AccorHotel plans to invest 225 million euros in a new loyalty program to replace Le Club AccorHotels. Le Club AccorHotels formed when Accor merged loyalty programs after the company acquired FRHI. Accor markets the new program, Accor Live Limitless, as a "lifestyle loyalty program" that will touch on three "passion points": entertainment, sports and dining and culinary. Accor also promised a new app and website related to the new program. Timing and additional details were not available.
Accor's Ibis brand will implement new designs for rooms, lobbies and food and beverage to emphasize flexibility and personalization. Lobbies will encourage multiple uses:—"eat, work, relax or gather"—rooms can be configured to sleep between one and six people, and each property will be empowered to offer localized dining options. Ibis also will emphasize music via concerts at its properties. MGallery boutique hotels, meanwhile, will adopt a wellbeing focus.
Accor will consolidate two hotel distribution tools—digital marketing tool Fastbooking, which Accor acquired in 2015, and hotel technology provider Availpro, which it acquired in 2017—to create D-Edge. Accorsaid it will offer the 11,000 hotels a central reservation system; data intelligence; connections to 500 third parties, including online travel agencies; advertising and research; and website creation.
Earnings Results
Revenue for Accor's hotel services division—which comprises Accor's hotel franchisor and operator business, plus activities related to hotel operations—rose 8.4 percent on a like-for-like basis in 2018 to 2.61 billion euros.
Occupancy increased 1.4 percentage points year over year on a like-for-like basis to 69.3 percent, while the average daily rate increased 3.5 percent to 89 euros. That pushed revenue per available room up 5.6 percent to 62 euros. Accor's fourth-quarter results line up with the full year, as fourth-quarter occupancy increased 1.5 percentage points on a like-for-like basis to 68.9 percent, while ADR rose 3.8 percent to 90 euros. Fourth-quarter RevPAR increased 6.1 percent to 62 euros.
Across Accor's network, 43,905 rooms across 300 hotels opened in 2018. The portfolio totals 703,806 rooms, and the company's pipeline numbers 198,000 rooms. Almost half the rooms in the pipeline are in the Asia/Pacific region, and more than three-quarters of the global pipeline rooms are in emerging markets.
Companywide revenue jumped 8.8 percent to 3.61 billion euros.
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