How Accor Landed Its First Orient Express Hotel in Bangkok Bumping a Planned Marriott Edition
Skift Take
Christmas comes early for Accor, which announced its first Orient-Express Hotel in Bangkok, a 154-room property that was originally meant to be an Edition hotel. But there is still much for Accor to do as luxury players find the old new brand "confusing."
At 314 meters, the 77-story Mahanakhon was Thailand’s tallest building when it officially opened in December 2016. A mixed-use skyscraper with the startling appearance of an unfinished glassy jigsaw, it was built at a cost of around $670 million, nearly breaking the bank for the developer, Pace Development Corporation.
Pace consequently sold chunks of the building to King Power International Group for around $385 million earlier this year. This included land, a 154-room hotel that Marriott International had signed on as an Edition, an observation deck, and a smaller Cube retail building.
The sale spelled good news for AccorHotels, since the chain has good relations with the duty-free king and manages its 366-room Pullman Bangkok King Power Hotel. It also has a new brand after acquiring a 50 percent stake of Orient Express last year from SNCF, with the intentions to reinvent its storied past for the future.
So out goes Edition, a brand conceived by Ian Schrager in partnership with Marriott, and in comes the world’s first Orient Express hotel, which will open in fourth quarter 2019.
Marriott was planning to open the Edition by the end of this year, according to sources. Staff was hired, even a general manager, Christiano Rinaldi, but the openin
