Accor : How entertainment became a key component of hospitality

With its Augmented Hospitality strategy, Accor is going further by imagining an ecosystem built around hospitality and entertainment. 'You have to customise the experience and interact with guests by increasing the frequency of encounters,' stresses Sébastien Bazin, CEO of the Group. While brands such as Amazon or Facebook have daily contact with their customers, hotels only see theirs three or four times a year. Hence the idea of enticing them with other offers that will keep each guest coming back.

To attract Millennials (but not only them!) to its hotels around the world, Accor is now looking to gain serious advantages, like its partnership with sbe Entertainment Group. The lifestyle hotel operator boasts renowned hotel and residence brands (SLS Hotel & Residences, Delano, Mondrian, Redbury, Hyde Hotel & Residences, The Originals), as well as restaurants and nightclubs. Its strength? Offering exceptional experiences at its various brands, while undertaking to combine authenticity, sophistication, know-how, and innovation at each of its locations. The newest creation from the Accor/sbe union arrived in early 2019. The House of Originals is an international collection of historic, if not iconic hotels, each asserting its originality in a masterclass of bold design, range of cuisine and mixology, and its parties.

In just a few years, Accor has accelerated the development and diversification of its lifestyle offerings, primarily through acquisition, but also through other means. Historic brands have also gone down this route.