ROOM KEY: SEBASTIEN BAZIN

Legend of Paris

Over the past decade, Accor Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin has become one of the hotel industry’s most exciting and charismatic leaders. He has taken the company from 13 brands in 2013 to more than 40 today, and in the process created one of the most exciting portfolios the sector has ever seen. Now, he is targeting future guests, one cool neighbourhood at a time, and finding ways for owners to get better returns than ever before. James Wilkinson reports from Paris.

Walking into Sébastien Bazin’s office at Accor’s global headquarters in the Paris neighbourhood of Issy-les-Moulineaux is like standing in the lobby of a flagship Mondrian or SO/ hotel. There’s the motorbike and edgy, stylish furniture and wallpaper, and views across Paris and along the Seine.

It’s an appropriate setting for the Chairman and CEO of a hotel chain who has transformed a business from a midscale and upmarket player into a luxury and lifestyle leader since he took the reins of the business in 2013.

Let’s wind the clock back to 2013 and Accor had significant strength across Europe and Asia-Pacific with its ibis, Mercure, MGallery, Novotel and Sofitel brands, with the latter having flagship properties across the world from Sydney to Los Angeles and New York to Fiji.

What a difference a decade makes and under Bazin’s leadership, Accor has acquired businesses like FRHI (Fairmont, Raffles, Swissôtel), Mantra Group, taken shareholdings in hot brands like Faena, Mama Shelter, 25hours, Tribe, 21C Museum Hotels, and formed a joint venture with Ennismore – owners of The Hoxton – to create the world’s most exciting lifestyle hospitality company.

SO/Paris

It’s a transformation of epic proportions and alongside being a traditional hotelier in many ways – by offering comfortable lodging, quality food and beverage, event spaces and more – Bazin is continuing to push Accor to always be a leader and not a follower.

Let’s take co-working and co-mingling in hotels for example, something two of Accor’s hottest brands Mama Shelter and The Hoxton do brilliantly well. They are helping attract future Accor customers and Bazin knows how much future revenue it can potentially generate.

“Something which has been very interesting for me is how the pandemic accelerated two trends which we made a big bet on six years ago,” he told Wayfarer

“One is, could you co-mingle the local community with travellers within the same site? And of course, this started with Hoxton and Mama Shelter 15 years ago.

“It’s not only worked because that’s what people want, including owners, because if they’re going to have half of their revenues from non-hotel revenues, that is a big buffer against a possible slowdown in travel, which I don’t really expect.

“The second trend, which of course is accelerating is working remotely and we’ve never seen so many people in the CBD or downtown Accor hotels coming as a repeat guest twice a week and spending two or five hours and being in the lobby and being welcomed with their own computer and working.

“The master at it is The Hoxton, which is very, very good in having students for a third of the crowd and not paying guests.

Stylish stay: Sofitel Queenstown

“They don’t wait for them to even have a coffee. But they’re young, they’re nice. The only thing we do is ask them to leave at 12:15pm and they come back at 2:30pm. So that’s fine. That table is occupied by a paying guest and they do that very nicely. It’s kind of fun to watch, actually.

“Then the [lobby] all day is occupied by people. Those working remotely come five minutes by foot or by bike, so they really live in the vicinity.

“If we can continue really welcoming the non-travellers, then the travellers will pick that hotel because that is a trendy and nice place in town. So, with Ennismore, I’ve just never seen numbers like this.”

The next level of co-working is of course members clubs and a number of properties and chains globally have been following the success of Soho House with their own programs, including the ‘new’ Mondrian Shoreditch, which still features The Curtain Club, something that was launched when the hotel originally opened under Michael Achenbaum’s Gansevoort Hotel Group, prior to The Curtain’s takeover by Ennismore.

Bazin said there is firmly room for more members clubs around the world, but acknowledged it needs to be done well.

“The answer is yes [there is potential], but it’s a big but,” he said. “It has to be conceived at the time you build a hotel because people will pay you for membership if they have exclusive space and dedicated space.

Mama Shelter’s shared spaces are popular with guests

“You cannot begin thinking about it by trying to reconfigure existing spaces, it doesn’t work. So, the Shoreditch Mondrian was meant to be that way. And, of course, Soho House are doing it built for this purpose.

“Can you [put them in] probably 5% of Accor hotels? Yeah, you can find a space, but probably no more than 10%.”

Bazin said the future is around maximising existing spaces, including co-working, across Accor’s portfolio, whether the property is a Novotel, Sofitel or under one of the lifestyle brands.

“It’s super easy,” he said. “We are not talking about converting rooms into offices. It has some traction in nonCBD areas or non-capital cities and [instead] in tertiary cities. But that’s not it. That’s not the game.

“The game is ‘can you have a better use of public spaces at a greater number of hours between 8am and 8pm?’

“You know, 90% of that space has been only occupied or non-utilised [at hotels] for the last 40 years.

Accor Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin

“And people coming to work, they’re not fussy about it. They’re very happy to sit down on the sofa. You have to rethink the furniture, but that’s about it.”

As Bazin said, the opportunity is about hotels further cementing their place in the local community and finding more opportunities to bring the locals in and in turn, turning them into future clients for Accor.

“When you think about it, it is a 180-degree change of paradigm in terms of the way you see and you act for 40 years and the only thing we’ve been thinking of are the travellers. We did not even pay attention to the local community.

“It’s been 10 years now where all of that has been shifting and I think some people do it better than others. Because it is not part of the DNA of many commercial people in any big chain. Those customers are repeat, loyal and don’t go through any OTAs,” he said.

Since Bazin has been at the helm of Accor, there has also been a noticeable shift in the level of food and beverage across the company, which continues to get better.

