AccorHotels’ Roulleau: We Must Embrace The New Trends

The hotel group’s SVP of e-commerce and digital service, who led the launch of accorhotels.com, is ready “to react in the online space.”

How can established companies protect the core business when faced with disruptive sector and consumer trends?

For the AccorHotels Group, the answer lies in meeting trends head-on and “disrupting in order not to be disrupted.” That’s the view of senior vice president of e-commerce and digital services Romain Roulleau, who has worked on the group’s launch of accorhotels.com.

Speaking to CMO.com at the Adobe Summit EMEA 2016, Roulleau explained the two major business challenges disrupting the hotel sector: the growth of online travel agents—such as expedia.com and booking.com, which have changed the value proposition for customers—and the private rented apartment market made more accessible by the likes of Airbnb.

“We want to embrace these trends … and we have to react in the online space against online players in order not to be disrupted in our own [hotel] business,” he said.

The group has invested in Onefinestay, has launched a new brand called Jo&Joe (pictured below) that is part-apartment, part-hotel and is acting as a curator through the development of the accommodation-booking platform accorhotels.com. “[This is] becoming an internal agency platform for the distribution of our own hotels, private rental apartments, and other independent hotels,” Roulleau said. “Too much choice kills the choice. We guarantee quality because we are a hotelier.”