ACCOR

AccorHotels and the Digital Transformation

Enriching Experiences through Content Strategies along the Customer Journey
 Introduction:
The case majorly talks about digital transformations in Hotel Industry.

Pure Review Websites OTAs

01 02
Online
Presence
E- 06 Digital
Disruptions 03 Active Forums
Reputation

05 04 New player Examples

OTAs Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia

Content Availability AirBnB Aggregators/Metasearch
Trivago, TripAdvisor, KAYAK
OneFineStay sites9

Review sites TripAdvisor, Dianping

Travel blogs and forums Lonely Planet

Social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Alternative lodging platforms Airbnb, HomeStay

Steps to transform AccorHotels
Figure out a typology of online content (Classification and Type of Content)

Whether and how each type of content affected different aspects of consumers’
decision-making.

Create or co-create online content.

Steps
Decide on the appropriate channels to disseminate the content

Extent to which the strategy would be specific to each hotel segment

Getting its teams to embrace this new digital perspective and fully integrate the
new outcomes into their incentive schemes
Accor Timeline
Accor started life as SIEH Company,
established by Paul Dubrule and Gerard 1967
Pelisson, which opened the first Novotel
hotel in Lille, France Accor entered the international
market with the opening of a hotel in
1973 Warsaw, Poland, followed by the UK,
Holland, Germany and the US.
It had nearly 200 hotels in 22 countries. 1980
Accor appointed Sebastien Bazin as its fifth CEO in 8
2013 years.

It had approximately 510,000 rooms in 3,900

hotels across 17 international brands in 92 2015
countries, operating across six continents.

Accor Strategy
Accor had been on an “asset- light” strategy with plans
to offload a large portion of its owned hotels to reach a
new mix of 40% managed, 40% franchised, and 20%
owned
Customer Segments Competitors
Hotel Chain Number of hotels Number of
Luxury & Upscale Midscale rooms
Accor 3,900 510,000
Decorated by well- Focused on both
known designers business and leisure
Wyndham 7,812 678,042
and echoing the travellers to offer
history and spacious, adaptable InterCon 5,032 744,364
environments of rooms, meals available
their locations by 24/7, meeting rooms, Hilton 4,322 708,268
mixing authenticity fitness centres, and
and tradition. children-friendly areas Marriott 4,061 692,828
Price - €132 Price - €87
Starwood 1,256 354,917

Economy/Budget
Collaborators
Offering quality
accommodation at Airlines Food and Beverages
competitive local value.
“15 Minutes satisfaction
Guarantee” Cruise Lines Travel Agents
Price - €57
Problems faced by Hotels
Shift in Power
• Customers focusing on Reviews
• Reviews used as differentiation factors
• AccorHotel focused on
• Developing omnichannel
• Addressing customer issues through
3rd party agencies
• Focusing on Le Club AccorHotel
Loyalty Program
Managing Online Content
Rise of Online Content • Social Media Listening
• Pure Review Websites • Content Creation
• People posting reviews on social media • Content published by Hotel
• Customer Testimonials • User-generated content
• Travel Blogs • Focusing on reviews
• Website posts
• Online Travel Agents
Questions

02 How to Leverage
Content?
Content and the
customer journey.
01 03 How to become
content-driven
organization?
Question 1 : Content and the Customer Journey
What are the different types of online content in the hotel industry

In 21th century while

transforming business
activity from traditional
world to digital world
01 Builds a Brand Awareness/Build Hotel Brand
online content has
gained importance. 02 Helps to Build Backlinks
Hotel industry is not
03 Great for Digital Marketing solution
exception to it.
However, that content 04 Educate Audience
must be engaging,
05 Strengthen your Bond with your customers
readable and
consistent. 06 Generate leads for the business
Blogs and Online
Virtual Hotel
Magazines/Broch Articles Photos
tours/videos
ures

Social Media
Audio Testimonials Newsletter
Campaigns

Online Contest
Memes and GIFs Email Marketing Presentation
and Quiz
Accor Customer Journey
Question 2 : How to Leverage Content
How can Accor collect information about what the customer is saying about
Accor, whether at the beginning, during, or after the trip?

