New generations of guests want something different from hotels — not just in regard to room design or offerings, but also attitude and an overall sense of community and lifestyle, according to Patrick Mendes, chief commercial officer at Accor.
CEO Sébastien Bazin has talked about an idea called Accor Local since 2017, which would “give shopkeepers the opportunity to offer their products within the group’s hotels ... [while] hotels are given the chance to promote their hospitality services to a non-resident clientele.”
This way of thinking about bringing together all the pieces of the Accor portfolio to add value for both guests and owners starts with the firm's loyalty and lifestyle platform All, Mendes said in an interview with Hotel News Now at the 120-room Mondrian Shoreditch in London, which opened in August.
“If there are three or four apps on one’s phone, we need to make sure one of them will be All,” he said, adding that the French hotel firm continues to look for growth opportunities.
Mendes said he refutes the idea that 42 brands — Accor’s current brand stable — is too many.
“The bigger [Accor is], the easier it will be for us to make sure you have our app on your phone,” he added.
That has been expanded to include some of the most well-known brands in France and internationally — soccer club Paris St. Germain, car manufacturer Citroën and credit-card firm Visa to name three.
Everything is being done to make Accor different, Mendes said.
“That starts with leadership and providing for the needs of our clients. We’re on a journey to transform our hotels into city hubs. We want to end that 30-year myth that hotels are not accessible to all, that they’re only open to guests,” he said.
“We have and are transforming our brands, certainly in our lifestyle brands but even the legacy brands such as Pullman and Sofitel. We are on the quest for non-boring hotels. We’re still in the middle of that journey,” he added.
All for One, One for All
In October 2020, Mendes transitioned from his role as Accor's CEO in South America — where he was responsible for 400 Accor hotels in nine countries — to take charge of sales, marketing, distribution and loyalty.
The new position marked a return to Paris for the veteran hotelier, whose first role in 1988 was as a duty manager at IHG Hotels & Resorts. He has been at Accor since 2004, also serving as senior vice president of global sales and distribution for nearly five years.
Mendes said his goal is to connect Accor’s 42 brands, many purchased or partnered with in the past five years, into a cohesive unit under the All umbrella.
“Organization. That’s the big challenge, the alignment of many brands in eight regions. We feel we are almost done with that and have brought guests and owners closer. Then there is the rebound from the pandemic, making sure we are prepared for it," he said.
He said the implementation of improved operations across Accor’s more than 5,000 properties is a big task, but is moving swiftly ahead.
“Accor has to capitalize on our differences, in [food and beverage], IT, experiences, co-working,” Mendes said. “Eighty percent of our openings have the difference we are looking for in them. I walk through the door, and I feel it when I enter.”
He added he is emboldened by an October survey in which almost two-thirds of respondents made the definite link between All and Accor’s hotels, and the loyalty program represents the guests' connection to all of the company's brands and partnerships.
In the Americas, where traditionally Accor has had less brand awareness, the acquisitions of such brands and companies as SBE, Faena Hotels and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts already is registering with guests, he said.
Approximately 65% of Accor's pipeline is lifestyle, luxury and premium, and the firm expects to have 1 million rooms open or in the pipeline in the next three to four months, Mendes said.
“On average we are opening one new hotel every working day,” he said, adding there is more scope for openings.
“Three hundred destinations make up approximately 80% of travel, and there is room for us to grow in them. There is no segmentation now. Booking is variable across a guest’s life and interests, at different times of [their] life. Our job is to connect all our properties emotionally to them for whatever purpose they have,” he said.
Deftly Digital
Mendes said the next phase is to perfect the link between All and All.com, and guest loyalty to Accor’s brands, offerings, partnerships and booking and payment portals.
By the end of 2021, there also will be the release of cloud-based booking tool GroupSync for meetings and groups business, which requires significant investment in tech and digital, he said.
“We set up a digital factory, which is not common in the tourism and hotel industries,” he said.
That is under the leadership of Alix Boulnois, chief digital factory officer, who joined Accor in February 2020.
“It has 700 to 800 people coding to help facilitate the client, and it is all in-house,” Mendes said.
He said the latest initiative from the factory is a dedicated portal called Restaurants & Bars, which links all of Accor’s dining and beverage outlets and was rolled out in 16 weeks.
“That is very fast in the digital world. To attract these employees, you have to show you are different,” he said.
Another lifestyle partnership in the works is the Urban Collectif, a project with Citroën and out-of-home advertising firm JCDecaux that will launch a “prototype autonomous vehicle-pod, which Accor sees as the future of urban mobility for travelers,” according to the company.
Mendes said the project is in pilot mode, with the hope that cities can have special lanes to allow guests and customers to move more effortlessly and with a smaller carbon footprint.
He said that such projects are important to the type of employees that will propel Accor and the world to a future more linked to corporate social responsibility and environment, social care and governance initiatives.
On Nov. 4, Accor announced it will be an official partner in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, with the hotel firm providing both hospitality services for athletes and visitors and more lifestyle opportunities in its loyalty program.