2020-03-01_Forbes_Asia

71

FORBES LIFE

MARCH 2020 FORBES ASIA

tanding in the lobby of Sin-

gapore’s iconic Raffles Hotel,

Sébastien Bazin, the CEO of

the French hotel giant Accor,

declares: “This is the best hotel

on the planet,” drawing applause and cheers of

“bravo” from the VIPs gathered to hear him. He

made the remarks at the official reopening last

October of one of Asia’s grandest hotels, first

opened in 1887 and which Accor manages. The

hotel had undergone a two-year renovation ru-

mored to have cost at least $100 million (the ho-

tel is mum on the exact figure).

The Raffles reentry into the Asia hospitali-

ty scene is a crucial part of Bazin’s global strat-

egy for the world’s fifth-largest hotel chain by

rooms. While Accor has long used its budget

brands as a major cash cow, Bazin, 58, is deter-

mined to push further into luxury, where mar-

gins are fatter. “When I started six years ago,

luxury was less than 20% in terms of revenue. It

will be 50% of our revenue in 2020,” says Bazin

in an exclusive interview held just hours before

the Raffles reopening. (The interview was held

before the coronavirus outbreak, so that topic

was not discussed.)

Asia is the regional focus for Accor now, says

Bazin. Already the biggest hotel operator in Eu-

rope and facing stiff competition in the U.S. from

Hilton and Marriott, Bazin sees Asia as ripe for

expansion. China alone sends 150 million tour-

ists abroad each year, according to government

data, at least two-thirds to destinations in Asia.

After his Singapore stopover, Bazin headed to

Bangkok to inspect progress on a new Orient Ex-

press Hotel, named after the storied train, due to

open this summer.

Thanks to Bazin’s drive—he says he spends

260 nights a year on the road—Accor is on track

to manage more than 5,000 hotels by the end of

this year, up from 4,900 today. In Asia, a new Ac-

cor property opens every three days. “We believe

that Accor hotels will continue benefiting from its

well-balanced geographical hotel presence,” says

Yi Zhong, an analyst at Paris-based AlphaValue.

With the hospitality industry under massive

consolidation, Bazin must ensure Accor remains

big enough to be the predator and not the prey.

Getting Raffles back on the market is a leg up on

Accor’s biggest rivals—Marriott and Hilton—by

building a constellation of accommodations that

keep loyal lodgers constantly coming back and

owners happy. “Every brand we add gives us an-

other opportunity to seduce an owner,” says Bazin.

Bazin needs owners and brands, due to its “as-

set light” model of managing hotels rather than

owning them—more than 90% of Accor’s hotels

are operated as management agreements and

franchised (up from 59% when Bazin came in).

After selling 58% of its real estate holdings in

2018 to a group of investors that included Singa-

pore’s GIC and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment

Fund for €4.6 billion ($5 billion), Bazin has been

buying up hotel brands to round out Accor’s sta-

ble, expanding it since 2013 from 14 of Accor’s

familiar brands like Mercure and Pullman to a

bench of more than 30 that includes Fairmont,

Swissôtel and Raffles.

Frenchman Bazin’s path to the head of Accor

is atypical. While others in similar positions are

normally seasoned hoteliers, Bazin’s former ca-

reer was in dealmaking, as an investment banker

based in London, New York, San Francisco and

Singapore’s iconic

Raffles Hotel, first

opened in 1887.

ATHANASIOS GIOUMPASIS/GETTY IMAGES

25Hours

Art Series

Fairmont

Grand Mercure

Mantis

MGallery

Movenpick

Peppers

Pullman

Raffles

Rixos

SBE

So by Sofitel

Sofitel

Swissôtel

The Sebel

Adagio Access

Breakfree

Greet

HotelF1

Ibis

Ibis Styles

Ibis Budget

Jo & Joe

ECONOMY

297,403 rooms

MID-SCALE

246,750 rooms

UPSCALE

195,384

rooms

Adagio

Mama Shelter

Mantra

Novotel

Novotel Suites

Mercure

Tribe

ACCOR’S

PORTFOLIO

Source: Accor, December 2019

S