AccorHotels Will No Longer Offer an Online Booking Platform for Independents

A recent Reuters report confirmed that AccorHotels will no longer offer its online booking platform for independent hoteliers. About two years ago, AccorHotels invited independent hotels to display their properties on AccorHotels.com. This initiative was primarily meant as a response to the likes of Expedia and Booking.com, was meant to give customers more choices and was meant to provide AccorHotels with some additional revenue as it received payment from the independents for featuring their hotels on its website. However, the online service has failed to meet expectations.

Clients using the AccorHotels.com website were more likely to book with its well-known brands, and with only 2,000 independent hoteliers signed up for the service – it was falling significantly short of its 10,000 independent hotelier goal. Additionally, in order to give the independent properties the visibility needed to improve booking rates, the company would have had to invest more heavily in marketing. The company already spent €22 million to launch the project. However, this is not much compared to the likes of Expedia which its direct sales and marketing spend 25 percent in the second quarter of 2017 to an estimated $1.4 billion.

The company it seems will focus now instead on expanding via acquisitions and integrating/developing its large brand portfolio.