CASE STUDY REPORTON SMALL AND

MEDIUM HOSPITALITY ENTERPRISE (ACCOR

HOTEL)

Introduction
Tourism sector is one of the first services sectors to adapt and use information and
communication technology (ICT) for promoting its services. Nowadays, ICT has deeply
affected the way business is performed and organizations compete (Porter, 2001).
Traditionally, the travel distribution role has been performed by outbound travel agencies,
tour operators (TOs) and inbound travel agents or handling agencies (Buhalis & Laws, 2001).
However, Internet and electronic Commerce developments in the late 1990s and the
emergence of Tourism as one of the prime Business to Business (B2B) and Business to
Consumers (B2C) applications has changed the situation rapidly (OConnor, 1999; Smith et
al., 1998). Internet has become a major tool and one that is widely used by the tourism sector.
ICT enable travelers to access reliable and accurate information as well as to make
reservations in a fraction of the time, cost and inconvenience required by conventional
methods (OConnor, 1999).
The definitions of tourism innovation (e.g. product, service and technological innovations)
remains unclear, with the exception maybe of the Internet. New technologies can produce an
essential contribution to tourism development. For tourism businesses, the Internet offers the
potential to make information and booking facilities available to large numbers of tourists at
relatively low costs. It also provides a tool for communication between tourism suppliers,
intermediaries, as well as end-consumers. OECD (2000) revealed that the advent of Internetbased electronic commerce offers considerable opportunities for firms to expand their
customer base, enter new product markets and rationalise their business. WTO (2001) also
indicated that electronic business offers SMEs the opportunity to undertake their business
in new and more cost-effective ways.
For almost 50 years, AccorHotels, 1st hotel operator worldwide, has developed a unique
know-how in boosting hotel's performance. Benefit from the expertise and support of a major
Group to meet your needs and get the best return on your investment. Accor, the worlds
leading hotel operator, offers its guests and partners the dual expertise of a hotel operator and
brand franchisor (HotelServices) and a hotel owner and investor (HotelInvest) with the
objective of ensuring lasting growth and harmonious development for the benefit of the
greater number. With around 3,600 hotels and 460,000 rooms, Accor welcomes business and

leisure travelers in 92 countries across all hotel segments: luxury-upscale with Sofitel,
Pullman, MGallery, and Grand Mercure, midscale with Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure and
Adagio and economy with ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget and hotelF1. The Group boasts a
powerful digital ecosystem, notably its booking portal accorhotels.com, its brand websites
and its loyalty program Le Club Accorhotels.

Literature review
Social media may be interpreted in different ways depending on who is looking at it
and what approach one takes. In general, it relies on Internet and Web-based tools and
services to enable anyone the ability to publish informationbe it data, audio, or videoon
the Web (Computer Economics, 2010). The hospitality industry has yet to identify the
effectiveness of marketing through the use of social media. There is an abundance of
advantages such as low cost investment, direct customer communication, brand
communication and also it acts like a verbal evidence theory that people tend to believe when
compared to commercial advertising (Hailey, 2010).
The hospitality industry is very slow to gain momentum towards technology and is
reputed to be reluctant to adopt technological advances. Therefore, the industry has not
leverage on the power of social media and integrates it with their marketing initiatives. With
consumers becoming more immune to conventional advertising and communication channels,
the hospitality industry should turn to social media (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) as
a means of reaching out to their audience.
According to Dichter (1996), word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful tools used by
advertisers to market their brand. And social media, due to its inherent functionality, provides
a great platform for consumer testimonials. The success of a message depends on the
genuineness of the comment as perceived by the reader. If readers are convinced that the
testimonial is by a real consumer- someone who has not been endorsed by the company for
promotion, then they build a higher confidence in the brand and are more likely to form a
stronger bond. The rise in the use of Internet as a medium for marketing has given birth to
applications such as viral marketing whereby marketers reach out to buyers using peer-to-

peer communication. P-2-P is similar to word-of-mouth however since it uses internet,

