Paris-based
hotelier Accor has officially changed its name to AccorHotels to better align
itself with its increased digital-marketing effort. The public company
has also changed its logo and adopted the motto, “Feel Welcome,” and is looking
to triple the number of properties it offers on its website by signing up more
independent hotels.
AccorHotels,
whose brands range from luxury badges Sofitel and Pullman to budget
brand Ibis, has about 3,700 hotels worldwide. The company is eventually
looking to offer digital distribution services to more than 10,000 hotels
throughout 300 cities worldwide.
The
company is reinforcing its effort to improve its digital presence to both the general public
and for its loyalty customers. AccorHotels said last fall that it would spend
$263 million during the next five years on that initiative.
“Transforming our distribution platform into an
open marketplace is a major initiative for the group and the result of a new
approach to our profession and business model,” AccorHotels CEO Sebastien Bazin
said in a statement. “We are becoming a trustworthy, selective and
transparent third party and we are once again amplifying the in-depth transformation
undertaken within the group since 2013.”
AccorHotels
eliminated most of its North American presence when it sold the Motel 6
chain to Blackstone Group for $1.9 billion in 2012.