Has 2025 lived up to your expectations?
Olivier Cohn - It turned out to be better than we thought. A year ago, we were a little on the back foot, anticipating a slight fall in our results. Or, at best, stability. In the end, we recorded growth in revenue per room of around 1.5 %, driven more by occupancy than by prices that remained stable. So, overall, the year was fairly solid: after a first quarter that was a little sluggish, the second was more dynamic, before a summer that was slightly down. This was to be expected in comparison with the previous year, when the 2024 Olympic Games boosted cities such as Paris, Lille and the Centre-Val de Loire region. But the coastal regions held up well over the summer. And after that, the end of the year was very good, with a particularly strong December.
How do you explain this rebound at the end of the year?
O. C. - I think we suffered at the start of the year from the political instability. Once the country realised that it was going to be like this until 2027, the economic players got back to work. Companies went back to their customers. At the same time, France remains an attractive destination for tourists.
Has this momentum continued into the new year? How do you see 2026?
O. C. - At the end of last year, we expected 2026 to be similar to 2025, with growth of 1 to 2 % in a stable environment. Growth in January and February was above expectations, at +4 % per month. From March onwards, however, we see that business is more subdued, with bookings for April and May lagging behind. The crisis in the Middle East could be starting to take its toll. With summer flows forming in March, the next few weeks will be crucial.
What impact could this conflict have on your Group's business?
O. C. - There could be potentially positive effects for us. Europeans will undoubtedly be more inclined to stay in Europe. France, with its strong tourist appeal, can therefore benefit from some of this clientele who used to go to Dubai, Asia or other destinations accessible via the Gulf hubs. On the other hand, we will lose some of the Emirati clientele who used to come to Europe, but the European clientele is far more important.
What about American customers?
O. C. - That's the big unknown. Americans are traditionally a rather apprehensive clientele. Even though Europe is geographically a long way from the Middle East, some might prefer to stay at home if the conflict is prolonged.
What about the impact of oil prices?
O. C. - She's the other unknown. It used to be said that Évelyne Dhéliat made or broke our business by announcing the weather for the weekend ahead. This year, Brent could be that barometer. Over the last ten days or so, we've seen a gradual rise in oil prices. Now, the level of oil is clearly a factor that can make or break a business. It has an impact on car journeys and travel, and it raises the price of plane tickets for international customers.
In addition, municipal elections are coming up, before the presidential elections in 2027. Will these elections have an impact on the hotel business?
O. C. - Election years are generally wait-and-see years, but not all to the same degree. This wait-and-see attitude is most evident in major elections such as the presidential election, when the future of the country is at stake. Municipal elections have much less impact. Especially as they are held early in the year, so there is little disruption to the more commercially active periods from March to June. So we don't see any negative signals from this timetable for 2026. On the other hand, 2027 will merit closer attention.
Although last year was a good one overall, is the economic climate weighing on hotel business?
O. C. - The situation remains tense, with sectors such as construction, transport and retail all struggling. Against this backdrop, budget hotels have had a harder time than mid-range hotels, which in turn have had a harder time than top-of-the-range hotels. We can see that some companies have tightened the screws on their travel budgets, and are paying more attention to their event budgets. Even though we saw slight growth in the MICE segment thanks to our dynamic sales drive, June and September, which are big months for events, were particularly difficult.
How will the corporate segment perform in 2025?
O. C. - We have a very strong focus on corporate customers. The work we have done to strengthen our sales teams is really starting to pay off. Following growth of nearly 8 % in this segment last year, we are extremely ambitious for 2026. While fares should remain stable, with opportunities for increases limited to a maximum of 1 or 2 %, the priority will be to attract new passengers. Our aim is to continue to strengthen our customer portfolio, by working more closely with key accounts, but also by turning our attention to SMEs. This is a market that we find particularly interesting, as many of them do not yet have a travel policy or centralised tools.
How do you intend to approach them in practical terms?
O. C. - We are working on a centralised payment offering specifically for these structures. Large companies already have this type of tool. SMEs, on the other hand, are not equipped. This is a concrete area of work for us. What's more, our network of 336 hotels in France, with a strong presence in secondary and tertiary towns, puts us in a natural position to address this corporate market made up of companies that travel mainly within France. This presence is our strength. We are one of the few chains that are really expanding in France with B&B Hotels, at a time when Accor's offer is stable and other players are losing hotels.
What is your assessment of the year 2025 for the development of your network?
O. C. - We opened 18 new hotels, slightly fewer than usual - we normally open between 24 and 25 in a normal year - due to delays in construction work and the postponement of projects. But our development activity is extremely busy: our Board of Directors has approved 40 bids for 2025. And by 2026 we expect to have opened more establishments than ever before, probably in excess of thirty.