information is propagated exponentially that reaches large numbers of buyers in a very short
span of time, and hence is a preferred cost saving strategy used by marketers (Beverland,
2005).
Since content 13 sharing provides benefits to both the message senders and receivers,
buyers encourage their friends to engage in the sharing process as well, thereby multiplying
the total number of participants. According to Wilker (2007) 83% of travellers used the
internet to research or book their travel in the past one year, out of which about 77% had
referred to consumer reviews to arrive at their final decision. Thus social media serves as a
powerful tool to spread word-ofmouth as a viral communication.
Given the increase in customer expectations, the globalisation of services, incremental speed
in technological innovations and rapidly changing customer needs, service providers in
general, and tourism and hospitality firms in particular, find themselves in a progressively
competitive market environment (Buhalis, 2006).

Against this background, developing, designing and delivering high quality services that
meet increasingly dynamic expectations of consumers has been identified as a successpromising response to the outlined challenges (Alam and Perry, 2002).
During the past four decades scholars from different backgrounds have contributed to the
growing body of new service development and design research. This usually focuses on
production intensive, supplier oriented service sectors, such as banking, insurances,
telecommunications and logistics (Johnson et al., 2000; Johne and Storey, 1998).
Contributions from consumer dominated high-contact service sectors such as tourism,
hospitality and retailing however, are rather scarce (Ottenbacher, 2007).
There is common agreement in the literature that developing and designing new services is
a complex and long lasting process. There is a rich body of research that investigates the
determinants of success for new service development. In this regard he service development
process has been identified as one of the critical success factors. While it has been proved that
deploying formalised strategies to guide the development process increase the success rate

significantly, it is also reported widely in the literature that these formal structures are often
linear and static in nature (Vermeulen and Dankbaar, 2002).
This in turn leads to slow competitive speed of the development process, decreased
adaptation capabilities and increased cost. Incorporating customers at all stages in the
development process was found to be pivotal for ensuring the customer need-fit of the service
offering (Alam and Perry, 2002).
Moreover, technological competence and creating technological advantages has been
identified as a crucial ingredient for creating competitive advantage through service
innovation. Identifying success factors of new service development however only reveals
what should be done, not how it should be done. Holistic research in to the specific
stages of the new service development process however is relatively sparse. Seminal
contributions in the field, that dates back to the late 1970s, have focussed on translating
findings from goods- 3 manufacturing backgrounds into the service industry sector. Even
though these models provided a descriptive view of the development process, they fail to
address the peculiarities of service industries. Subsequently developed, service specific
models, identified and addressed a variety of service specific characteristics of the innovation
process, such as the interdepartmental involvement, the organisational characteristics, the role
of customers and the intangible nature of service offerings (Alam and Perry, 2002).
However regarding the role of technology in the service development processes, to date an
internal focus has been applied. This is internal systems such as management information
systems, customer relationship management systems or process management systems have
been accounted for in the literature. The external focus of technology (the social sphere,
extranets, online platforms) is ignored widely. In particular real-time enabled social-media
offers opportunities for the development of services, as it allows companies to retrieve
background information about consumers, engage in instant conversation, and retrieve realtime consumer feedback and link conversations and feedback to specific geo-locations. As
this information is available in real-time and free from geographical constraints, social media
acts as a catalyst of change for service development. Therefore the present study is set out to
develop an understanding how social media enabled real-time technology enables the speed
and adaptability of the service development process in tourism and hospitality.
5

According to Burson-Marsteller Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study 2010, majority of
global companies adopt a minimum of one source related to social media platform. To a
certain extent, 79% of the top 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are found to be
applying at least one social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Corporate Blogs
(Burson-Marsteller, 2010). Global companies using at least one social media platform.
Adapted from BursonMarsteller Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study, 2010. Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube and Corporate Blogs Burson-Marsteller (2010) compiled a report and
state that there are some international companies that acknowledge the value of engaging in
social media. Within the cluster of social media platforms, Twitter is the preferred media tool
among Fortune Global 100 companies, with two-thirds (65%) having a presence on the social
network. With at least one-half are reaching audience through Facebook (54%) and YouTube
(50%). Onethird maintains corporate blogs. Some of the very same organizations also see
the value in the frequency and sustained engagement. The vast majority with active Twitter
accounts (82%) have tweeted in the past week and at a high volume of an average of twentyseven tweets each. Fifty-nine percent have posted on their Facebook fan pages, sixty-eight
posted YouTube videos and thirty-six updated their blog site (Burson-Marsteller, 2010).

