Wish Accor has 300 hotels in India soon, says CEO Sebastien Bazin

French hospitality major Accor has an aggressive expansion plan for India. The world’s second-largest luxury hotel operator introduced the Raffles brand here on Wednesday. Sebastien Bazin, chairman and CEO, tells Shally Seth Mohile they will open one hotel every day in the Asia-Pacific region, and India, which has a miniscule share presently, will be the top priority. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Hotel Investment Conference — South Asia in Mumbai. Edited excerpts:

The past couple of years have been action-packed for Accor with multiple acquisitions, rebranding and an aggressive expansion. What are your priorities for this year?

The priority is to fulfil the promise we made to the owners and investors, and integrate all the acquisitions we made recently. We made 25 buys that got us into new countries, including Chile, Turkey, and Peru. We also launched a new loyalty programme and got into new segments. Accor has never been so strong. We have done so much in the past few years that we realised it’s time to take a pause — but that will only be for six months. We need to continue to grow, and that is why I am in India. Accor has an extraordinary ability to adapt itself to new cultures. India is very different from most of the other markets. It’s one of the countries you have to be humble as a non-Indian. When you are in the car in India, you wonder how it is possible but it works.

If you can touch upon your India expansion plans...

Today, we signed two new Raffles brand in India — one each in Udaipur and Jaipur. It’s in the top three luxury brands in the industry. We have been in India with economy and mid-scale with the Ibis and Fairmont. We have decided to move up the ladder and bring in more luxury brands. We presently have 38 brands as against 30 five years ago. India should have more than 10 brands. We are opening 24 new hotels in India in the next three to four years. We will have 75 hotels in next 3.5 years. But it’s not good enough. We have 1,800 hotels in France alone, even as it is tiny as compared to India. We can only accelerate if we have new brands and partnerships.

What is the biggest challenge in India and what are the reasons for the country contributing only 2 per cent in Accor’s global revenue?

I am asking this for the past five years. A lot has changed in this country over the past three years. It has been very good for foreign investment — $38 billion in the past two years. It can’t be an accident. India is seeing more interest from foreign investors and travellers. The pace of opening has been a bit slow because of complexity in this country. People are trying to simplify it but it will take time. I am hungry to do more. I wish we have 300 hotels in India. We are in the right direction and will get there soon.

How important is the Asia Pacific market for Accor?

For us, half of the total (hotel) openings is in the region. We are opening more than 300 hotels in the region every year. Perhaps in 18 months, you will see Accor opening one hotel a day in the region. We know this region well. The share of Asia Pacific is 20-25 per cent. With all the expansion in the region, in four years, its share should be more than one third. In 10 years, it will account for half of revenue share. India unfortunately, is contributing only 2 per cent, and I wish this goes up to 7-8 per cent. India is too big for Accor to ignore.