Accor continues strategy with Orient Express

　　AccorHotels wants to continue meeting the requirements of the modern traveler and is filling the gaps in its worldwide tapestry, according to sources.

　　Its recent Mantra Group buy and 50% joint-venture stake in Orient Express are two of the latest examples of the group’s strategy, and earlier today the French hotel firm officially launched its AccorLocal initiative, designed to provide both hotel guests and local communities a suite of local services from local shopkeepers.

　　AccorHotels CEO Sébastien Bazin has been talking about AccorLocal all year. According to the news release accompanying the launch, the idea is “a local services offer that give shopkeepers the opportunity to offer their products within the group’s hotels; on the other hand, hotels are given the chance to promote their hospitality services to a non-resident clientele.”

　　These moves all are part of Bazin’s strategy to find new ways to differentiate the company beyond its traditional hotel product.

　　“In today’s world, either you change or you will be changed,” he said at the South America Hotel Investment Conference held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “So either you act and then you make some hard decisions and take some risk … (or) somebody is going to be acting for you—that’s somebody called Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Google, Amazon, Facebook.”

　　AccorHotels is using its wallet to expand its offerings by acquiring concierge services, luxury home-rental platforms, a traditional luxury hotel portfolio and business-hotel distribution-technology firms. At the same time, the company will add to its coffers again with the sale of some of its AccorInvest portfolio, perhaps as early as the end of this year.

　　Bazin in the press release championed the move, stating that “AccorHotels is continuing a history of daring and winning moves which has led us to where we’re not expected to go, but to where we do however have absolute legitimacy as a place bursting with life in the heart of the city.”