What forms the core of Accor’s design

Damien Perrot, Global Senior Vice President-Design, explains why through ibis they are now trying to create something that will be loved by some of the guests, rather than trying to be a brand that pleases everyone.

Damien Perrot, Global Senior Vice President-Design, on creating unique designs for guests

Since Damien Perrot joined Accor more than 20 years ago, he has learned, shaped, and revolutionised the way the company approaches and innovates around design. He started his career with the group as an Information Technology Project Manager and now serves as Global Senior Vice President-Design. Perrot has held several leadership roles as well.

Explain core principles that the global Accor portfolio follows? Is design individualised to each brand?

The first thing that all of our brands have in common is our ambition to create hotels not only for travellers, but also for the locals, who live in the areas around our properties. The second key element is emotion. If we want people to remember their journeys in one of our hotels, we should ensure that they feel special. They need to experience this through our bespoke services. These two things are the pulse for all our brands. Beyond this, each brand has its own USP.

For example, ibis used to be a ‘hotel appreciated by everyone’. Now, our goal is to create something that will be loved by our guests — we’re no longer trying to please everyone. We now offer different concepts within the ibis brand so that people can find to love that which is relevant to them.

Another example is ‘The Junction’, a co-working concept that we created for one of our premium brands, Pullman. The space is ideal for business, leisure and special meetings and offers rotating food and beverages for both

Our ambition is to create hotels not only for travellers, but also for the locals”

sit-in and take away. To animate the lobby’s atmosphere, we placed the bar at the center to provide interaction between guests and employees.

What role does creativity play in Accor’s design strategy?

For Accor, creativity has no borders. We work with designers from all over the world to embark on different visions on one project. If you ask a designer based in Moscow to design a property in Paris, he’s definitely going to provide a creative and new input to the table. Also, working with hotel or same designers, does not allow creation of something new, unique and enthralling. For example, to create JO&JOE we worked with a designer who had never designed a hotel before. In another example, to build ibis’s new design philosophy, we brought on board designers from Brazil, Austria and Thailand. They developed three different concepts that brought variety in design in the property.

What design principles guide Accor’s approach to hospitality?

We integrate innovation in design at the early stages of the process. That’s how we created the Flying Nest mobile hospitality solution. These self-sufficient rooms are located in mobile shipping containers and finished with eco-friendly wood, all designed by Ora-ïto. When our guests express that they ‘lived something extraordinary’, we feel that we have met our goal. Design is one of the most important elements of hospitality because it touches every aspect of the journey, be it architecture, interior design, organisation of spaces, programming, entertainment, objects, artworks, staging, among more.