The Originals Hotels has announced new record results for 2023, with sales up 15% and significant growth in the corporate segment. How is your cooperative approaching business customers?
Olivier Dufit - Firstly, by supporting independent hoteliers with our sales force to meet with companies and sign agreements to increase the proportion of direct distribution. Admittedly, the direct relationship is losing ground somewhat, but we are trying to encourage it so that our hoteliers can control their distribution and avoid paying commission, while remaining in control of the data. However, if we support them in this area, we can't do without intermediaries. As a result, we are making sure that establishments are properly represented by connecting our hotels with almost everything that exists in terms of indirect channels. Our activity in distribution via GDSs and corporate OTAs explains in particular the good results of the corporate market in 2023. And we have the same approach to MICE with, on the one hand, a strong presence on the ground with companies to make direct bookings and, at the same time, the listing of hotels on indirect platforms such as KactusIdeal Meetings and other MICE market places.
Does direct distribution still work with large companies?
Olivier Dufit - Indeed, large companies are increasingly moving away from direct booking. Even with commissions of between 14% and 20 %, they are opting for the range of services offered by hotel reservation platforms, whether for travel management, centralised payments or expense management. Through them, companies find real support, even if it means paying these commissions. But there are still companies that have not yet integrated this operating system, or do not want to. Because they refuse to pay commission, because direct is less expensive for everyone. So the idea is to boost direct distribution on the basis of a unified tariff, a linear tariff for the year with flexible cancellation conditions and a certain number of advantages.
Are your business customers mainly SMEs or large companies?
Olivier Dufit - By working on both direct and indirect distribution, we have a very diverse business clientele with key accounts opting for unified rates, travellers from large companies who find our hotels on all the HBA and corporate channels, but also the small SME in the area, sales staff and workers coming to a building site.
What does The Originals cooperative offer its member hotels?
Olivier Dufit - To paraphrase a Renault advert from a few years ago, our cooperative has all the hallmarks of a large hotel chain: all the services of a large hotel chain with an operating model that leaves a great deal of freedom to our independent hoteliers. Independent, but never aloneIn terms of quality, too, we introduced a process last year that was co-developed with hoteliers to closely monitor the offering of each establishment in the network.
And CSR too, I suppose.
Olivier Dufit - This has been one of our main pillars for three years now. The Originals is the first and only hotel chain to be awarded the "Committed to CSR" label by AFNOR. This is a key issue for our corporate clients. If you don't show your credentials, you won't be able to respond to invitations to tender. CSR is both an ethical issue, with regard to the planet and society, but it is also, and above all, a key business issue. If your establishment is not committed, he will be disqualified from the contract. Everyone needs to get on board the CSR train if they want to still be around in two or three years' time. Especially as what is already valid for the corporate sector will certainly become a selection criterion for leisure activities. The same goes for investors and banks. I would add that our cooperative model conveys a certain number of values, positive virtues of modernity, equity, fairness, modernity, performance, all linked to CSR. All this converges in a slightly different way of approaching business and the relationship with others, without falling into the philosophy of the counter, in a market where everyone ends up looking the same.
Your brand The Originals, Human Hotels & Resorts was launched in 2018, bringing together InterHotel, Relais du Silence, P'tit Dej-Hotel, Qualys-Hotel and Hôtels-Chalets de Tradition under one roof. Let's take a look back at its development.
Olivier Dufit - We're getting ready to celebrate five years of The Originals brand this year. At the end of 2018, the idea was tostop supporting five brands - This 'soft brand' will support independent hoteliers by signifying that they belong to the cooperative, while conveying an image of uniqueness and authenticity compared with the standardisation that can be found in many hotels. This 'soft brand', The Originals, will support independent hoteliers by showing that they belong to the cooperative, while at the same time conveying an image of uniqueness and authenticity compared to the standardisation that can be found in many networks.
For business travellers used to moving around France, what accommodation solutions do you offer?
Olivier Dufit - Our network, currently made up of 350 hotels, is highly diversified, ranging from entry-level to top-of-the-range. This is our strength, as we are able to reach out to all types of clientele with hotels that, for the most part, are not located in the heart of major cities, but rather in the outskirts.n the outskirts of major cities, in secondary townson the coast or in the countryside. Although we also offer a few establishments in Paris itself. We're not everywhere in France yet, but we're working on it, with the aim of achieving a positive balance of around thirty hotels a year. This would take us to 400 establishments within three years.
Chalet-Hotel Les Gentianettes, The Originals Relais, in Abondance.
Does this location away from the major city centres have an impact on the attractiveness of the MICE segment?
Olivier Dufit - Completely. Our MICE positioning is to invite people to get off the beaten track, away from traditional seminars in standard hotels, by adding a little atypicalism and charm. On our website, organisers can find around 400 seminar rooms. Over the next few months, we will be reviewing this part of the seminar. The customer journey on our site will be completely reworked so that companies can find the essential information, real descriptions of the rooms and their surface areas, and search filters adapted to this specific market.
As far as business travel is concerned, you also offer coworking facilities. Is offering these work spaces essential today?
Olivier Dufit - Yes, completely. It's a shame to have a functional establishment between 7pm and 10am and unoccupied spaces the rest of the time. Being able to offer the different packages found on the Open Work site means that both travellers and local customers can find a meeting place or to make a quiet phone call, to work in peace and quiet for half a day in suitable spaces with the right sockets, a good wifi, and why not take advantage of the restaurant. It all comes down to working on the concept of a place to live, which means positioning the hotel as something other than a place to sleep.
One of your competitors, Logis Hotels to name but one, has made evening stopovers one of its key offers for business travellers. Is this also the case for you?
Olivier Dufit - These evening events will be one of our spearheads in 2024 as part of our corporate direct distribution strategy, whether in terms of communication or structuring the offer by displaying it on websites and booking engines to raise awareness. These stopover evenings work extremely well, but are still not very well promoted or marketed. They were only known by regulars. But this offer has a lot going for it, and it's something that our hoteliers know how to do very well. Some may have feared that leisure customers would go for this offer. But, to obtain this packaged rate, the criterion is to be alone, and it is quite rare to see leisure travellers coming alone from Monday to Thursday. And even if there were a few of them, it wouldn't be a big deal in terms of the potential for winning new customers.
