FRANCE: AccorHotels To Acquire 85% Of 21c Museum Hotels

AccorHotels, the French hotel group has signed an agreement to acquire 85% of 21c Museum Hotels, a hospitality management company which Accor says, is pushing the boundaries of the museum and hotel worlds to create a new kind of travel experience.

21c combines a multi-venue contemporary art museum, boutique hotels and chef-driven restaurants. It has 11 properties currently open and under development across the United States.

The purchase price for the 85% stake is US$51 million, including a potential earn out payment. No real estate is included in this acquisition. The transaction should be completed during the third quarter of 2018.

21c Museum Hotels was founded in 2006 in Louisville by philanthropists and contemporary art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson.

Inspired by the idea that art can ignite urban revitalisation and drive civic connection, Brown and Wilson rehabilitated a series of 19th century warehouses in Louisville's downtown arts and theatre district to open the first 21c Museum Hotel.

The success of the Louisville flagship created opportunities for expansion; today the company operates eight 21c hotels across the US with with three more in development.

21c Museum is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the United States, and North America’s only collecting museum dedicated solely to art of the 21st century.

Open and accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 21c’s exhibitions and programmes are free to the public.

21c Museum Hotels will join AccorHotels’ MGallery collection of boutique hotels, marking the introduction of the MGallery brand into the North American market

Co-founders Brown and Wilson will retain a 15% stake in the company, and will remain closely involved in the 21c experience.

21c Museum Hotels announced plans Tuesday to sell 85 percent of its brand and hotel management — worth $51 million — in a move that could eventually expand the Louisville-based hotel and contemporary art concept abroad.

Under the new agreement, the chain will join AccorHotels, which offers travel experiences in 4,500 hotels, resorts and residences across 100 different countries.

The eight 21c hotels and three others in development will be part of AccorHotels' MGallery collection, but the properties won't undergo a name change.

21c founders Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson will retain 15 percent of the brand along with the hotel real estate and their art in this deal.

The husband-and-wife team will remain closely involved in curating the art, design and hospitality aspects of their hotels.

It’s going to give us the efficiency of their size and their expertise, Wilson said. It’s just going to be a completely different world for us.

21c Museum Hotels will continue to be led by President and CEO Craig Greenberg and the boutique chain's corporate headquarters will remain in Louisville.

It’s been great to be able to use art as a catalyst for commerce and revitalization of downtown, Wilson said.

We’re just Kentucky people that love, love Kentucky and Louisville has been famous for a mecca of entrepreneurial spirit, and we want to stay at home.

Brown and Wilson have been welcoming Louisville residents and visitors to their flagship museum and hotel mashup on West Main Street for more than a decade.

It was a risky idea, Wilson said, but it caught on and grew to eight hotels in 11 years. He was a farmer before he and his wife founded the boutique hotel chain. He often jokes it's easy to break rules and beat the odds when you don't know what they are, he said.

Now he's 70 years old, and he's well aware of both his age and the chain's potential.

Teaming up with AccorHotels was a solid fit and an opportunity to keep growing.

It's hard to know how quickly that growth might happen, Wilson said, but with the chain's resources and presence overseas, it'll happen much quicker than it would have alone.

I think the American spirit is very much a part of who we are, and I’m excited about the idea of bringing this concept to other countries, Wilson said.

AccorHotels' MGallery brand currently has locations in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Paris and Sydney, but the 21c properties will be its first step into the North American market.

We are delighted to welcome 21c Museum Hotels as part of the AccorHotels family of brands, hence strengthening the group’s footprint in North America in a very unique and promising niche, Kevin Frid, chief operating officer of AccorHotels in North and Central America, said in a statement.

Beyond the 21c chain, Brown and Wilson have also has spent substantial time and resources transforming the historic Hermitage Farm in Oldham County into a tourist destination with a restaurant, visitors center and art walk.

They purchased the farm in 2010 and announced in 2016 that they planned to turn the property into a tourist destination.

The goal of the $15 million project, Wilson said, is to put visitors back in touch with the land, teaching them where food comes from, how grains are used to make bourbon and how horses are bred to create the beasts they see pounding the dirt at Churchill Downs.


Tourism Observer

USA: Was United Airlines Right To Drag A Passenger Off The Flight At Philadelphia International Airport?

There was outrage over the video of a United Airlines customer being dragged out of his seat screaming and being left injured and bloody at Philadelphia International Airport.

The actions of the airline’s security were described as “unfathomable,” “barbaric,” “inhumane,” “inexplicable,” and some other unprintable words.

According to employees, they called for volunteers to give up four seats on Sunday’s flight from Chicago to Louisville because another flight crew needed the seats.

The employees offered money, but there were no takers. They picked four people at random but a passenger in his late 60s, refused. Law enforcement pulled him out of his seat.

The biggest concern you may have as a passenger is whether the same can happen to you.

Some of the key questions people are asking are, “Why did they sell more seats than they had?” “Wasn’t there a better way to resolve the impasse?”

It’s no secret that airlines overbook flights all the time to maximise on sales in case there are no-shows since a seat flown empty is revenue lost.

As to whether more passengers turned up than could be accommodated on the flight, all the drama on board would have been avoided if the “bumping off” or “denied boarding” took place at the boarding gate.

However, aside from the disturbing footage of the incident, the carrier was within its rights to remove the passenger from the flight.

Airlines, just like hotels, restaurants and clubs reserve the “right of admission.”

If asked to leave your seat on a flight, you should do so.
The regulator framework, particularly around passenger handling, is clear. It caters for all situations and circumstances.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation prohibits by law, any person behaving in an offensive, threatening and or disorderly or disruptive manner from travelling on any aircraft.

As a passenger, by paying for a ticket, you unreservedly agree to be bound by the airline conditions of carriage, which spell out these regulations, including conditions under which you can be denied carriage.

Airline passenger handling manuals and ground operations procedures state that refusing to heed the instructions of ground and security staff is reason enough for offloading and denial of carriage.

In all cases, paid up seat or not, the captain on a flight has sweeping powers over what goes on as soon you step into his/her aircraft.

Operating procedures are very clear on the actions to be taken by the airline at every stage when dealing with a disruptive passenger.

As a general rule, airlines will involve security or police whenever a passenger’s behaviour is beyond the control of airline/ground staff or their actions are outside the law.

In fact, so specific are the rules and procedures that airline staff will invoke the clause “a drunken or disruptive passenger insists on trying to board an aircraft or, having boarded, refuses to leave or is otherwise causing trouble,” to call in security.

The United Airlines incident was not the only flight passenger security or insecurity matter.

There was also the case of a deportee on a KLM flight, where other passengers complained about him being transported in cuffs.

According to the enraged passengers, they wanted the deportee or person in custody to be transported unchained and allowed to travel with dignity.

Unknown to the protesting passengers, deportees and persons in custody being transported as the result of a judicial decision or state authority order, regardless of whether they are being escorted, must satisfy airline security procedures.

Normally airlines will allow carriage of such passengers if they are accompanied by security agents, or, if unaccompanied, under restraint.

Procedures even define where such a passenger is to be seated,usually at the rear and not in an exit row.

If a person in custody is escorted, where possible, they are to be seated next to the window.

The reality is that the airline reserved the right to offload all protesting passengers in this case without recourse.