Face to face: Chris Roe, VP Sales, Distribution & Loyalty Manager, UK & Ireland, AccorHotels
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
How important is the UK trade to AccorHotels and why?
We work very closely with Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and corporate agents, as well as leisure agents, from bed banks and OTAs to independent travel agents.
If you look at global sales out of the UK and take out the OTAs, 40% of transactions that go through the UK is business with the trade. Our aim is to get our hotels selected by our trade partners over those operated by our competitors and today, if you name any brand selling hotels or packages out of the UK and Europe, AccorHotels has a relationship with them.
MICE business is also becoming increasingly important to us and we recently launched the Wizardry Wins incentive – a nationwide campaign targeting UK agents and planners, encouraging them to make more meeting and event bookings by giving them a chance to win several prizes, including a luxury trip for two to Los Angeles.
We also have a team of 60 people who manage our relationship with the UK trade – we invest heavily in this area of the business.
From a corporate perspective, each year we invite key agents – the top performers from around the world – to go to Paris to meet the CEO. The idea is to listen to their opinions, asking them what we do well and what we could do better.
What destination and booking trends are you noticing right now?
Dubai is going really well, particularly our Sofitel property on The Palm Jumeirah, which is really popular with the UK market. Business to Amsterdam is also growing fast. I believe easyJet has added more frequencies to the city from the UK plus we also have more than 40 properties there now across a number of brands, from ibis through to Mercure and Sofitel.
Other emerging popular destinations for the UK market in terms of bookings for our properties are Vietnam and British favourite, Thailand. Asia Pacific in general is doing pretty well.
Has there been a shift away from Paris and Brussels in light of recent terrorism-related events?
Brussel and Paris have recovered quickly. There was a minor blip in sales, but we launched a campaign – ParisWeLoveYou – which offered some very good deals and business improved.
What initiatives do you have to keep the trade engaged and to help them sell AccorHotels?
Every few years we run the ‘World of Accor’ event for the UK market, inviting 300 agents to meet with around 100 hotels from our network. It’s like a mini World Travel Market (WTM). Agents meet with both the hotels with which they do business and those they are interested in selling. We invite our top agents as well as those we believe would benefit from the event. The next World of Accor is in 2017.
What new products and hotels are you highlighting to the UK trade right now – and why?
The big story right now is that we will open our new flagship Novotel in London’s Canary Wharf later this year.
At 34 storeys (127 metres high), it will be the tallest Novotel in the world, and also one of the highest buildings in Canary Wharf. Located at 40 Marsh Street, the hotel will offer 313 rooms including 26 suites, plus nine meeting rooms and break-out areas.
We have also added 11 Mercure properties to the UK market recently with locations ranging from Brands Hatch (next to the track) to Liverpool. Another new edition in Europe is what we call NASA – the beautifully-designed Novotel Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hotel. Further afield we are opening a lot of hotels in Asia – Vietnam, Singapore and Bangkok.
What role do you see travel agents playing in the future and what are your plans to ensure they remain a relevant distribution channel?
Agents will remain a viable distribution channel in the future as long they stay relevant. There is enough room for agents in the market place and they are of strategic importance to AccorHotels. We will maintain our strong relationship with the UK trade and do what we are good at, which is listening to them. The UK is becoming an increasingly important source market for us with a good growth rate, particularly to destinations like the Middle East and Asia Pacific where we are expanding. The scale the UK now has as a distribution channel means it also has a bigger voice at head office and we can make the market’s needs known.
What’s AccorHotels doing differently to drive guest loyalty and how can agents get involved with your loyalty and engagement initiatives?
Our loyalty programme is about the three ‘Rs’ – relevance, rewards and perhaps most importantly, recognition. We give our Le Club members benefits like online check-in and a free drink at the bar, to make their stay with us convenient and relevant, recognising what customers want. Agents have been wary of loyalty programmes in the past, but we are not using them to take away business from them. Customers can book with an agent but still receive Le Club benefits and this is what we are trying to push.
Wizardry Wins
What? An incentive for UK agents and planners.
Why? To increase the number of meeting and event bookings.
When? Launched in February, runs until the end of September 2016.
Prizes? So far, the winning agents have scooped up West End Theatre tickets, a luxury afternoon tea at Pullman London St Pancras, Harry Potter themed weekend breaks as well as attraction tickets and experiences. The grand prize is a trip to Los Angeles.
How Wizardry Wins works:
Book a meeting to take place by 28th February 2017 at any participating AccorHotels property before 30th September 2016
Once the meeting is confirmed, visit www.winwithaccor.com to register and enter the prize draw
For every £500 spent at economy hotels (excluding ibis Budget) and £1,000 spent at mid-scale and luxury properties, agents are granted a ‘magic stone’ and entered into a monthly prize draw
Once five magic stones have been amassed, agents will be given a ‘precious diamond’ and entered into the grand prize draw to win the ultimate holiday prize of a holiday to LA including business class flights and a stay at Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills
All meeting bookings will be verified with the individual hotel to confirm validity before prize draw entries are confirmed
AccorHotels APAC update
Last year AccorHotels opened more than 70 hotels across Asia Pacific, the equivalent of at least one new hotel per week in the region. This year the group is on target to reach 700 hotels in APAC. Some of the most exciting recent and upcoming openings include:
New hotels
So Sofitel Hua Hin, Thailand
Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa Singapore
Elements of Byron, MGallery by Sofitel, Australia
Pullman & Novotel New Delhi Aerocity, India
Novotel Manila Araneta, Philippines
Novotel Phu Quoc Vietnam
Upcoming hotels
Sofitel Singapore City Centre (late 2016)
Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour, Australia (2017)
Mercure Bana Hills French Village Vietnam (2016)
Mercure Maldives Koodoo Resort (late 2016)
Comments are closed.