The main news for Hcorpo in 2024 was the announcement of your partnership with TotalEnergies to add a hotel component to their Mobility Corporate payment card. What are the advantages of this partnership for users of this card?
Salomé Mogier - TotalEnergies chose us after an invitation to tender, and their Mobility Corporate Card The Mobility Corporate card now covers all the expenses associated with business travellers' mobility: fuel, parking, car hire, plane and train tickets, restaurants and, of course, hotels. For accommodation, the Mobility Corporate card is linked directly to the platform co-developed by Hcorpo and TotalEnergies. Card users have access to an ultra-complete range of hotels at the best prices on the market and pay for their stay with their corporate card. On top of this, they also benefit from the advantages of Accor's ALL loyalty programme. This product is really well suited to the target group of SMEs and SMIs targeted by this payment card, and its launch looks promising.
Was TotalEnergies a previous Hcorpo customer?
S. M. - And no, not yet. But why not one day!
More generally, as the year draws to a close, could you summarise the key points for Hcorpo?
S. M. - In recent years, we have enjoyed sustained double-digit growth. In this context, 2024 will be a record year for Hcorpo, both in terms of results and in terms of acquiring new customers, in particular many CAC40 companies and global accounts. At the same time, we continued our efforts on connectivity. Technologies evolve rapidly and can quickly become obsolete, and we are investing considerably in scalability to guarantee the latest-generation connectivity and state-of-the-art technology. We're often referred to as a Hotel Booking Tool, or HBT in the jargon. But our business goes further than a simple reservation system. We offer Hotel Booking Technology, a technology for business travel that enables all types of players to integrate with Hcorpo. Our job is to be connected to the entire ecosystem: to OBTs and TMCs, of course, but also to payment systems, tax-compliant electronic invoicing systems, ERP systems, HR tools and geolocation systems for security-related issues.
How far does Hcorpo's connectivity with this whole ecosystem extend?
S. M. - We are not yet connected to 100 % systems worldwide. However, in response to customer requests, we have the ability to integrate with all referenced systems by companies. The more we manage global or complex accounts involving different travel agencies in different countries, with several reservation systems and various payment methods, the more Hcorpo's ability to connect to this ecosystem strengthens our position.
Does this open up any avenues of development for you, particularly outside Europe?
S. M. - While we are a benchmark player in Europe, our aim is to accelerate our growth significantly. our international development. We are driven by requests from customers or partners to move into new markets or new areas where there are no local players capable of meeting all their needs. That's why we're working to structure our offering and our products to address these new challenges and to be able to duplicate the success we've had here in other markets.
Does being part of Accor, with the Group's relationships with key accounts and major companies around the world, help you?
S. M. - Being part of a group like Accor lends credibility to our international expansion. Join to a group listed on the stock exchange provides our customers with guarantees of financial solidity, which also enables us to continue investing. However, in terms of commercial synergies, we have we each have our own strategies. Accor sales staff do not sell Hcorpo products, for example.
Let's return to the business travel ecosystem. Is the role of an HBT still being reinforced in this market?
S. M. - When you look at all the components of business travel - air, rail, car hire, etc. - the hotel segment, by virtue of its complexity, requires a great deal of attention. -Because of its complexity, the hotel segment requires specific expertise. While there may have been some debate a few years ago If I'm a TMC or an agency, do I really need an HBT? Today, this is much less the case. Some large TMCs have tried to have their own hotel reservation tool. But as soon as they need more advanced technology, they turn to players like us to manage their customers' hotel expenditure. From the outset, our strategy has been omnichannel, with an offer aimed at both direct companies and travel agencies. It's in our DNA, and Hcorpo is now referenced by virtually all the major TMCs in the global market. We are the only ones to have such a listing.
How is Hcorpo positioned in relation to the competition?
S. M. - We have no intention of becoming a TMC tomorrow or an online booking tool that also manages air tickets and other services. Our strategy is to remain a core business playerWe are continuing to invest and innovate in the hotel segment for our two traditional targets, agencies and companies. The hotel segment alone is very buoyant, representing more than 40% of the corporate travel budget, and even exceeding 50% or even 60% for some of our customers in their overall expenditure. Hence our determination to be as expert as possible in this strategic segment.
