French hospitality giant Accor announced this week it is
building its own meetings and event ecosystem to support sourcing and booking
activities. The company said the new platform aims to unite more than 5,600
Accor hotels around the world and will host an inventory of 2.5 million square meters
of event space as well as more than 800,000 guest rooms.
The vision is to provide a self-service option for clients
to view and book event space, guest rooms and catering services—and the direct
booking system will also integrate with Accor’s loyalty program ALL Accor. Version
one of the platform will be available by late 2025 to sales teams connected to
Salesforce and will offer online booking for small, accommodations-only groups
for up to 30 guest rooms. Version two, which will provide more robust access to
and booking for meeting room and event space and larger guest room blocks, as
well as “connectivity to external channels” will come online in 2026, according
to Accor.
Accor is working with platform technologist MeetingPackage
as the “backbone” of the system, but will also be developed in collaboration with
other technology providers, including Oracle OPERA Cloud Sales and Event Management,
Backyou, iVvy and Amadeus Delphi. Enabling integration with all of these
providers will enable MeetingPackage and external third party channels across
Accor’s global portfolio that includes Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel, MGallery,
Pullman, Mövenpick, Novotel, Mercure, and Ibis as well as lifestyle brands like
The Hoxton, Mama Shelter, SLS, and SO/ through Ennismore.
“Through this new digital Meetings & Events ecosystem,
Accor’s entire event inventory will become more visible, accessible and appealing,”
said Accor chief sales and revenue officer Julien Houdebine in a statement. “This
digital transformation aligns with recent research from Accor highlighting that
in-person meetings are more valued than ever.”
Accor cited Allied Market Research projecting the overall
value of the business travel industry is forecasted to reach US$2 trillion by
2028 and Global Business Travel Association research that pegged global business
travel expenditures at US$1.4 trillion in 2026.
Accor’s strategy looks to achieve more than capture market
share and is another move by a hospitality company to bring corporate business
into direct booking status—disintermediating platforms like Cvent and other
third parties that provide meetings marketplaces and management tools for
enterprises. Participation in such distribution and marketplace systems is
expensive. Bringing meeting and event bookings directly to Accor reduces
exposure to that channel cost, if the platform—and marketing—proves robust
enough to attract and keep the business.
Houdebine also underscored that the meetings ecosystem and
eventual direct booking program would integrate with the ALL Accor loyalty
program, which is a proven lever in getting transient bookings into direct
channels.
Marriott has done similar work and technology platforming
for transient business travel, looking to attract more direct bookings ostensibly
targeting the small and midsize business travel market with its Bonvoy Business Access program. It will be interesting
to watch at what market segment Accor aims its new platform—to large
enterprises or to the fragmented meetings landscape that isn’t broadly managed
with enterprise tools. Whether Accor will look to provide some data capture and
management reporting tools as part of the platform could be key to its success.