Raffles Hotels & Resorts, one of the world’s most storied ultra-luxury brands, is embarking on the most significant growth chapter in its 139-year history. With 13 properties currently in development across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, and a renewed focus on brand identity and talent strategy, the Accor-owned group is moving decisively beyond its reputation as a deliberate, slow-growth operator.
The brand has opened just 24 hotels across 17 countries in more than a century, a pace that its chief executive, Omer Acar, describes as entirely intentional. That discipline has preserved the aura that makes Raffles distinct: a sense of cultural depth, residential intimacy and personalised service that mass-market luxury cannot replicate. But under Acar’s stewardship, the calculus is shifting.
“A storied past builds the foundation of what we aim to do for the future,” Acar says. “We want to bring that centennial heritage to today’s travellers, but we also have to make sure that modern travel trends are observed.”
A pipeline built on purpose
Since joining Accor in March 2023 as CEO of Raffles, and taking on the additional leadership of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in January 2024, Acar has overseen the opening of five new properties: in London, Boston, Bahrain, Jaipur and Singapore’s Sentosa island.
The pipeline that follows is equally considered. Raffles Jeddah is among the next openings, with 2026 marking the brand’s debut in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea. In India, Raffles Ranthambore will pair ultra-luxury with wildlife immersion, while Raffles Goa Shiroda will offer a beachfront resort spanning more than 27 acres. Europe enters the portfolio with Raffles Lake Como, a conversion of the historic Grand Hotel Imperiale in Italy.
Further additions include properties in Shanghai, Tokyo and Los Cabos. The contract for Raffles Tokyo was inked in 2024, with an opening currently targeted for 2028. Advanced discussions are also under way to bring Raffles to Beverly Hills, Miami’s Brickell district and Mayacoba in Mexico, which would mark a meaningful deepening of the brand’s North American footprint beyond its single existing property in Boston.
Fairmont scales in parallel
The Raffles expansion runs alongside an equally ambitious programme for Fairmont, which operates 97 properties in 34 countries and is targeting four new hotels in India, China and Thailand by 2030. Fairmont Hanoi opened on 30 March, and a broader pipeline of 27 hotels over the next five years spans Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
The dual-brand strategy under a single CEO reflects Accor’s deliberate organisational restructuring, which concentrated dedicated leadership around each brand cluster. The result, in Acar’s assessment, has been a more focused development pipeline and sharper brand positioning for both properties.
Rethinking the butler
Central to Raffles’ growth narrative is the revival and reinterpretation of its most iconic service element. In 2024, the brand launched ‘The Butler Did It’, a global campaign spotlighting its butler service through cinematic, personality-driven storytelling shot at the flagship Raffles Singapore.
The campaign celebrates the brand’s hallmarks, honouring the gracious artistry of Raffles butlers while evolving what those symbols represent for the modern traveller. A new cast featuring British actor Henry Golding and model Jacquetta Wheeler brought fresh cultural currency to the brand. The campaign reached more than 76.7 million consumers globally, generated 183 million digital impressions, and drove a 98% increase in website traffic compared with 2023.
“The butlers play a very important role in bringing that culture of anticipatory service which creates more magical moments in Raffles,” Acar says. “We just bring what is already there to life and make sure that it is consistently executed in different parts of the world.”
Expanding in a labour-constrained market
The ambition behind Raffles’ growth arrives against one of the most challenging workforce environments the hospitality sector has faced. The World Travel & Tourism Council projects that the hospitality industry will face a shortfall of 8.6 million workers globally by 2035, approximately 18% below required staffing levels.
For a brand that stakes its identity on the quality of human interaction, this is not an abstract concern. Acar acknowledges the structural pressure directly, but frames the response as a cultural and generational opportunity rather than a recruitment problem.
“They have to feel that they can contribute to the bigger picture,” he says of younger employees. “That comes from communicating with transparency. In our mission statement, heartfelt care is not only for our guests, but also for our employees.”
To translate that ethos into practice, Raffles and Fairmont have been expanding training and development programmes, offering cross-exposure across properties and giving staff opportunities to travel and build careers within their global network.
Legacy as launchpad
With Raffles’ global headquarters now anchored in New York, a city Acar describes as a crossroads of commerce, culture and creativity, the brand is signalling its intent to operate less as a heritage artefact and more as a living, evolving luxury proposition.
The tension Acar navigates is one familiar to any leader managing iconicity: how much of the past to carry forward, and how much to reimagine. His answer, consistent across multiple forums, is that the two are not in conflict.
“Heritage is our foundation, but not our limitation,” he says. For a brand that once moved glacially by design, 13 properties in the pipeline suggests that patience, too, has its limits.
