During the first eight months of the year, 4.2 million
room nights in Accor hotels were booked online, the equivalent of 170 hotels a day.
At August 31, online bookings in Accor hotels were up 60%, with a 65% increase for
Accor sites in Europe. Room nights reserved on the Accor hotel websites (the
accorhotels.com portal, as well as the sofitel.com, novotel.com, mercure.com,
suite-hotel.com, ibishotel.com, etaphotel.com, hotelformule1.com, motel6.com and
redroof.com sites) accounted for nearly 85% of total online bookings, compared
with 15% for online distributors.
The percentage of Accor revenues from Internet bookings has steadily increased. For
full-year 2003, Accor forecasts Internet business volume of nearly EUR 300 million,
or around 5.6% of lodging revenue, compared with EUR 202 million and 3.6% in
2002. The Economy segment accounts for 63% of online bookings, which generate
6% of aggregate Ibis, Etap Hotel and Formule 1 revenues in Europe and 10% of Red
Roof Inns and Motel 6 revenues in the United States.
Most visitors to the different websites are retail customers who generally choose an
Accor hotel for leisure travel. In Europe, 42% of visitors to Group sites enter through
the accorhotels.com portal, which attests to its growing reputation, while 58% go
directly to the site of their preferred brand.
Visitors come from more than 200 different countries.3 visitors out of 4 comes from
outside France:
- France: 25%
- Germany: 18%
- United Kingdom: 10%
- North America: 10%
- Benelux: 9%
- Scandinavia: 3%
- Italy: 3%
- Spain: 2%
- Switzerland: 2%
The Accor hotels most often requested via the Internet include the Sofitel New
York, the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, the Novotel New York, the Novotel Lisbon,
the Mercure in Rome, the Ibis London Euston, the Ibis in Barcelona, the Formule 1 in
Saint Ouen, the Etap Hotel at the Nice Airport, the Motel 6 Las Vegas Tropicana, the
Red Roof Manhattan…
In early summer, the pace of online bookings further accelerated with one room
reserved nearly every four seconds via Accor websites.
A major radio and Internet advertising campaign, launched in late June in France and
Germany to promote the Accor hotels Smiley Prices, helped to increase the
number of visitors to accorhotels.com.
An even more attractive accorhotels.com site -
In first-half 2003, Accor enhanced its online offering and services, for example by:
- Directly displaying the best available price and highlighting
discounts.
- Streamlining and speeding the online booking process, with fewer
windows and a step-by-step approach.
- Offering last-minute promotions.
- Enhancing hotel presentations with photo albums and large pictures.
- Integrating interactive maps.
- Posting travel guides for more than 60 destinations around the
world.
- Featuring special advantages for accorhotels.com visitors with Air
France, SNCF, Europcar, Thalys and other Accor partners.
By the end of the year, accorhotels.com, which is currently accessible in French,
English and German, will also be available in Spanish and Portuguese.
With 150,000 associates in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and one of
the world`s largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services, with two major
international activities:
- hotels: nearly 4,000 hotels (450,000 rooms) in 90 countries, casinos, travel
agencies, and restaurants;
- services to corporate clients and public institutions: 13 million people in 32
countries use a broad range of services (food vouchers, people care and services,
incentive, loyalty programs, events) engineered and managed by Accor.
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