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empower our members to connect with their passions and engage with the program in ways that truly matter to them, well beyond hotel stays. It’ s about tapping into their passions, such as Novotel Suite experiences at Parc des Princes, which provides pitch-side access or meetings with players. This transforms loyalty into something that truly enriches everyday lives and fosters a deep attachment to the ALL brand and its values.
HOTELS: How is Accor leveraging AI and data to improve not only the guest experience, but also those of associates working within the walls of your hotels? Boulnois: We see AI as serving a dual purpose: It enhances the guest journey
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while also empowering our employees. The goal isn’ t to replace the human touch but to free our people to focus on what hospitality is truly about: creating meaningful connections and delivering personalized service.
For our employees, we center our efforts on three pillars: growth, equipment and augmentation. That means empowering teams by giving them the tools and training they need and using AI as a co‐pilot for routine tasks. For example, AI assistants help hotel staff manage day‐to‐day operations and play a crucial role in facilitating operations, streamlining daily tasks and making our hotels run more efficiently. It can be integrated into our PMS for features like one-click check-in or
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Restaurante Trintaeum at TRIBE Belo Horizonte Savassi in Brazil.
to personalize the welcome experience, and it helps reduce administrative burdens by automating parts of the night audit.
Ultimately, we see AI as a transformative force in hospitality. It enables deeper personalization for guests while enriching the daily work experience of our associates.
HOTELS: Scaling as an asset-light company puts a major emphasis on technology. What areas is Accor specifically spending and focused on and how do you clearly communicate the benefits to owners? Boulnois: Our commercial, digital and tech ecosystem isn’ t just about driving performance today; it’ s about embracing innovation to set the pace for
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tomorrow. As a franchisor, our role is to bring a profitable business model to our hotel owners by providing strong brands, a powerful and wellmanaged distribution network, differentiated direct channels and a loyalty program that drives repeat stays and guest engagement. Technology is the backbone of how we scale as an asset‐light company.
Looking forward, our major underlying technological projects include modernizing our entire distribution chain, implementing an API platform to enhance connectivity in data, AI and personalization and further differentiating our direct channels and loyalty program.
HOTELS: OTAs are the toothpaste that you can’ t put back into the tube, spending vast amounts of money each year to cajole travelers to book through them. How is Accor working to drive a higher share of direct bookings, while also not turning its back on the OTAs? Boulnois: We recognize that OTAs are a permanent part of the travel landscape and they play an important role in giving our hotels global reach and visibility. OTAs are key partners in our distribution strategy because they help us attract new customers, particularly occasional travelers or those who are less brand loyal. One of our top priorities is making Accor’ s own channels the first choice for our guests. Our direct channels are
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58 hotelsmag. com November 2025 |