Thanks to the company’s partnership with leading gastronomy and party business Paris Society, things could really shake-up across the company, particularly in the mid-market and upmarket segments if Bazin gets his wish.

All aboard the Orient Express

“It is true we have done [great F&B] for the luxury and lifestyle segments,” he told Wayfarer. “Did we really make it for Novotel, Mercure and ibis? Not yet.

“We tried so many different recipes and it’s much better than it was, but it’s not yet where I want it to be.

“What I’m dreaming about, and I don’t know how feasible it is, is asking Ennismore, which has 20 different restaurant IPs that they own, and Paris Society, which is the best ever operator here in Paris with 22 restaurants and nightclubs and their own IP, to put together a team and within those 40 concepts, probably half of them would work into a Novotel, Mercure or an ibis.

“So, can we really import the savoir faire to the legacy brands of Accor? Clearly, it’s doable, but I need my GMs to endorse it. And of course, there’s always some resistance factor, but that’s okay,” Bazin said.

In Australia, some of Accor’s owners have raised the bar with food and beverage, like the Oscars Group, who have transformed Novotel Wollongong into the South Coast’s hottest food and beverage driven hotel, and in New Zealand, CP Group’s passion for fantastic bars and restaurants in Auckland.

This company is probably easier to run and more daring than ever. I’ve been daring, but I’m not alone anymore.

-Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO, Accor

The challenge is firmly globally after so much success locally and no surprise some of Accor’s hotels continue to set benchmarks globally.

Bazin said the team in Pacific have certainly been at the forefront of helping the company adapt and grow. They have been embracing new brands like Mondrian, Hyde, JO&JOE and Mama Shelter and signing new deals and taking ideas like co-working and food and beverage from the best in the business.

Having teams across the world like those in the Pacific, led by the talented CEO Sarah Derry and her exceptional leadership, has made Bazin’s job easier, he told Wayfarer, as the company has continued to adapt under his tenure.

Mondrian Shoreditch in London

“This company is probably easier to run and more daring than ever. I’ve been daring, but I’m not alone anymore,” he said.

“We have been transforming every two years and I probably need to pause a bit, but I cannot as this company should continue to transform.

“We went from ‘get light’, which is the asset light model, to ‘get broad’, which is all the acquisitions of brands from 13 [when I started] to more than 40 today, to ‘get fit’, which was a really big 20% labour cost saving during the pandemic, and now it is ‘get focused’.

“I think we are going to have a fifth focus coming for me or my successor, but I don’t know.”

While Accor has had some phenomenal brand growth, Bazin hasn’t ruled out further adding to the incredible portfolio he has built up.

“You’ll see some bolt-on acquisitions,” he told Wayfarer “So, anything between €100 million to €500 million or like we have done with The Hoxton, which was a partnership. But, you’ll see more of those because people will be consolidating a brand within one geography.

“A lot of people are still fragile and probably very much happy to merge or commingle.

“Accor is probably the partner of choice [for brand owners], because our company’s huge respect for different cultures, different brands, DNA and education and because Accor is the best at opening in [places like] Chile, Peru, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia, Korea, because we’ve done that as part of our DNA for 50 years.

“You’ve seen that with Tribe, Hyde and JO&JOE in New Zealand and we don’t shock people. We don’t kill what [the brand owners] built and we protect it and it’s the reason we co-mingle together [with brand owners].

“So, with over 40 brands that to do exist, we’ve been really paying attention to those differences, which is the reason why we bond together,” Bazin said.

Over the past decade it has been remarkable to see what Bazin has done with Accor. He partnered with the right brand owners, ones that he found to be a perfect fit, like The Hoxton, Faena, Mama Shelter and 25hours, and has helped them grow with the owners still involved. Bazin also helped launch ALL (Accor Live Limitless) and supercharge it to the world on the front of his favourite sporting team, Paris Saint-Germain, which he was also Chairman of Bazin has an amazing talent for growing and promoting some of the industry’s best staff.

His vision is incredible, his passion is electric and he is a Hotelier the entire industry can be proud to call one of their own.

It should come as no surprise then that this year at the 2022 HM Awards, Bazin received one of the industry’s highest accolades, the Ashley Spencer Service to the Industry Award.

That honour is about recognising someone who has gone above and beyond for the industry and those who work in it. During the pandemic, Bazin helped raise funds for Accor staff across the world with the ALL Heartists fund, he has continued his push for more diversity in the workforce and he has helped champion service in every Accor property.

Bazin truly has become a legendary figure in the accommodation industry over the last decade and like many in the sector, we can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next.

all.accor.com

GETTING TO KNOW: SÉBASTIEN BAZIN

After five years working in several financial positions in New York, San Francisco and London, Sébastien Bazin was appointed CEO of Hottinguer Rivaud Finances, an investment bank, in 1990, and then CEO of L’Immobilière Hôtelière, a hotel developer in France, in 1992.

In 1997, he moved to Colony Capital, a private real estate investment firm, to head up its European branch and lead several acquisitions, principally in the hospitality sector (Générale des Eaux, Club Méditerranée, Lucien Barrière, Fairmont and Raffles, Buffalo Grill, Château Lascombes, Stadia Consulting and others).

He joined Accor’s Board of Directors in 2005 and, via Colony Capital, became a Paris Saint-Germain shareholder in 2006 and the club’s Chairman in 2009.

In August 2013, he resigned from his duties at Colony Capital and was appointed Chairman and CEO of Accor.

Sébastien is Vice-Chairman of the Gustave Roussy Foundation’s Supervisory Board, and has been a member of GE’s Board of Directors since 2016.