Case study: Findings

Social media, defined by its interactive nature and user-generated content, has largely been
a tool and a toy for the wealthy and bored. Blogs, photo sharing sites, and online social
networking sites have allowed peers (and increasingly organizations and companies) to share
thoughts, messages, information, images, and videos.
A powerful reservation system
Accor Hotels reservation system, known as TARS, is a highly efficient distribution platform
that meets all the needs of your hotel from online reservations and payment to sales
optimization and management.

KEY FIGURES 2014

59% of TARS contribution rate to total hotel revenue on average, up by

3.7 points over the previous year
38 million reservations
79 million room nights generated
1 reservation every second

STIMULATE THEIR DIRECT SALES BECAUSE OF ACCOR HOTELS DIRECT

CHANNELS
A stronger online presence
Accor Hotels guarantees you a stronger e-commerce presence, with:

accorhotels.com, a multi-brand portal unique in the sector: 32 delocalized versions, 18

languages, 11.5 million Visitors per month, equal to 50% of direct Web traffic
the 13 commercial websites of our hotel brands: sofitel.com, novotel.com, ibis hotel,
com, etc., representing 11.5 million Visits in 2014

No. 1
hotel group in terms of traffic
(source ComScore, except USA)
18%
in direct sales, via AccorHotels websites
280
million visits to AccorHotels websites

A growing mobile presence

As for its e-commerce strategy, AccorHotels offers you a unique
mobile presence,
with:
mobile sites for each of its brands
7

 an exclusive, multi-brand, one-stop application for accorhotels.com

Available for iPhone, smartphones, Android and tablets, these applications allow customers to
consult room availabilities in real time, access negotiated rates, make reservations, and more.
A host of services heighten the guest experience at the hotel, making the accorhotels.com
application a real travel companion, one that will soon be indispensable.

30%
of AccorHotels web visits are
from mobile devices
+127%
rooms booked via the
accorhotels.com and brand mobile apps
3
million app downloads

Call centres
integrated
service

and
after-sales

Our A3C (ACCOR CUSTOMERS CONTACT

CENTRES) call centres not only take care of
your telephone bookings via Accor Hotels
central reservations but they also manage your
customer relationship: emails, postal mail,
social networks, etc. as well as any claims.

11
call centres around the world
900
Reservation and Customer Care agents
6.4
million customer contacts
8

handled in 18 languages

The Overflow call service to optimize management of the bookings

The AccorHotels call centre agents are an extension of the clients hotels reservation
Service.
A call to hotel unanswered after the 4th ring automatically switches to their team who takes
the call in the clients name and make bookings for the hotel. The customers are only billed
for the service if the customer stays at in the hotel.

OPTIMIZE THE HOTEL INDIRECT SALES BY CONNECTING TO THE MOST

POWERFUL PARTNERS AT THE BEST CONDITIONS
A privileged partnership with the major online travel agencies
AccorHotels has strategic international agreements and negotiated commis-sions with the
leading online travel agencies: booking.com, Expedia, HRS, etc.

Increased presence on price-comparison websites

The AccorHotels distribution system connects your hotel to metasearch
en-gines like TripAdvisor, Kayak, or Google, which compare several
hotels to facil-itate customer choice.

Reservations made easier on the Global Distribution Systems (GDS)

AccorHotels works with more than 20,000 travel agency partners which book rooms via the
GDS.

