Accor revamps site and loyalty programme
Accor, the hotels group that owns the ibis, Novotel and Mercure brands, is revamping its ecommerce platform and loyalty programme in a bid to ward off competition from distribution sites such as Expedia.
A new pool of services and exclusive promotions will be introduced for those booking a stay at one its hotels via accorhotels.com. Enhanced information services will also be added.
The site will also be refreshed to include more photos and interactivity. Grégoire Champetier, Accor’s global chief marketing officer, says that he wants the site to be a “communications tool” and not just a place to buy.
“We need to rethink the way how we can bring some emotion and feeling to it”, he adds.
Accor is keen to offer customers more reasons to book directly with it. Although Accor and other rivals do take a share of the revenue earned from a booking made on hotel distribution sites such as Expedia, Lastminute.com and Laterooms the margins are higher when consumers book directly.
The hotels group is to introduce the “by Accor” signature to all marketing for its brands in a bid to increase awareness of its booking site’s name. It is also hoped that the change will boost recognition of its Le Club Accor Hotels loyalty programme.
Champetier adds that the programme will “develop and improve” through stronger relationships with partners including Air France and Sky Team, while the “fluidity” of the system – making it easier to use – will also be looked at.
Accor recently rebranded its budget brands under the ibis moniker. All Seasons is to become ibis styles, while Etap will renamed ’ibis budget’.
