CPG Hotels, part of the C.P. Group founded by patriarch Charles Pandey, has launched Fable Hotels and Resorts for properties it owns but which are not leased to French-headquartered Accor.
The Pandey's Viaduct Quays Hotel this month went into liquidation and Auckland's five-star waterfront Sofitel Viaduct shut on July 1 due the pandemic's effects on tourism.
The 13 hotels in the new Fable group are now known under many different names and stretch from Auckland to Dunedin.
Prakash Pandey of CPG Hotels said the business owned the properties and would also manage them directly.
Pandey said the staged operation would mean the Fable sign would eventually go up at the hotels.
"There will be a series of Fable hotels across New Zealand within the next two years, including Picton, the refurbed Fat Camel, which will be known as Fable Stay and a two-storey villa in Ponsonby called Hotel Fitzroy, curated by Fable," Pandey said today.
Dunedin's Wains Hotel in a traditional Victorian building had been refurbished and is opening this month as Fable Dunedin, he said.
"These hotels will reflect the local environment. For instance Fable Dunedin has tartan rugs on the beds in a nod to the city's Scottish heritage," Pandey said.
"We want to own the boutique hotel space in New Zealand. We don't want a big chain, we're not a factory. We want a smaller, slick boutique brand that C.P. Group can say is their own, and whichever property we put our brand on will be the best in the sector," Pandey said.
Pandey remembered staying at London's Sofitel St James when his daughter had a birthday and cites it as an example of an operation which went beyond the call of duty.
He asked the hotel to order a cake but when the family returned to their room, they had not only the cake "but the entire room was decorated right down to balloons. The only thing that was charged to the room was the cake. I don't remember the hotel as much as the service," Pandey said.
Asked about CPG Hotels' long-term plans, Pandey said: "The business is evolving from where we were. The smaller hotels are more efficiently run if we do it ourselves. It's not a criticism but the systems are in place for this."
