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Corporate travel is changing, and Accor wants to anticipate that change before it happens.
To do just that, the France-based hotel company is launching a Global Leadership Council that will discuss changing traveler expectations, the growing importance of personalization, B2B-focused loyalty and the role of distribution.
The Council’s inaugural meeting in June brought together travel executives and buyers from 17 international companies across financial services, manufacturing, engineering, transportation, energy, professional services and technology, whose combined employee bases account for more than 2.7 million travelers.
Hotel Dive spoke with Accor’s chief sales officer, Sophie Hallgaard, who founded the group, to discuss the concerns raised by travel buyers at the meeting, why Accor decided to set up the council, and why money still matters when it comes to corporate travel.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HOTEL DIVE: Why did Accor launch the Global Leadership Council?
Sophie Hallgerd: We’re good at looking back – we all have the data to analyse and we understand what travellers have done in the past – but to look forward and understand trends we need a different approach, because data alone can’t do that.
We’ve never had a global council of Accor’s most strategic customers before. This is something new. This is something that my team launched a few months ago. Of course, I knew all these people; many of them we’ve had long-standing relationships with, but this is the first time we’ve actually brought them together in the same room.
[They come from] Very different industries, very different approaches in Europe and North America. So it was very interesting to listen to. They’re buying millions of dollars. [euros] They do business with Accor every year, so they’re at a pretty high level, and they have challenging goals to achieve because they’re key buyers for the company. And it was really, really helpful for them to talk openly about those goals and say, “This is what’s important to me,” “This is what I’m going to be measured against,” whether it be travel, health, security, loyalty, savings, etc.
Council members come from companies across a wide range of industries. Was there a consensus around travel concerns at the first meeting?
money! [Laughs.] Money, in the sense of savings and cost avoidance, used to be number one on the list of items, but now it’s not number one. It’s probably number three or number four, but it’s still there. But there’s a new item, number two, which is sustainability. This started a few years ago and now it’s an absolute must. They’ve been very demanding about the results they expect from hotel chains, in terms of reporting and in-hotel operations.
And then there are soft factors like traveler happiness. Happiness can be many things. It could be the location of the hotel, the convenience of the room facilities, the facilities in the hotel, the security aspect. And [the buyers] This is an important issue for travelers and for them to trust hotels, so we wanted to dig deeper into it. [corporate travel] Programs. If you have a good program in place that earns travelers’ trust, they’re more likely to adhere to your guidelines closely.
What sustainability metrics are companies looking for from hotels?
I think there are two aspects. The first is the mandatory check on non-financial reporting. In Europe and the US, new SEC regulations will require companies to report on Scope 1. [emissions]they also need to report on Scope 2 and 3. The hotel industry falls under Scope 3 and therefore needs to report on it. Therefore they need to provide detailed data such as carbon dioxide emissions, water consumption, food waste, number of electrical plugs in the hotel, data that is as accurate as possible. [we] have [our] parking.
And travelers are asking, “Wait a second, is this hotel eco-friendly for me? I want to reduce my carbon footprint. How can I do that?” It’s about making everything we do visible. We’ve talked a lot about distribution. For example, we have a contract with Green Key, with a very stringent target that all our hotels will be externally audited and certified by the end of 2026. A lot of hotels are rushing to get audited and change the way they do things, but travelers can’t see it. It’s only on our website. But, [distribution] If you ask the channel or the travel management company, the agents don’t know. So there’s a big challenge in getting visibility into all of these elements that are so important to the traveler. I think that’s going to be our next step, and we’re actively working with technology partners to make that happen.
How does Accor view B2B loyalty?
What buyers are saying is they need a corporate program where they can earn points and then anyone in their company who needs a meeting space somewhere in the hotel can use those points. We are certainly developing this. And we are working together to make this happen. The good thing about being at the back is that we are a little bit behind our competitors so we can align exactly with the future expectations of our customers. Customers are becoming more and more demanding and they know what they want. So I think this is going to be a good opportunity for us. I expect to see something developed in the next 12 months.
