"The best hotel booking site made by a hotelier for hoteliers". This is how Sébastien Bazin, Chairman of AccorHotels, described the development of accorhotels.com last Wednesday. Because that's what the French hotel chain should be called from now on. By adding 'Hotels' to its name, the French group aims to match its online brand image and its loyalty programme. But above all, this new identity reflects its desire to counter the expansion of OTAsFor example, all those online booking sites such as Booking or Expedia, whose commissions eat into the margins of establishments.
While the major competitor groups such as Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Carlson have all launched "light" brands to attract independent hotels into their fold in order to give them the benefit of their commercial clout, AccorHotels is following suit. a different approachand is transforming its website into a marketplace open to these same establishments. This transformation was made possible by the recent acquisition, as part of thean ambitious digital planFastbooking, which specialises in e-commerce solutions for independent hoteliers.
Between now and 2018, the Group aims to win over 6,500 hotels to enhance their online marketing by being present on accorhotels.com alongside the company's 3,500 establishments. Accor Hotels has a number of arguments in its favour: guaranteed lower commission rates, no auctioning of preferential space on the booking tool, the provision of customer data and also a degree of freedom, by not imposing rate parity.
For business travellers, accorhotels.com will offer a much wider choice than before, particularly in the mid-range segment. The Group has identified 320 key destinations around the world where it intends to strengthen its offering. "You've heard of GAFA, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. You're going to love BATA".concludes Sébastien Bazin, pointing to Booking, AccorHotels, TripAdvisor and Airbnb as the key quartet in tomorrow's hotel world.