Social Media Listening

• Social Media
• Travel Blogs
• Review Websites
01

• Setting Google Alert Journey Mapping

• 3rd Party 02 Common traits between
customer expectations and
business requirements.
Traditional Ways
• Front Desk Reviews 03
• In room reviews
• Feedback forms
Should it continue to rely on client feedback cards filled in either at the front
desk in the room?

No, accor should not rely on client

feedback cards filled in either at front
desk or in the room because customers
are more aligned to reading reviews
online on review websites and social
media.
 Hiring experienced
Providing great How can accor
01 08 customer service
experience
encourage and representatives
motivate customers
to share their
experiences and
views?

02 03 04 05 06 07

Listen to Show Mail after Send Apology Give Collaborate

guests gratitude after their stay and mail for any different with online
patiently feedback and request negative platforms to review
request to feedback feedback review websites
share online
How can Accor use content to attract customers to its website for booking, so
that it does not have to pay the hefty 20% to 30% commission fees demanded by
OTAs like Booking.com?

Loyalty
Programs Offers

Ease of
payment More
on options on
website website
How should Accor curate the information? How could Accor make use
of such information to influence the customer journey?

• Sharing best pictures clicked by

guests on official Facebook and
Instagram pages with special mention
• Partnering with “Influencers” on
Social Media for Co-Benefit
• Google targeted ads to promote short
videos on YouTube • Making the website SEO friendly by
making use of information collected
from sources
• Offering discounts to first time • Leveraging the Review-Reputation-
customers if the booking is made Pricing relationship for promotional
through their website. content and discounts
• Offering brand loyalists targeted and
personalized discounts through email
promotions • Being Consistent with Service
• Efforts to search for honest
feedback during a customer stay
at property and being quick in
• Timely access to the feedback from action to resolve in case of any
the customer will help in working on problem.
negative feedback constructively in
turn building customer trust and
credibility as a brand.
 Building and Maintaining the Brand Image

1. Constant interaction with the followers through the following:

• Popular destinations to travel
• Festive promotional discounts
• Their success story and historical progress
2. Building a brand community on the Facebook Social Media page to give the brand loyalists a sense
of community belongingness.
3. Knowing when a particular hashtag is trending on Instagram and making promotional content
around that and deliver timely.
4. Responding to customer queries on online platforms and review websites in a stipulated time to
build trust and credibility.

Reposting the Best Content

Reposting pictures of food and drinks, taken by happy guests at their F&B outlets on their Instagram
handle.
Reposting a celebrity, influencer check-in using the hotel’s hashtag, and giving shout-out to people
having a good time periodically on Social Media
Becoming a content-driven organization and should SML be centralized?

"How much does company culture matter to a successful content marketing

approach, and what type of culture is required for success?"

Be obsessed with
listening to the
customers The rules and rule
makers must be crystal
Training is a clear
continuous process
Optimizing content
and the show must
around customer
go on
journey
Building a centralized social media listening control room

The company will gain many benefits by centralizing the SML at one place using a control
room. This will allow the company to listen to the consumers, engage better with the
customers and inspire employees to move towards digital transformation.

Listening

Engaging Inspiring
 Additional Information

• Audience relevance is number one when it comes to content effectiveness at 58%, but
compelling storytelling takes a strong second place at 57%

• 63% of marketers are creating content with buyer persona in mind above all else.

• B2B marketers are convinced blogging is their most important type of content (43%) while
B2C marketers are convinced visual content is more important (45%).

• 25% of marketers do not outsource their content creation. 45% of content creation is done
on an ad-hoc basis.

• 71% of companies have a team that will ensure proper blogging conduct, audience
reaction, etc.

• The top three content marketing tactics are blogging (65%), social media (64%), and case
studies (64%).
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING ACCOR!
Enjoy your stay!

Assisted By:
Group 1
Lakshya Mongia – C027
Akhilesh Kulkarni – A010
Ayush Sharma – B014
Parth Kanetkar – B041