Accor this year aims to secure
more business from U.S. corporate travel buyers via a restructured portfolio,
rapid growth and a revamped rewards program.
The Paris-based hotel
company during the past few years has been shaking up its brand structure. In
October, it is scheduled to complete a $1.9 billion sale of the Motel 6 economy brand to Blackstone, and last year it began consolidating its economy brands
outside of the United States under the Ibis brand—Etap became Ibis Budget and
All Seasons became Ibis Styles.
"Now Ibis is huge,
one of the largest brands in the world, with more than 1,500 hotels," said
Accor senior vice president of global sales Cedric Gobilliard.
Accor now has a more
clearly defined brand structure for buyers, with Ibis in the budget tier,
Novotel and Mercure in the midprice tier and Sofitel in the luxury tier. The
hotel company also offers boutique collection MGallery and the upscale Pullman brand
that targets meetings and events, Gobilliard said.
Accor's sales team hopes
the defined brand structure, combined with the newly globalized Global Business
Travel Association modular request for proposal tool released this year, will
improve positioning when bidding on corporate business—particularly in North
America, where the company expects corporate demand to remain strong.
"We've already had
one client who is adding 29 of our hotels into his program, and for us, that
speaks volumes," said Accor vice president of global sales in North
America Kerrie Hannaford. "It's not only recognition of the brands, but it's
also good news that he needs another 29 hotels in his program."
When Motel 6 leaves the
fold, Accor's physical presence in the United States will include only a
handful of Novotel and Sofitel locations. A $115 million renovation is planned next
year for the Novotel property in New York's Times Square.
For corporate buyers
with multinational needs, however, Accor is banking on aggressively increasing
its footprint in emerging markets.
Last month, for example,
it bought 15 South American hotels from Mexico's Grupo Posadas, which it plans
to integrate into its own brands.
"Our yearly objective
is to open roughly 40,000 rooms a year, either through franchises or through
acquisition," Gobilliard said. "We just reached 500 hotels in
Asia/Pacific [in June], and we keep growing in Europe and South America."
Accor also has been
revamping its loyalty program during the past few years, renaming it to Le Club
from A Club. The program also is expanding rewards beyond free stays to include
rebates and amenities.
Traditionally, rewards
programs have been a bigger draw to U.S. travelers than European travelers,
though "the mindset is changing," Gobilliard said. "It's not yet
as important as in the United States, but the Europeans are getting used to
these kinds of loyalty programs, so it's becoming more important."