Paris, 06 March 2017 –
Monitoring the impressive business results of Accor, it becomes clear that Europe’s leading hotel company has undergone major changes. (+4,9% Bit, +8,1% net profit). The company continued to grow within the interesting luxury travel segment.
Due to the takeover of Fairmont Raffles (FRHI) and in close cooperation with Banyan Tree, Accor considerably expanded the company’s market share in the luxury hotel sector. By taking over onefinestay.com (finest home stays) and by investing in Squarebreak (49%) and the Oasis Collections (28%), the company gained market share in renting out luxury apartments instead of hotel rooms. It is reported that Accor is exclusively negotiating with Travel Keys at the moment to become the world market leader in letting private luxury apartments.
According to the assumptions of market experts, the hotel group will in the medium term redirect away from being a pure hotel operator to being a marketer of high-class accommodation – no matter if commercial or semi-professional. This could have been monitored in the company’s core business for some time already: around 1,800 independent hotels were just entered into the own IBE accorhotels.com. A similar development is expected to happen within the rapidly growing segment of private homes and houses.
The standard hotel sector with the strong brand Ibis and the MICE concepts Mercure and Novotel still makes a significant contribution to the overall result of the hotel group. However, the first lifestyle hotels Jo & Joe, created by the executive board of Millenial and its CEO Sébastien Bazin, will serve as a model for the redesign of the out-dated business hotels.
The long-prepared sale of greater shares of the real estate segment Hotel Invest will generate additional billions to the hotel group. This enables Accor to take over fast-growing booking platforms and modern business models centred on hospitality as well as to invest in the company’s own travel technology tools. Other big players in the hotel industry should be alarmed only by noticing how quickly the hotel group adapts those changes: those, who do not react at all, have already lost half the battle.
The medial coup to gain the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy as the leading strategist of the company’s board of directors, illustrates how profound the changes are at Accor.