What destinations are you working on?
O. C. - We still have opportunities in certain cities where we don't yet have sufficient market share. We are currently discussing projects in Brest, Clermont-Ferrand and La Rochelle. A new hotel will open in Paris, near Porte d'Auteuil. The advantage of having ten brands today is that we can create a network of establishments of different ranges - some more upmarket, some geared more towards corporate clients or leisure - which reinforce each other. Overall, we manage to develop six or seven of our brands in France during the year.
What is the split between your brands in these new openings?
O. C. - The core of our offer, with the mid-range brands Best Western and Best Western Plus, makes up almost half of our network. Alongside this, some 25% to 30 % of our offer in the economy segment with the Sure brand, and this only seven years after its launch in France. Our top-of-the-range brands account for 12 to 13 % of the network.
How are you progressing with the development of WorldHotels in France?
O. C. - World Hotels is present in Nice, Strasbourg and Paris, and we also have an establishment in Morocco. We have some very exciting projects in the pipeline, particularly in Morocco. The development of top-of-the-range hotels - Best Western Collection, World Hotels - is clearly a priority. The aim is to increase the number of top-of-the-range hotels in our portfolio to more than 15 %. This is a growth area on which we are very focused.
One of Best Western's strengths, particularly for companies travelling internationally, is that it is present everywhere, with more than 4,000 locations worldwide. In this context, Best Western France has recently been put in charge of the group's development in the Maghreb and West Africa. You've set up a subsidiary in Morocco: what does that mean for you?
O. C. - We currently operate from Paris, but we will gradually be setting up a team on site. This is a major strategic decision. We were already present in Morocco with two hotels, but we decided to accelerate our development. Between September and December 2025, we have signed up eight hotels. Four will open this year, two in 2027 and two in 2028. Eight hotels signed up in the first six months of our launch - that's pretty encouraging. Our goal is to reach 20 to 25 hotels in Morocco within five years, which is quite a challenge.
What destinations and segments are you targeting in Morocco?
O. C. - The idea is to cover the whole country, as we have done in France, rather than concentrating on two or three destinations. Most of the projects are new builds, and we're going ahead with all our brands: Sure, Best Western, Best Western Plus and even top-of-the-range brands like Best Western Premier and WorldHotels, which already has a presence in Dakhla. The logic is twofold: to send French, European and international customers to Morocco, but also to develop the national customer base through a large local network.
Apart from Morocco, is West Africa also on your roadmap?
O. C. - We are in the analysis phase. For a number of years now, we've been managing territories in West Africa - Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and Benin - but Best Western is not yet present there. The economic attractiveness of these countries is real, but the hotel market there is underdeveloped, with few establishments, generally very expensive because of their quasi-monopoly position. There is certainly something to be built on, with quality hotels at competitive rates. There are still two points to watch out for: firstly, political instability in certain countries and France's image, which can be tarnished in some of these areas, and secondly, security. Countries like Benin and Togo, which were relatively stable just a few years ago, are now seeing the problems of their neighbours spread. From that point on, West Africa is not an immediate priority, but we are starting to take a serious look.
Finally, let's talk about two subjects that are at the heart of the hotel business: AI and sustainable development. With regard to the latter, how far have you got with the Green Key certification of your network?
O. C. - Our initial target was to have 75 % in the labelled fleet by the end of 2025. We have far exceeded that target. We have now reached 83 % and are aiming for 100 % by the end of 2026. We should be the first major group to reach this milestone. We're really proud of this, because it's a demanding label, and one that's increasingly difficult to obtain. It reflects the type of hotel we want to make: responsible, sustainable, committed. It's a big job for our teams, both in the hotels and at head office, providing support. Although there is no price premium linked to ecological certification, it is a criterion of choice for certain customers, particularly in the corporate and MICE segments.
As far as artificial intelligence is concerned, will it transform B2B hotel distribution as much as it will for leisure customers?
O. C. - I think so, and for the same reasons. The architecture of hotel booking has not changed since the creation of information systems: customers are still asked four questions. Where do they want to go, when, how many rooms and how old are the occupants? AI will make it possible to refine searches in natural language. A business traveller will be able to express very specific needs. For example, to find the hotel closest to a particular conference centre or business venue, but it could also go further, to find out whether there is a socket to the left of the bed because the traveller is used to sleeping on that side and plugging in his appliances... Simple but real needs that our current systems cannot meet. Tomorrow, they will.
How is Best Western preparing for this change?
O. C. - This requires a phenomenal amount of work on the content, and we are working on this, both at global and national level. For each hotel, we're going to have to source and describe information that we'd never thought of before, because people weren't asking us these questions. The aim is to offer natural language search on our platforms by the end of 2026, beginning of 2027.
