As owners look for resilience and stability in an increasingly competitive market, major hotel groups and legal experts are reporting growing interest in franchising opportunities. Minor Hotels Head of Commercial for Australia and New Zealand, John Thompson, explains why the future of franchising is bright.
Minor Hotels is firmly focused on maintaining a significant development pipeline, and we see franchising as a pivotal part of the acquisition and growth strategy for the business. Based on continued positive performance, particularly in regional locations in Australia, we are targeting franchise opportunities to expand our Oaks Hotels, Resorts and Suites and Avani Hotels and Resort brands across the region.
We anticipate growing Oaks’ upscale serviced apartment model as well as Avani’s lifestyle offering with business owners in new and existing locations across the country. We wish to work alongside franchise partners to fuel their performance through our strong sales, marketing, distribution, and procurement functions.
Minor has initially partnered with KPAT, led by Kenneth Wagner, to move two Oaks properties to franchise in January 2023 as well as building the new Avani Mooloolaba Beach Hotel which will operate under franchise and is slated to open in early 2025.
We see the future for franchising in Australia as very bright. With independent hotel operators keen to protect and grow their assets through partnerships with well-established hotel operators, we believe now is the right time to take our experience and flexible partnership agreement to market and work with partners across the country to improve performance and provide market leading insight and commercial and operational expertise.