Accor buys Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel

The French hotel chain Accor is buying FRHI, the company that owns the luxury hotel lines Raffles, Swissôtel and the Canada’s Fairmont in a deal worth about $2.9 billion US. This deal is expected to close in mid-2016.

Accor currently owns over 3,800 hotels across 92 countries worldwide under the brand names Ibis, Sofitel, Novotel and others.

The three acquired companies own 155 hotels and resorts (of which 40 are currently under development), and more than 56,000 rooms worldwide. Among the hotels are some iconic Canadian hotels such as: Fairmont Banff Springs, Chateau Lake Louise, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac in Quebec City, Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Royal York hotel in Toronto and Montreal's Queen Elizabeth.

Other well-known properties covered by the deal are Raffles Singapore, the Savoy in London, Shanghai's Fairmont Peace Hotel and the Plaza Hotel in New York.

This deal is the second major hotel merger in as many months after the pact between Starwood and Marriott that would create the world's largest hotel chain with more than a million rooms worldwide.

Both moves come amid a wind of change in the industry as it tries to deal with new companies and technologies such as Silicon Valley-based AirBNB eating into their customer base by offering short-term stays in residential properties.