Under lifestyle pressure

Paris. Pressure on the European budget market leader is obviously high: Otherwise, Accor wouldn't have invited international media to a large press conference in Paris last Monday, only one year after Ibis was rebranded. CEO Denis Hennequin and Global Chief Marketing Office Grégoire Champetier also spoke in a fairly hectic manner and with unusual emphasis on what had already been achieved and the great speed now dictated to their franchisees. They must invest huge sums within a short period of time in order to implement Accor's rebranding. The change of name will seamlessly be followed by the replacement of all beds in the hotels. After that, franchise partners must invest in public areas. The pilot hotel in Paris, the Ibis Porte D'Italie already shows how cosy a fully refurbished Ibis Hotel can be: The cool functional 'bed castles' are transformed into soft hotels with living room atmosphere. And: Whilst the focus of other budget brands's designs rests squarely on optimising space and on cutting services, Ibis intends to beef up the services it offers.

Paris/Munich. The restructuring of the Accor economy brand, ibis, has profound reasons: The European market leader has already lost too much in this segment in its second most important market, Germany, to Motel One and B&B Hotels. "We must find our way back to real market leadership in Germany," Grégoire Champetier admitted in a conversation with hospitalityInside.com at Expo Real in Munich. A sign for this is also the fact that Accor has appointed its German Chief, Peter Verhoeven, as Head of Europe for the new mega brand, Ibis, as well as for its sub-brands. The restructuring from a marketing perspective.

Paris. Tuesday`s announcement from Accor Management caused share prices to fall on the Paris Stock Exchange. Investors appear to be sceptical of the new strategy to be implemented by Europe`s largest hotel chain. At its core is the bundling of economy brands: allseasons and Etap are to be swallowed up by ibis as the main brand from 2012 and renamed as "ibis styles" and "ibis budget". ibis is to remain ibis. At the same time, CEO Denis Hennequin is changing the strategy for the not-so-profitable Motel 6 in the US. He also announced a new investment plan and has categorised markets under new priority schemes.