Accor continues to enhance and build on its recent pushes into the lifestyle hotel segment, with CEO Sébastien Bazin stating in the last two years that 25% of the France-based hotel company's revenue streams have derived from it.

Speaking exclusively to Hotel News Now, Bazin said the segment has incredible growth potential.

He also spoke of Accor’s latest partnership with Buenos Aires-based Faena Hotels and the times he has had to re-evaluate Accor over the past year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The existing lifestyle, branded room supply is less than 3% of the total hotel network, and 50% or more of the revenue from that is [food and beverage], two-thirds or more of which is from local community," he said

“Accor clearly has been the No. 1 player realizing this trend in the last three years, from when we invested in [European lifestyle brand] Mama Shelter and others. All credit to our teams. We have the agility to further grow here,” he added.

Bazin said another positive aspect of Accor’s 42 brands is that one-third of them are conversion brands, such as Mercure, Mövenpick, Mondrian, Hyde, House of Originals and Hoxton.

“It is an interesting future for us. There is an enormous amount of comfort associating with Accor. We never impose our own bible [on partners]. We are one of the two partners of choice,” he said.

The Accor CEO said the last year has been tough for his firm, as it has been for many others.

Staff members have been furloughed, and he said he regrets not being able to do more for employees, owners and investors.

“I feel it in my stomach, but what I have learned the most in the last six months is how intertwined, interdependent we are in terms of tourism and hospitality," he said.

“Accor will only survive if the little stores, the small businesses, also will survive — the things that make an area, that create a destination. Yes, scale matters to companies such as ours, but so do the details.

"To get back to reality, we are fighting as hard as we can to see that they survive, and for Accor to thrive."

Accor’s latest partnership is with Argentine firm Faena Hotels, which has three assets, two in Buenos Aires and one in Miami.

Faena began with the Faena Arts Center in Buenos Aires, and art, culture and lifestyle are central to the company.

Its city locations have become destinations — both known as the Faena District. The idea was to take neglected areas and transform them into newly vibrant locales.

In Buenos Aires, that district is Puerto Madero.

The agreement between Bazin and Faena’s founder, real estate developer Alan Faena, includes plans to develop a third property in Dubai.

Faena Hotels “will be part of Ennismore, our ultra-luxury brand concept in lifestyle,” Bazin said. Accor’s other lifestyle brands were grouped under the Ennismore banner on Nov. 24. These brands include Mama Shelter, SO, Tribe, 21c Museum Hotels, The Hoxton, Gleneagles, Delano, Hyde, Mondrian and SLS Hotels.

Unlike other partnerships with SBE — from which brands Delano, Hyde, Mondrian and SLS Hotels derive — and Ennismore, the partnership with Faena is completely cash-free.

The collaboration came by way of good fortune, Bazin said.

“I was in Miami two years ago, spending time with (SBE CEO) Sam Nazarian, and we said, ‘Let’s see all the hotels in South Miami Beach.’ That was when we walked into the Faena Hotel and by chance we bumped into Alan Faena, sitting on a leopard sofa, dressed all in white with a white hat on.

“I was speechless, but he was super-nice in welcoming me. We chatted for an hour, and I wanted to know more. I was between flabbergasted and intrigued, but right from the very first minute I could see he is a smart, profound individual. The concept [of Faena] is well thought of. He has interests in art, music, fashion. He is deep,” he said.

Upon his return to Paris, Bazin said he told Gaurav Bhushan, now CEO of lifestyle at Accor, "what I had seen was something unmatched and with long legs."

“Accor will be the manager and distributor of Faena, but Faena has the intellectual property. It was always my desire for the Accor ecosystem to be involved with fine art, and [Faena] now has the ability to scale up. He also has the full ability to say no, but he realizes Accor has muscle,” Bazin said.

He said he believes the Faena brand isn't an easy fit in some parts of the world.

“This concept does not exist in Dubai. It has substance. [Alan Faena and I] went there twice convincing local owners, and in terms of his equity pitch, he is a very detailed person. He is utterly there, which is why he convinced me as much as he did so the owners," Bazin said.

“We need to be careful, though. Only some owners could welcome him. Perhaps 50 globally, but not 200. Places I can see it in are Paris, Rome, Istanbul, among others,” he added.

Bazin said 2020 has given him time to carefully consider the hotel industry, and Accor itself.

“It has been a very important time. We have never had the luxury to reflect, and I have done so. Do we need to pivot? Do we have another value for owners?” he said.

“The last year has been a mix of two things, very different from one another. I, of course, have felt hammered. I do not like so many hotels closed, so many staff gone, and performance not being there for investors and owners. A tough time, but by the same token I am smiling about how much we have learned about ourselves, reflecting, turning 7,000 stones upside down.

“It is like a car engine, taking it to pieces and putting it back together, and asking, do I need so many pieces?” he said.

Bazin also considers the good fortune of Accor’s journey over the past seven years since he took over the company.

He said he now realizes the company's asset-light strategy is both lucky and smart.

“I would be a different person talking to you today if I had not" taken that step, he said.

He also anticipates a robust return for the hotel industry.

“I am a true optimist. The industry is as blessed today as it was pre-pandemic. It provides 10% of employment on the planet, and we will go back, although everyone has a view as to when that will be," he said.

“In Europe, where most of our hotels are, we have more of a capacity to rebound via train and car transport. The rebound in leisure will be far better than anyone suspects," he added, noting a big performance rebound in the summer of 2020 and many potential travelers who have grown their savings.

Bazin said more pain is inevitable somewhere in the industry.

“We’ve seen few hotels going bust, very few," he said, noting help from the European Commission, state-guaranteed loans, payment deferrals and a five-year extension on amortization.

"Beneficiaries have to see how they will amortize over five years, and after that, then you will see distress,” he said.

He mentioned Dubai as a destination that has had an incredible winter 2020-21 and added that the pre-pandemic trend of the industry creating new experiences will continue — “to remote places [guests] have never seen before and maybe at expense of capital cities."

Recent Accor deals with such experience-building in mind include the January agreement with Kievskaya Ploshchad Group of Companies to open the first Raffles hotel in Russia, a new flagship hotel near Red Square, and the development with Hinduja Group and Obrascon Huarte Lain Desarrollos to open another Raffles property in the former Old War Office in London.