For development practitioners, social media and development is now entering a new and
exciting phase. As internet connectivity spreads, and cell phone usage spreads even further,
there are millions of new potential content creators gaining access to social media each year.
More social media content aimed at development purposes can, and should, be created by the
targets of development themselves. The benefits of this shift towards local media creation are
clear. Social media enhances the ability of poor populations to voice their own concerns and
priorities, and publicize their own vision and purpose. Self-advocacy is a form of
empowerment not always delivered through traditional development projects.

Discussions of findings
10

TARGET BUSINESSES AND INTERMEDIARIES THANKS TO FOUR DEDICATED

WEBSITES
4 accorhotels.com websites for business users to book hotels at preferential
conditions:
Business, for corporate travel
Meetings, for meetings and seminars
Travel Agencies, for travel agencies
Tourism, for tourist industry professionals

MAKE THE MOST OF MAJOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIRS TO PROMOTE

YOUR HOTEL
AccorHotels spotlights all Group hotels at the biggest international trade
shows:

ITB Berlin Germany (Leisure)

Arabian Travel Market Dubai United Arab Emirates (Leisure)
IMEX Frankfurt Germany
IMEX America Las Vegas USA (MICE)
World Travel Market London United Kingdom (Leisure)
IBTM Barcelona Spain (Leisure & MICE)
ILTM Cannes France (Luxury)

GAIN AND RETAIN YOUR GUESTS LOYALTY

11

WITH

THE

ACCOR

HOTEL

LOYALTY

PROGRAMME,

LE

CLUB

ACCORHOTELS
A simple and attractive programme
Le Club Accorhotels is AccorHotels free loyalty programme which lets mem-bers earn
points for every expenditure at one of the 2,700 participating Ac-corHotels hotels. Members
can convert these points into reductions on future stays or into air miles with a partner airline
company.
Strong points where we match the competition

Multibrand & worldwide programme

Advantages similar to those offered in our major competitors programmes
Option of converting points into air miles
Booking with points directly online
Points do not expire as long as the member stays at least once a year at a
participating hotel

Strong points where we beat the competition

A worldwide offer of 2,800 properties, from economy to luxury
Full flexibility on using points to book: no restrictions, no blackout dates
Programme 100% online
Customer service in 10 languages
The most international loyalty programme

OPTIMIZE YOUR CUSTOMER RELATIONS WITH A POWERFUL CUSTOMER

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

12

A global centralized customer database

For many years, Accord Hotels has benefited from a powerful CRM enabling it to
optimize process and analyse customer data. This valuable tool helps the Group to improve
its commercial discourse, target its initiatives, and strengthen customer loyalty.
Whatever the source of information (e.g. Internet sites, mobile devices, call cen-tres, hotel
PMS, GDS), customer data is shared among all the Groups hotels of all the brands, and in all
their countries:

Identity: name, age, gender, contact details

Loyalty and subscription cards
Booking history, bookings in process or to come
Expenditures during the entire stay
Preferences at hotel (floor, type of bed, newspapers, etc.) and personal tastes (sports,

gourmet dining, etc.)

Level of satisfaction and claims or complaints

Benefits for the hotel

Offer for guests the most personalized welcome possible to satisfy them and win their
loyalty

Have specific information for guests, their preferences, their habits

Personalize emails and propose tailor-made offers

Augment the customer value in the hotel and boost sales

AccorHotels customers by country of residence

France

22%

Rest of Europe

20%

United Kingdom

12%
13

Asia

11%

South America

10%

Germany

9%

Pacific

7%

North America

5%

Middle East

2%

Africa

2%

BOOST YOUR REVENUE WITH POWERFUL MARKETING INITIATIVES

Wide-reaching marketing actions

Digital is changing the customer-brand relationship, making awareness and image more
important than ever. To accompany you and help fill your hotel all year long, particularly
during slow periods, the Group implements powerful marketing actions both monobrand
and multibrand developed at an inter-national, national or local level.

