Goldorak

I am posting here a screenshot of an article from Les Échos of tuesday, relating an on-going dispute between the French franchisés (70% of the Accor hotels in FR) and Accor HQ. I think this something that is going on for a while and explain partly the attitude and reluctance we face too often in French Accor hotels, especially in the mid-range segments, regarding LCAH. Those hotels represent a turnover of 1.86 billions of €, and 52% of Accor turnover in France.

I don't have time to translate the whole article, but the most important parts are :
-they are currently renegotiating their contracts with Accor and they ask unanimously for a revision of the financial dispositions. They are very unhappy of the current state of the discussions with Accor.
-they call for an external arbitration of the dispute (possibility given in their contracts)
-at a time when Booking and Expedia sells everyday AccorHotels rooms, they want strong brands which can justify the very high royalties the franchisés are paying to Accor.
-they believe those royalties are too high and their amounts are depending upon the services provided by Accor for distribution, marketing, communication, loyalty program...
-they are also unhappy about the independent hotels who have now access to Accor booking platform.

starflyergold

Very interest, thanks for sharing Goldorak. If I was an owner I certainly would question seeing my non-Accor competitor being listed on the Accor website. That said, the loyalty "costs" are nonsense, I suspect that this is more down to a cultural problem

nrouxel

For non-Accor hotels, AccorHotels charges a commission fee that is about a third to half that charged by traditional online travel agencies : 14% per booking if you are not a customer of Fastbooking, its hotel digital services company, and 12% if you are. Independant hoteliers have the option to enable guests to earn points in AccorHotels’s loyalty program, with a 5% per booking fee for the property.
French "franchisés" are surely paying more

JTCz

France has a tradition of collective bargaining, so I'd chalk much of it down to this - if the "other" hotels were suddenly removed from the website, the franchisees' representatives would argue that it decreases the value of the service and want a discount as well.

That said, Accor is probably providing just bad a service to their franchisees as they do to us guests. The more I talk to Accor insiders the more I feel the company still displays much of the corporate dysfunctionalism that have typically been ascribed to large French corporations.

Goldorak

May be, but what I can say also after several discussions with hotels in France is that some of them are reluctant to any change and want to stay in their fortress. If they are so unhappy with Accor, why don't they leave and join another network ? But if they do I can guarantee you that the other chains, and particularly the anglo-saxons ones, won't have any patience or tolerance with them. With Accor they can refuse to comply with LCAH rules without sanctions (or at least from my perspective). Do that with SPG or IHG and it won't last long.

gilbertaue

And this is my opinion is one of the biggest problems with Accor. They allow their "partners" to walk all over them and nitpick what they want and don't.
And that is not just limited to France.

Goldorak

Indeed, but IMO more prominent in France. Likely because it's the home and historical market of Accor and where they have the most hotels

Goldorak

And there is another thing I don't buy here : they want strong brands, but if there is one country where all Accor brands are very strong, it's France.

RJ77

Just curious, how much do Franchisees pay Accor? For the independent hotels I don't find the rates advertised on Accor platform competitive at all compared to hotel room consolidators like hotels.com, agoda etc.

Goldorak

I don't think this is public information.

But isn't this true for any hotel (chain or not) ? And don't forget LCAH members get 10% off.

RJ77

That's what piqued the curiosity


I tend to find Accor can hold itself against the consolidators in terms of rates, it's often similar or less (espeically hot rates), with elite perks and points thrown in, it makes sense to book with Accor platform. Not with the independent hotels, some allow you to collect points and nothing else but still they cost quite a bit more than the consolidators' rates even considering the returns on the points collected.

Goldorak

OK, understood and agreed !

FlyerTalker37

It's quite "funny" to read this given the current will of Accor to increase the number of "franchisés" managed by Accor staff.
​​​​​​I wish them good luck

lingua101

I understand it maybe a good revenue for Accor to list other hotel.

However, I think they should put their own hotels on the top.....

gilbertaue

Agree. I find it annoying and a needless extra step to always select "Accorhotels only". Especially when data speeds are slow when travelling.