Accor India bullish about growth despite Covid impact

As of October 2022, Accor operates 56 properties across India and South Asia, with more than 10,000 keys, alongside 25 properties (4000 keys) in the pipeline. Over the next 24 months, the company is expecting to add 11 new properties to the network, two of which will debut in leading two-tier markets within India - Novotel Bhubaneswar Janpath Road and Novotel Jodhpur ITI Circle. Puneet Dhawan, sr V-P (operations) at Accor India & South Asia, gives an account to Bizz Buzz on how Accor India has coped post-Covid and how the hospitality industry is faring

What is the current state of the hospitality industry post Covid?

The last two years were filled with vigorous learnings that paved the way for vital evolution in the hospitality industry. We entered 2022 equipped with better resources that gave us the confidence to stabilize our business and reinforce our development plans.

While the crisis that Covid-19 brought with it has caused significant disruptions and triggered the hospitality industry in general, it has also revealed a resilient side to us. We've learnt from the setbacks, approached them as a catalyst to change and taken advantage of the time to retract, retrain and remodel.

Domestic tourism has seen a boom post Covid,the emergence of "revenge tourism" has brought new levels of business to the travel and hospitality sector. We are seeing a positive trend with leisure travel, with business and corporate travel also on the rise, and we expect an optimistic growth trajectory for the industry in India.

Pertaining to the MICE segment, we are observing a month-on-month improvement in meetings from our corporate clientele. With business travel gradually rebounding in the country and companies starting to prefer in-person seminars, we expect a continued increase in MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions).

How is Accor managing the change post-Covid?

At Accor, we have turned to strategic planning and implemented necessary changes on all fronts. In a post-pandemic world, guests and travellers seek unique experiences, breaking away from the cliches. We expect newer trends to sustain and drive the industry. –Think mindful travel, bespoke experiences, a strong focus on safety, security and well-being, innovation and adoption of technology, and increase in short-distance trips that require little to no planning as a way to live in the present, to make up for all the time lost locked in rooms.

Accor adopted technological aids and means at all levels - from operations, management to administration. In line with these developments, we also rolled out Accor Key, which provides guests a keyless door entry solution, while ensuring that hotels do not lose the human touch required. On arrival, guests receive their room key virtually upon downloading Accor's digital key app giving them access to rooms, entry to meeting rooms and floor access via lifts using their smartphone.

We also collaborated with Microsoft to launch 'all connect', a hybrid meetings concept supported by Microsoft Teams enables guests around the world to adapt to the new ways of working. This new offering aids corporate customers and meeting planners to combine physical in-hotel meetings with virtual interactions across multiple locations simultaneously.

What are the major initiatives that ACCOR has taken to create a sustainable business?

At Accor, sustainability is at the core of what we do, and a lot of conscious effort is made to ensure that our operations are managed responsibly. We believe each of our hotels is a planet in itself, and every action matters. It is our duty to help spread awareness and collaborate with all stakeholders - guests, our employees, our communities, and our partners. With this collaborative approach to sustainable innovation as our primary focus, we launched Planet 21 – Acting here program that endeavours to act for "positive hospitality". The program is structured around six pillars: engaging our guests in a sustainable experience, co-innovating with our partners to open up new horizons, working hand-in-hand with local communities for a positive impact, acting as an inclusive company for our people, moving towards carbon-neutral buildings, and striving for zero waste & healthy, sustainable food. With Planet 21, Accor's sustainable development programme, hotels have committed themselves to work towards a better environment, betterment of society, helping those in need, a healthy lifestyle and much more. Planet 21 is an Accor initiative committed to providing a positive hospitality experience. The programme works across four basic priorities of working with its employees, customers, partners and local communities.

How environment-friendly are all your brands? Is there scope for more environments?