High impact multimedia ad campaigns (TV, radio, press, posters, digital)

For brands and hotels to raise their awareness, strengthen their image, and stand out from
their competition, AccorHotels develops communication cam-paigns and media plans
utilizing the most relevant formats and materials, from the most traditional to digital and
social media.
Optimized online referencing campaigns
For customers and prospects to easily spot our brands and your hotel on the Internet, it is
14

essential to maximize their visibility on search engines. Accor-Hotels invest heavily to

guarantee you a top-of-the-first-page position while optimizing the cost per click.
Targeted emailing campaigns
In its powerful database of 45 million contacts, including 18 million Le Club Accorhotels
members, AccorHotels centralizes a variety of information on its customers, from a basic
profile to personal preferences, travel habits and more. Based on this information, the Group
launches targeted campaigns via e-mailings, text messages, or notifications on the single
accorhotels.com app to address the right message to the right customer at the right time and
boost your revenue.
Strategic promotional offers
To generate bookings for your hotel during slow periods, the brands and the
accorhotels.com portal run promotional offers backed by global media plans several times a
year. Travellers benefit from extremely attractive prices at par-ticipating hotels.
Very active presence on social networks
To bring its hotels and brands closer to web users, AccorHotels maintains a very active
presence on social media and regularly launches major operations with the main players,
including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and You-Tube. Local dedicated teams
manage and monitor the activity in these commu-nities to better meet your hotels needs and
reflect cultural specificities.

Controlling your online reputation

Internet and social networks heighten the impact of peoples opinions on your hotel and
services. Online comments can generate or deter additional res-ervations and revenue.
AccorHotels gives you the ability to positively influence your hotels online reputation and
15

image by making available TrustYou, the ho-tel industrys premier e-reputation management
tool.
Complete photo and video guidelines
Digital relies heavily on images and people are extremely influenced by what they see. It is
crucial to have the most beautiful visuals possible to sell your ho-tel, through both print and
digital media. AccorHotels has signed global agree-ments guaranteeing very preferential
conditions with photo and video profes-sionals who can provide their services anywhere in
the world and comply with very detailed specifications

Strategy
IMPROVE THE HOTELS PERFORMANCE
THANKS TO ACCORHOTELS RMD (REVENUE MANAGEMENT ON DEMAND)
EXPERTISE
A highly effective solution to optimize the revenue
To optimize the occupancy rate and average room price and to boost the hotels revenue,
AccorHotels has developed real expertise in revenue manage-ment. Our Revenue on Demand
(RMD) solutions help to analyse and antici-pate market trends and customer demand and
transform opportunities into real bookings. By combining our technical solutions, our training
programmes, and the expertise of our teams, they benefit from a real return on your
investment.
Service on demand, adaptable to your budget
Having a dedicated Revenue Manager in the hotel is not always possible, for financial
reasons or simply because such persons are rare. Today, there are 10,000 RMs in the world
and 300,000 hotels! With its Revenue Management on Demand, AccorHotels offers the
16

possibility of sharing the costs of an expert RM who will help to optimize your hotels
revenue.
PROFIT FROM ACCORHOTELS AMBITIOUS DIGITAL
STRATEGY: A 220 MILLION EURO PLAN FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS
An investment in the future to serve our common interests
Because our primary source of revenue today, and for the foreseeable future, is digital, it is
our top priority. We are rolling out a 220-million euro, 4-year plan to develop 8 programmes
to enhance the digital experience of our customers, partners and employees.
Some projects currently being deployed

An online reservation function for meetings and seminars

A personalized partner portal
Dashboards to track your hotels performance
And many other projects among our 8 programmes

CHOOSE

THE

BEST

IPMS

TO

ACCESS

ALL

THE

ACCORHOTELS

DISTRIBUTION SOLUTIONS
The three indispensable items you need to benefit from the AccorHotels distribution
solutions:

An AccorHotels-approved iPMS, choice between OPERA or FOLS

AccorHotels-approved software and IT equipment
Connection to Accortel

Benefits of referenced iPMS for your hotel

Interface with more than 100 distribution channels: Internet sites, online travel
agencies, GDS, etc.

