015 NH Hotel Group and HNA created “Beijing NH Grand
China Hotel Management Co., Ltd”. The Beijing-based
joint venture’s corporate purpose is to build a portfolio of
NH Hotels and NH Collection brand hotels in the midscale
and upscale segments in China owned by HNA or by third
parties, in the Chinese territories, Hong Kong, Taiwan and
Macao. The target is to develop 120 to 150 hotels by the
year 2020 in this market. This business approach fits
with NH Hotel Group’s strategy of pursuing growth using
capital-light formulas. NH Hotel Group will contribute
49% and HNA will contribute 51%, in accordance with
their respective holdings in the joint venture.
IT TRANSFORMATION PLAN
NH Hotel Group successfully completed in 2015 the migration
process of the Front Office, Back Office and E-Commerce
systems in 18 countries and 326 hotels.
This migration allows the Company to have an easy access
single data source, save costs due to the externalization of
administrative services and develop new functionalities,
improving its competitiveness.
In addition, a Transformation Team was created, composed
of the identified areas leaders and Country Managers of
the Business Units, in order to increase the new systems’
advantages and ensure substantial improvements in the
quality of the billing process, as well as in the duration of
customer registers, including searches in the customer
database, the production of reliable reports and simplified
purchase orders at hotels.
