Typically, one major acquisition can land an executive of
that company on BTN's Most Influential list. But AccorHotels chairman and CEO
Sebastien Bazin has multiple buys under his belt for 2017 as the organization
continues to shift the picture of a what a lodging company can look like.
In October, it agreed to purchase France-based business
travel solutions and distribution company Gekko Group to broaden Accor's
service offerings to business travelers. Gekko serves more than 300 corporate
customers and 14,000 travel agencies via subsidiaries including HCorpo, Teldar
Travel, Teldar Travel Biz, Infinite Hotel and Miles Attack. Its search and
reservations solutions are connected to more than 500,000 hotels globally.
Also in October, Accor agreed to acquire Australia's Mantra
Group and its more than 20,000 rooms in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.
The deal will make Accor the largest hotelier in Australia and give it a
greater foothold to capture the country's growing inbound tourism demand,
particularly from China. Accor expects the deal will close in the first quarter
of 2018.
Earlier this year, the company built on last year's
acquisition of Onefinestay—which in concert with Accor's FRHI buy helped land
Bazin on BTN's 2016 Most Influential—to purchase Travel Keys, an Atlanta-based
company that brokers rentals of private vacation homes. Accor also fully
acquired Squarebreak, a Paris-based vacation rental platform in which it had
previously held a 49 percent stake. Accor has rolled those two brands under the
Onefinestay brand, which now has more than 10,000 properties as of the third quarter.
"We need to diversify outside of hotels," Bazin said in February. "We
will continue to work in hotels for the next 50 years as we have over the last
50 years. … What about when some people want more than just a hotel room?"
Accor remains active in other areas. It acquired channel
management solution Availpro to combine with the previously acquired
Fastbooking. It is partnering with SNCF to develop the Orient Express brand. It
entered a joint venture with Bouygues Immobilier to grow its Nextdoor collaborative
workspace platform, similar to WeWork. It acquired VeryChic, which offers
discount sales of luxury and upscale hotel rooms on a member-based platform. It's
working with Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners to acquire events company
Potel & Chabot Group. It is turning over its customer care to concierge
service provider John Paul, which it purchased last year, and leveraged John
Paul's expertise to launch hotel-provided neighborhood services known as
AccorLocal.