Accor has announced a new brand-based organisation of its operations in Europe, with the aim of anticipating trends in the hotel sector and strengthening its brands.

The new structure will be effective as of January 1st, 2013.

The hotel market is facing many major challenges today.

Greater segmentation in the market and increasingly specific customer expectations call for strongly positioned brands.

These trends offer the group an opportunity to reinvent the business model of its brands in line with their particular positioning and segment, triggering the need to set up dedicated teams for each brand.

This new organisation structure concerns Accor’s activities in 15 countries in Western and Central Europe across eight brands: Pullman, MGallery, Mercure, Novotel, Suite Novotel, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget.

Altogether, this represents over 210,000 rooms and nearly 2,000 hotels, i.e. half of the group’s global network.

At the head of each brand or group of brands is a chief operating officer Europe, assisted by a support team reporting to him, dedicated to the brand and comprising expertise in key areas such as marketing, human resources, management control and technical standards.

The geographical scope of this organisation structure is divided into four main regions: Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe and France, with a Brand SVP for each region.

Accor is the first player in the hotel sector to put this type of organisation in place.

It will strengthen the professionalisation of teams, which will now be dedicated to a single brand, making the brands stronger and more coherent.

“This organisation structure will enable us to develop first-rate specialists in each market segment and rely on teams that are entirely focused on their brands and have perfect knowledge of both their customers and their competitors,” explained Yann Caillère, president and chief operating officer, in charge of worldwide operations.

“It is also essential to strengthen our relations with our partners and at the same time it will offer new development opportunities to our employees.”

Indeed, the new organisation structure will deepen relationships exchanges between the nearly 400 franchised owners operating hotels in this region.

They will be able to dialogue with the dedicated teams, giving them easier access to the brand manager, and there will be greater opportunities for exchange of best practices between European franchisees.

For the group employees involved, it also offers new development opportunities, since they will be working in a more international environment.

The brands’ management programs will also be strengthened, with a modernisation of the training courses offered.