Accor has become AccorHotels and adopted a new signature, as it ramps up its digital drive by transforming its AccorHotels.com distribution platform into a marketplace open to a selection of independent hotels.
Sébastien Bazin, AccorHotels Chairman and CEO, declared, “Today, our group changes, and loudly and clearly proclaims its desire to go further, faster. Accor becomes AccorHotels and proudly re-assumes its role as a pioneer hotelier that never stops innovating and surprising, at the cutting edge of digital technology, but while remaining a hotelier, first and foremost. The Feel Welcome promise is a strong commitment to all our audiences, and enriches the bond between the group and its brands.”
A new name
With its new name, AccorHotels, the group proudly upholds its hospitality business. It aims at increasing the clout and visibility of AccorHotels, which is both an institutional and commercial brand, by connecting it to its digital platform AccorHotels.com.
In order for the Group brand and the hotel brands to cement their reciprocal bonds, AccorHotels will endorse all the brands’ communications and provide them with the credibility, assurance and expertise of an international leader. Likewise, the brand portfolio will always feature in AccorHotels’ communications to boost the appeal of both the Group and its digital platform.
A new signature: Feel Welcome
The group also has a new simple, striking and universal signature that emphasizes its desire to make guests Feel Welcome, encapsulating the generosity and essence of hospitality. It is a promise to all audiences so they feel expected, unique and privileged.
A new brand territory
To reflect the group’s ambition, the new identity features a more statutory logo containing deep blue typography. This new logo continues to showcase the group’s symbol – the single, emblematic honey-colored bernache goose. This migratory bird is the brand and mobile app icon, and symbolizes group spirit, determination and travel.
This new identity is already visible on the group’s space in the Village at Roland Garros, of which AccorHotels is an official partner.
A new AccorHotels.com
AccorHotels.com is already the leading online hotel booking platform in several markets, including France, Brazil, Australia and Germany, and now it is revealing its marketplace. In time, the objective is to offer more than 10,000 hotels in 300 key cities worldwide, or a three-fold increase in the number of hotels on AccorHotels.com.This service will gradually become available to hoteliers in the first target markets starting at the end of June 2015, and guests will be able to access it beginning July 2015.
The independent hotels distributed on the AccorHotels.com platform alongside the Group’s brand hotels will be selected on the basis of hotel criteria with guest reviews taken into account. It will provide independent hoteliers with a powerful alternative and qualitative distribution channel that meets their specific needs. This new offer guarantees transparent display rules, access to customer data and competitive commission rates.
Sébastien Bazin, AccorHotels Chairman and CEO, stated, “Transforming our distribution platform into an open marketplace is a major initiative for the Group and the result of a new approach to our profession and business model. AccorHotels is placing its powerful digital tools at the service of independent hoteliers and increasing the choice available to its customers by adding more hotels and more destinations. We are becoming a trustworthy, selective and transparent third party and we are once again amplifying the in-depth transformation undertaken within the Group since 2013. These initiatives and the launch of the new AccorHotels application are designed to enrich the content of our digital ecosystem and reinforce our position as a hospitality industry pioneer and trailblazer.”
Vivek Badrinath, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Marketing, Digital, Distribution and Information Systems added, “With our digital plan, which is in the midst of its roll-out, the takeover of Fastbooking, which allows us to deploy a range of cutting-edge services for hoteliers, and now the opening of a marketplace, AccorHotels is taking the initiative to ensure that the combination of digital experience and hotelier know-how is increasingly effective.”
This initiative will supplement the services developed by Fastbooking, a company taken over by the group in April 2015, within a new B2B digital services activity. AccorHotels now offers a wider range of digital and technical solutions, as well as more support, guaranteeing better visibility as well as an increase in direct web bookings.
Over the first two years of its roll-out, this initiative will represent an additional investment worth about 10% of the cost of the digital plan unveiled in October 2014.
Today, the group is also launching the new version of its mobile application, AccorHotels. All the brand applications are now united in this single app which features all the group’s hotels and, as of this summer, will also include all the independent establishments offered on the booking platform. The AccorHotels app offers an enriched experience at every stage of the customer journey:
- Pre-stay: assist with trip preparation such as the storage of flight information, train tickets, e-check-in/fast check-out, Welcome by Le Club Accorhotels service and more.
- During stay: access to digital press, city guides (available early July), and other services which will be gradually introduced, notably taxi booking and room service ordering.
- Post-stay: loyalty program management.
Updates every three weeks will ensure the AccorHotels app is constantly improved and enriched at a sustained pace.
