Accor will be auctioning off or selling more than 1,100 furniture and other items – inter alia from the Pullman Paris Rive Gauche, Sofitel Paris le Faubourg and Académie Accor in France – on the Group’s online boutique on eBay.fr. Visitors can access the store directly using the following address: http://stores.ebay.fr/Accor-hotels.

The list includes a large number of bistro tables, bar stools, leather poufs and club armchairs, as well as bedroom furniture (Toile de Jouy fabric wing chairs, art deco console tables, pedestal tables, desks and sofas).

This boutique opened in February 2012 as part of the Group’s reBorn project, which provides hotel managers with an all-new standing outlet to sell the furniture they need to replace when they revamp their hotels. It serves two purposes: it cuts costs by reducing old furniture removal requirements, and treats Accor hotel furniture to a second life.

The circular economy for the long run:

Accor Académie and Sustainable Development Director Sophie Flak explains, “We opened our online boutique four months ago and the results are good: during the first sale, from mid-February to mid-March, we sold 200 items a month on average, customers spent €150 per purchase on average. Loyalty is strong: 25% of our customers have already placed two or more orders! Now, hotel managers have a turnkey solution – which is profitable as well as sustainable – to put value back into their used furniture.”

With PLANET 21, the sustainable development program that the Group introduced last April, Accor has pledged to reinvent hospitality - sustainably, while enhancing employee, customer and partner involvement. To roll out its idea of responsible development, Accor has made 21 commitments, and set that many quantifiable targets looking to 2015. Innovation is one of them. Looking for new business models, such as its online boutique, is a powerful lever to introduce ever more sustainable hotel and hospitality deals and practices.

The next sales:
From now until the end of 2012, furniture from several upscale and indeed economy segment Group hotels undergoing revamps in France will go on sale.