The content part, the number of hotels distributed: is this still an issue today?
S. M. - There was a time when it was a race to see who could get the most hotels. Today, this content aspect is somewhat sidelined, on the assumption that it is the same for everyone. We don't subscribe to this trend, because this supply part is key in our view. We are continuing to invest in the department responsible for this. Finding the right suppliers, having the right connectivity to get the right prices, and even more importantly, availability, is a job. It's important, and all the more so if you're expanding internationally, with global accounts that need hosting in certain remote areas where they have factories or strategic sites.
Another key issue when it comes to the accommodation budget is "leakage", with all those bookings going outside the channel. What can you guarantee companies?
S. M. - On average, we have a spend capture rate of 89% on our customer portfolio. This is a real performance when the market average for TMCs is between 40% and 50%. Compared with other HBTs, we deliver higher adoption rates too. This can be explained firstly by our good integration into the OBT and TMC ecosystem, both online and offline, but also by our ability to buy rooms at a good price and resell them to our customers at attractive rates. This avoids the systematic comparison with mainstream sites which, incidentally, are not necessarily cheaper for the company and are above all off the radar, not to mention all the problems that this entails in terms of security and locating travellers.
We've talked a lot about technology and connectivity. But isn't the traveller also a player in this adoption rate?
S. M. - The user experience is essential to attract the maximum number of bookings. To achieve this, we offer a number of services that may seem trivial but are essential to satisfy business travellers. For example, we offer standard cancellation conditionsThese are valid until the evening before check-in, so there is no ambiguity for users.
Another exclusive HCorpo service is quality control: the hotel is systematically contacted before the customer arrives to check that the booking has been registered and paid for. Our model is based on advance payment to the hotels, which is then billed back to the company. This represents real added value, with an extremely low incident rate The average is only 0.64 % in 2024, compared with an average of 8 % to 12 % in industry.
For a travel manager or a buyer, it's the guarantee of not receiving daily emails from travellers reporting problems with unacknowledged or unpaid bookings, requiring payment on the spot. We make sure that every trip goes smoothly smoothlyA successful trip not only contributes to good negotiations, but also to the acquisition of new contracts.
Have your expense reporting solutions also evolved?
S. M. - Reporting is one of the areas in which we have invested heavily in recent years. For example, we offer very detailed reports, enabling buyers to demonstrate to their management and internal staff that the solution they have implemented is generating savings. We have recently enhanced this tool with a CSR sectionWe are working with a specialist company to provide accurate information on the carbon emissions of our hotels. We work with a specialist company to provide accurate information on CO2 for each booking, taking into account the hotel's location, number of rooms, category and a range of other criteria.
Is the visibility of eco-responsible labels at the time of booking also a demand from companies today?
S. M. - We do have the capacity to put them forward, something that the vast majority of companies demand. However, I don't think that all of them are mature enough to make it a decisive criterion in their decision-making. Distance and price remain the prioritiesAs well as the hotel's membership of a list of preferred or negotiated establishments. That said, more and more companies are seeking to go further by encouraging their travellers, when they are hesitating between two establishments, to give preference to those with a label. However, this approach remains uneven. Some companies, particularly in the luxury goods sector, are showing greater commitment, as are certain sectors such as energy, which are facing greater challenges and are keen to make progress. Public procurement markets and international organisations are also setting an example.
The desire for better control over expenditure is also one of the issues currently being addressed by companies. Can Hcorpo's solutions help to better reconcile the hotel expenditure of individual travellers and MICE events?
S. M. - For a long time, this issue was dealt with in silos, with the HBT handling individual bookings on the one hand, and all the MICE service providers and suppliers on the other. When we talk about bringing expenditure under control, priority is often given to individual bookings, but once we have done a good job of capturing a large proportion of hotel expenditure, why not go further? When I was talking about Hotel Booking Technology, I was referring to our desire to be a key supplier for all hotel-related issues. MICE is one of these, and we are in the process of structuring ourselves in this area, with advances likely to be announced early next year. Customers are demanding and we can offer them interesting solutions in terms of both services and technology.
