Artotel Group rolled out plans to achieve its goal as a prominent Indonesian hotel company at the Artotel Group Leaders Summit (AGLS) 2023 in Yogyakarta last week.

The summit was held for the first time since the company acquired Kyriad, Dafam and Maxone brands to join the group’s Artotel and Rooms Inc brands, and was attended by 150 internal leaders.

Eduard Pangkerego, chief operating officer, Artotel Group, acknowledged stiffer “competition in the hospitality industry” even as the company sought to become “a leader in our own country”.

“We are facing international big boys who have established their presence here,” he noted, adding that attention must also be paid to changes in market segments and the business ecosystem.

“What we need to do is to strengthen our brands and be different from the rest,” he remarked.

Eduard shared that the group could tap into the growing quiet luxury segment, where high-end travellers look for an understated elegant stay without an overt display of wealth.

As such, Artotel Group has adopted a transformational mindset for the company, which sets out to provide lifestyle experiences to guests instead of just being a product provider. The company also aims to change its mindset from property ownership to owning customer relationships, from becoming a leading company to an industry’s trendsetter, and from highlighting Indonesia’s Arts to showcasing Indonesia’s creative economy.

“When (the founders) started the company in 2012, the Artotel brand highlighted arts; now we are focusing on creative economy,” he said, adding that hotel general managers and managers have to challenge their teams’ creativity and “do things differently”.

He said: “I’m not talking about doing things out of the box but having fun in the box, doing new things within our (core businesses).”

Each Artotel Group portfolio gets personified “to define each brand’s style, character and what it offers”.

Artotel Group’s brand personification is the Creator, which signifies being innovative in doing things; the Artotel brand is the Explorer – observing, finding and doing new thing; Dafam brand is the Localist; Maxone is the Jester, built for fun-loving and playful travellers; Kyriad is the Voyager, where the stay is part of the journey; Rooms Inc is the Collaborator, which features a community hub to connect guests while blending technology and lifestyle.

Elaborating on the future of the Dafam brand, Eduard said it would be exported to Saudi Arabia, where the group is finalising three management contracts with the Kingdom, with a total of 2,000 rooms.

Erastus Radjimin, founder and CEO of Artotel Group, further shared that apart from the Saudi properties, the company is working on leads to bring its brands overseas, in destinations like Bangkok, Laos, and Malaysia. The goal is to have over 160 hotels by 2026.

Now, its portfolio comprises 104 properties with more than 100,000 keys in 36 cities across Indonesia. There are 43 hotels in the pipeline, all located in 28 cities across Indonesia and set to open between 2024 and 2025.