By Updesh Kapur/Doha


Qatar Airways’ love affair with the hotel business is gathering pace.
Just weeks after acquiring one of London Heathrow’s iconic airport hotels, the home-grown airline is venturing further into the hospitality business – once again in the UK.
It has confirmed a second overseas acquisition, the Hotel Novotel Edinburgh Park close to the Scottish capital’s international airport.
The 170-room property is a four-star hotel targeting business travellers and those seeking city breaks to Scotland’s most visited destination.
Two months ago, the national carrier announced it had bought the 350-room four-star Sheraton Skyline Hotel, one of Heathrow Airport’s most renowned properties catering to a mixed business base of transit passengers, leisure travellers, and indeed the corporate market.
The two properties join Qatar Airways’ two domestic hotels in the capital Doha. Oryx Rotana, the 325-room five-star property next to the old airport, and the 100-room Airport Hotel at Hamad International.
The doubling of its small portfolio in a short space of time represents a significant strategic move for the airline, looking to now aggressively build its hospitality business.
The full-service global airline is its core business, which is supplemented by a fully-owned airline leasing company, executive charter operation and an international airport it manages. The hospitality business was seen as a natural extension.
Though embarking on a strategy to expand into the hotel business was chalked out a few years ago after the opening of its first property – Oryx Rotana – the hospitality track seems to only now be gathering pace.
This is largely due to one reason: critical mass.
The airline has spread its global footprint to almost 150 destinations, carrying over 25mn passengers a year.  The volume in passenger numbers and markets served seem to justify the decision to forge ahead with the hotel expansion at a much faster rate.
With an increasing focus on operating multi-frequencies to many destinations as more aircraft join its 150-plus fleet, the airline believes hotels will easily complement its business.
Through a newly-created hotel operating business, Qatar Airways will expand the portfolio by acquiring four- and five-star properties in the UK, North America and other parts of the world. Future acquisitions will inevitably be in key destinations on the airline’s burgeoning route network.
But rather than operating the hotels, Qatar Airways will continue to use international hotel companies to manage them. In the case of its existing portfolio, it’s Rotana, Sheraton and Novotel.
“Brand Oryx”, an already familiar iconic emblem on Qatar Airways’ aircraft tails, will be part of the branding strategy of each property. The Oryx name, which features on the Rotana property in Doha, will be integrated into all acquired hotels.  Qatar Airways’ strategy has raised eyebrows in the airline fraternity. A daring attempt into the hotel business, say some. Others question the need when aviation ought to be its fundamental business.
But Qatar Airways’ philosophy is simple: to push the boundaries and venture into markets and business opportunities that others dare not. Opportunities are challenges and if the numbers stack up, the company moves in. It will not target properties below the four-star category to ensure they remain in sync with the airline’s strategy of offering service at the highest level.
It’s an interesting approach for an airline to push into hotels, a non-core business, where others in the past withdrew for financial or strategic reasons – PanAm, Swissair and Air France to name a few. They owned the Intercontinental, Swissotel and Le Meridien chains respectively.
These hotel chains became synonymous with quality thanks to the high service levels that their airline parents of yesteryear enthused.
It was a simple business philosophy; airlines flying passengers around the world on their jets and offering them accommodation at their hotels.  However, entering a business not core to their day to day operations was a costly exercise that eventually saw most airlines off load their chains to concentrate on what they did best – flying aircraft.
Air travel has grown to become such a vital economic tool for doing business that there has been a surge in the number of airlines connecting cities within countries, within continents and between points around the world. Hotels are a necessity and the number of properties being built worldwide is just unprecedented.
Though yet to reveal its long-term strategy on numbers, Qatar Airways is unlikely to be a big player in the hotel business. It will go for niche acquisitions that suit business needs and set aside funds to invest in refurbishments.
As the Sheraton Skyline is penciled in for an upgrade in the coming months, the same will follow suit with other acquired properties where necessary.
This mirrors Qatar Airways’ own strategy of building a fleet of newer planes and investing in interiors that push the boundaries.
To build a brand is a tall order. It takes time, effort, energy, tremendous marketing support and, more importantly, customer buy-in to make a difference.
There’s plenty of work ahead to build the Oryx hotel brand name.  But Qatar Airways will be hoping recognition will come sooner rather than later off the back of the airline’s highly visible brand that has grown over the past 18 years.

♦ Updesh Kapur (below) is a PR & communications professional, columnist, aviation, hospitality and travel analyst. He can be followed on twitter @updeshkapur