Everything we do is put through the filter of our sustainability programme; if it doesn't go through that lens, we won't do it. Of course, we face significant challenges here. Construction is the biggest challenge, and our teams are doing great things to work with developers in partnership to lessen the environmental impact. Operationally, we are embarking on a range of initiatives to help this: food waste reduction, using organic produce, the elimination of single-use plastic from guest facing areas by the end of the year, promoting conscious consumption and implemented fund tree planting basis the saving made on water and energy.

What are the expectations of your guests post Covid? Can you meet the needs and keep the business viable?

In the past two years, the entire dynamics of the hospitality sector has taken a shift. Traditionally, customers demanded comfortable stays that came with a touch of luxury and great Food & Beverage offering, however now their expectations have become safety and hygiene centric. Guests are looking for digital reservations and check-out processes and as contactless experiences as they can get. We are focusing on making personal and tailored experience for the customer to ensure a great guest experience. Nonetheless, it's a challenging task to provide great experiences keeping so many parameters in mind. We are making every effort and strategically planning our approach to satisfy the consumers.

What are the food and beverage trends among guests?

The Covid crisis has underscored the fragility of the global food system, including the way we produce, consume and waste food. Today, the issue for everyone is identifying best practices to create a healthier world of catering that is more respectful of resources. At Accor, we put a lot of thought into hyper localization because it helps tackle two massive challenges for us: carbon footprint reduction and food waste reduction. It is one of our key focuses, and we are seeing good progress with hotels setting up partnerships with local farmers for specialized and organic produce as well as establishing micro farms either through traditional methods, where they have availability of land, or through vertical hydroponic farming, where they don't. Our mission is to make food and beverage the heart and soul of our hotels by acting like restaurateurs and delivering an excellent, relevant, authentic experience. Doing this helps us create venues that are not just "hot and trendy" but rather, essential to the very fabric of the cities and communities where we live – for locals and travellers alike. At Accor, we believe that hospitality is a tremendous social elevator. Perhaps, nowhere is this more accurate than in food and beverage.

India has always been a destination for culinary tourism. Now that international borders have opened up, inbound travellers are once again flocking in to experience regional cuisines and local food firsthand.

What kind of loyalty programmes are you running to ensure your guests come back to your properties?

Our marketing strategies have largely been shaped to tend better and attract guests who are now looking towards a new normal - one with various evolved preferences. We took a renewed approach towards our existing partnerships and campaigns to continue providing our guests with the best experiences curated by our loyalty programme ALL - Accor Live Limitless.

ALL (Accor Live Limitless) gives members access to a range of exclusive benefits as they earn Status and Reward points for money spent on eligible stays worldwide. The programme offers members an opportunity to earn reward points when dining with us.

We also expanded the program to offer rewards and status points to members when organizing events at any Accor hotels in the region. These include social gatherings such as birthday parties, weddings, and other celebrations. With the ongoing holiday season, travellers are displaying an appetite for extended getaways. We are witnessing a solid summer demand to cater to the demand; we announced an exclusive ALL Holiday Offer with up to 25 per cent OFF on stays in participating hotels across India, Middle East, Africa and Turkey. Members of ALL- Accor Live Limitless can enjoy this exclusive offer until 19th of April 2023, for stays until the 19th of April 2023.

What are your expansion plans for India?

As of October 2022, Accor operates 56 properties across India and South Asia, with more than 10,000 keys, alongside 25 properties (4000 Keys) in the pipeline. Over the next 24 months, we are expecting to add eleven new properties to the network, two of which will debut in leading two-tier markets within India - Novotel Bhubaneswar Janpath Road and Novotel Jodhpur ITI Circle. We will also continue to expand our ibis and ibis Styles brands in partnership with InterGlobe Hotels by adding two more hotels in the next two years.

As we are witnessing a rising demand for luxury experiences in India, and as the leading hospitality group in the country, we aim to stay ahead of the curve. Our focus is to expand our luxury lifestyle portfolio in the coming years. We recently announced the signing of Fairmont Udaipur, set to open with 340 rooms, committed to offering a place for special occasions and unmatched guest experiences at the most beautiful locations around the country.