Acc’OR’ nothing!
Jean-Michel Casse, COO- India & South Asia shares what lies ahead
Can you explain in detail about the expansion plans of Accor, specific to India?
Densification in key markets is a significant strategy for Accor’s growth in India. We are entering and expanding in markets, based on their potential growth opportunities and favourable socio-macroeconomic factors. Over the next few years, our focus is to continue to grow our regional network and introduce new brands. We have 25 hotels and approximately 5,000 keys in the pipeline under active development. In line with Accor’s strategic growth pillars - development based on luxury hotels, private residences, lifestyle concepts and resorts, we are focussed on such opportunities in India, particularly in key commercial hotel markets and untapped leisure locations. Our upcoming properties for 2020 include the launch of Raffles Udaipur, Novotel Mumbai International Airport and ibis Mumbai LBS Road. We also have the Raffles Jaipur and Fairmont Mumbai Sahar, which are in the pipeline.
How did the brand perform in 2019 in the region?
At Accor, we have budgeted for a 12 per cent RevPAR growth for 2020 - like for like – which can be attributed to a greater contribution from increase in rates rather than on volume. For 2019, we witnessed good level of occupancies on weekdays and we were successful in this strategy for this year.
Which are the latest innovations in terms of facilities and services at Accor hotels worldwide?
We would like to take this opportunity to talk about ALLAccor Live Limitless. It is a daily lifestyle companion that integrates rewards, services and experiences throughout Accor. With ALL, we are bringing value to everyday life whether guests and members live, work or play, elevating Accor’s relationship with clients, members and partners from transactional to emotional and inventing a completely new aspirational way to live limitless.
What are you doing to stay ahead of the competition?
What we are doing different from our competitors is that we at Accor are bringing augmented hospitality strategy to life. We are delivering the broadest range of brands and services in the industry into one platform to enhance and enrich the lives of our guests. We want ALL to become second nature to our customers – in their everyday lives and when travelling for business or with family. Life is enriched with ALL - Accor Live Limitless, the lifestyle platform that goes beyond hotels and promotions. We want to bring ever more value, so that our customers can enjoy ‘money can’t buy’ experiences across hotels, bars and restaurants, nightclubs, sporting events, entertainment, food festivals and more.
Revamping and renovating hotels is also part of our strategy where we are making necessary changes in the hotel to enhance guest experience. We listen to the guest’s feedback and review our properties periodically to see if changes are required. In 2019, two properties were refurbished to make the overall experience better.
We will be bringing the much-awaited iconic Raffles brand to India in 2020”
Novotel Ahmedabad recently rebranded itself as Novotel Ahmedabad – Hotel & Residence offering 222 rooms and suites (38 new rooms and suites), a premier lounge, and more meeting rooms with live kitchen facility. We also revamped our ibis Jaipur Civil Lines property to focus on family travellers to the city. The hotel underwent the refurbishment of its alfresco and lounge area as well as its 22 guest rooms offering more space for families travelling with young children. ibis Gurgaon Golf Course Road also underwent a renovation to mark its 10th year anniversary with soft refurbishment in all rooms, revamp of Spice It, vibrant lobby, setup of a new gym with improved equipment and much more.
Challenges faced last year?
The travel and tourism industry witnessed a few challenges in the initial months of 2019. Due to the shutdown of Jet Airways and grounding of Boeing Max aircraft, the industry had 30 per cent less seats. This increased the load on other aviation players and resulted in a situation where air traffic increased between 15 to 60 per cent in some cases. This range was alarming as it severely affected travel and tourism industry. When such crisis hits, the first cuts made in most of the companies are travel and meetings, hence affecting the hospitality industry. Also, due to elections and multiple dry days, hotel occupancy has slowed down. The industry also saw a decline in the M!CE segment, with the decline in travel from the government and business sectors.
Has Indian market picked up in the last few years in terms of growth? Why or why not?
There has been a visible and a definite growth in the market. It is more evolved now, guests are demanding varied services, multiple innovations across services and the industry as well is flourishing with more supply each year. The industry continues to witness high occupancy and ARR’s, thus, continuing to show promising progress. This is true across segments from luxury to premium and economy. One of the noticeable evidences is the availability of hotel brands and properties panning across luxury, mid-scale, economy, etc. They have many options to choose from based on the nature of travel, be it for leisure or work. M!CE is also an important aspect to help this sector grow.
We also cannot deny the contribution of digital and technological innovation to the hospitality industry. Be it internal processes or software for multiple functions and departments or the social media platforms used by guests, technology has eased down everything for both hoteliers and guests.
Will Indian market see any new Accor brand in the upcoming year?
As shared earlier, we will be bringing the much-awaited iconic Raffles brand to India in 2020. Banyan Tree, SO, SLS, Delano, Mondrian amongst others are some of the brands which have potential growth and audience in the Indian market.