Preferred Hotels & Resorts showcases properties, new brand

Preferred Hotels & Resorts welcomed agents to the first of two Canadian showcases last night, featuring more than 30 properties from around the globe.

Representatives from hotels and resorts from across North America, Europe and Asia were on hand to meet with agents at the show, which marked Preferred’s first Canadian event following a recent rebranding of the company. Now under the single master brand of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the 650 member properties are now divided amongst five collections – Legend, Lux, Lifestyle, Connect and Preferred Resorts. According to Vanessa Gromer, director, global sales - Canada, the industry’s reception to the rebranding has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We’ve received great feedback,” Gromer told PAX. “Preferred Hotels & Resorts has always been our strongest brand and it’s also been easier for the agents and travellers to understand a single brand, versus several different ones.”

Rick Stiffler, VP of leisure sales, added “it’s been easier with the one brand, having only one GDS code and one website.”

Gromer and Stiffler said that Preferred’s leisure and corporate segments are split approximately 50-50.

“We have a lot of different segments travelling,” Gromer said. “In addition to corporate travellers, we have couples doing their city trips or romantic getaways and we’re strong on family travel as well.”

Preferred currently includes 11 Canadian hotels amongst its members, with the Pacific Gateway Hotel in Vancouver and Montreal’s Hotel 10 as the latest additions. More Canadian properties will be added in the future, Gromer said.

Internationally, Preferred recently welcomed 14 European properties from NH Hotels and will add the Palazzo Versace Dubai when it opens in 2016.

With properties in 85 countries (mainly in the U.S. and Europe), Preferred is seeing some of its strongest growth in Asia, with new properties such as South Beach Singapore, a 600-room hotel set to open this summer.

“Asia has been expanding in recent years throughout various countries – we’ve had triple-digit growth in that region,” Stiffler said.

Preferred is also planning some enhancements to its iPrefer loyalty program, which recently switched over to a points-based platform allowing guests to redeem points for cash vouchers for use at Preferred properties. Those changes to the program are expected to roll out over the summer months, Stiffler said.