Accor eyes better market share

Accor India & South Asia is improving its market share in Indian market and trying to remain ahead of stiff competition by offering a variety of stay options through its different properties across India, including a whole new luxury portfolio.

Nisha Verma

Revealing a bouquet of offerings from Accor, Pratima Badhwar, Head, Commercial, Accor India & South Asia, said, “For India, we are aiming to reach 70 hotels by 2025. Our portfolio of leading hotel brands across the luxury, premium, mid-scale and economy segments compliment the Indian market, while supporting our long-term growth strategy. With our presence across cities, we have been able to capture a fair market share and are trending better than 2019 levels at many of our properties. The tier II & III markets have shone despite COVID-19 and shone through to recovery.”

Luxury offerings

Claiming that they have strengthened their market position in India by introducing Accor’s luxury brands here, she said, “With the introduction of Raffles and Fairmont, we are able to solidify our position in the country. The guests are keen to explore these brands for newer experiences. Raffles Udaipur has been garnering good occupancy levels indicating that the Indian market is looking forward to experiencing world class luxury synonym to the brand. We believe that in a market like India, luxurious hospitality brands will thrive, as there will always be an opportunity for the segment to rise.”

Ready to reopen borders

With lifting of more curbs, demand trends are strengthening and ADRs are climbing up, she claimed. “As some international borders have been thrown open, corporate travel is starting to pick up pace, giving impetus to tier 1 markets. As the curbs are fully lifted, we should see the inbound tourists coming back to our leisure destinations,” said Bandhwar.

Hand-in-hand with trade

Claiming that Accor has worked closely with the travel trade world in domestic and international markets, she shared, “Through virtual platforms, we participated in many informative sessions for our hotels in India and outside the region. We partnered with domestic consolidators and conducted roadshows in new source markets to generate additional demand for domestic business, especially for staycations and weddings.”

Indian promotions

For the Indian market, she claimed, “We ensure we are agile and have the first mover advantage with our customers. By strengthening our sales structure, we are striving towards a better market share for each hotel as against pre-pandemic levels. Focus for Q2 & Q3 will be to maximise on the pent up corporate and MICE demand for our hotels.”

Technology forward

“The pandemic pushed travel stakeholders towards technology, and the same goes for us. Contactless hospitality and technology made operations cost-effective and enhanced guest experience. We embraced technology to ensure minimisation of human contact at every level,” said Bandhwar.

“We 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,” she added.

“For weddings, we rolled out ‘Vivaah at Novotel’, which is conceptualised for the contemporary virtual weddings and extends a hybrid approach. It offers an array of customised and flexible packages and guests can select a host hotel in any city as their wedding venue. To bring the couple’s dear ones closer to them on their wedding day, the host hotel extends a web telecast of the wedding to their relatives and friends present in different cities,” she added.

Women in hospitality

Speaking on women in the industry, Bandhwar shared, “Hospitality is one of the most dynamic, hardworking, and demanding industries. This requires a great amount of motivation & passion. Women today are venturing into every field and are not restrictive of a certain profession. Patience, listening skills, nurturing nature, multi-tasking and problem solving are some of the key qualities women possess that come in handy in the tourism and hospitality industry.”