17

Reduce time spent on administrative management tasks: your teams can save up to 3

hours a day
Reliable data and fully secure information processing
The guarantee of being able to benefit from all AccorHotels services and appli-cations

COMPREHENSIVE IPMS FOR ADVANCED FUNCTIONALITIES

Hotel Needs

Sofitel MGallery Pullman

Meeting room management
Guest
advanced
preference

management
Advanced group management
Room allotment management
Specific and varied Interfaces
Up selling

Hotel needs

Novotel Mercure

iPMS ADAPTED TO DAILY FUNCTIONALITIES

Novotel Mercure

Individual bookings mainly

Limited meeting room management
Basic guest preferences
Limited number of interfaces
Simple group and room allotments
management

EFFECTIVE AND INTUITIVE iPMS FOR ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONALITIES

Novotel Mercure Adagio ibis

Individual booking mainly
Simple group and room assignment ibis Styles ibis budget HotelF1
management

18

Conclusion
Following that, we looked at the use of online tourism services by Internet users. The
analysis showed that internet users have quite adopted online search and use of online
reservation systems. Looking for and booking airline ticketing and hotel reservations are
among the most widely used Internet applications. Assuming that the increase in tourism
demand and in Internet penetration signifies an increase of e-tourism sector, we used
forecasting techniques in order to estimate the change of tourism demand and Internet
penetration for the next two years. Predictions show that no significant leap neither in
Internet penetration nor tourism demand can be expected for the next two years.
Accor announces the worldwide implementation of a digital solution that revolutionizes guest
welcome in its hotels. The objective is simple: use digital technology to offer customers an
unprecedented personalized welcome. Guest welcome is less devoted to administrative
formalities, making the hotelier entirely available to greet guests, cater for their individual
needs or simply help them save time.
The hospitality industry was one of the product leaders in understanding the value of the
Web site and the most importantly the value of search engine optimization (SEO). As a
natural result, the hospitality industry embraced the possibilities of social media. The hotel
websites in their infancy stages were understood by marketers as the equivalent of a brochure
in an online environment. At the moment, social media is still evolving and its potential in
this industry still remains to be seen.
Social Media is an integral part of the real-time search algorithm. It creates a real
connection between companies and customers; that connection creates a trend for purchase
intensity. Ongoing connection and relationship with the guests will eventually turn them into
ambassadors and a volunteer marketing army. The property needs to ensure that social media
is an integral part of the overall marketing plan. Should the budget and resources become
limited, then social media domain needs to be monitored in an effective manner. Hoteliers,
who want stay ahead of the curve, need to invest today in the media that is fast emerging as
the future of internet marketing (Aggarwal, 2010).

19

REFERENCES

Berkowitch, A. (2010). What does success look like for your company: Social media

starting points with measurable returns. People and Strategy, 33(3), 10-10. Cox,C.,
Burgess, S., Sellitto, C., & Buultjens, J. (2009). The role of user-generated content in
tourists' travel planning behavior. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management.

doi:- 10.1080/19368620903235753 Carraher, S.M., B

uchanan, J.K., & Puia, G. (2010). Entrepreneurial need for achievement in China,
Latvia, and the USA. Baltic Journal of Management, 5 (3), 378-396.
20

Crotts, J. (1999). Consumer decision making and prepurchase information search. In

Y. Mansfield & A. Pizam (Eds.), Consumer behavior in travel and tourism (pp. 149

168). New York, NY: Haworth Press.

Dichter, E. (1996). How Word-of-Mouth Advertising Works. Harvard Business
Review. 44(6), 147-166 Dobele, A., Toleman, D. & Beverland, M. (2005),
Controlled infection! spreading the brand message through viral marketing,

Business Horizons, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 143-9.

Dwivedi, M., Shibu, T. P., & Venkatesh, U. (2007). Social software practices on the
Internet: Implication for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary

Hospitality Management, 19, 415426.

http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=2338&context=thesesdissertations
http://www.accorhotels-group.com/en/franchise-and-management/10-reasons-to-join-

accorhotels.pdf
ww.accorhotelsgroup.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Contenus_Accor/Franchise_Manag
ement/Documents_utiles/factsheet_reasons_April_15/en_accor_dev_fiches_raisons_1

21