Skift Podcast: Why Accor Had No Choice But to Change

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Tune in for a candid conversation about the strategy behind AccorHotels' many acquisitions, why the company wants to be part of consumers' everyday lives, and what the CEO has learned from spending hundreds of millions of dollars on startups.

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If AccorHotels isn’t in the news for buying another hotel company, it’s earning headlines for acquiring an alternative accommodations provider, concierge service, or event specialist.

As CEO Sébastien Bazin told Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Deanna Ting recently at Skift Forum Europe in Berlin, Accor has spent more than 600 million euros ($715.4 million) in the last four years buying or investing in various startups. And while he expects some of the investments to fail, the CEO believes it’s more important to make big moves than to be a sleeping giant.

This episode of the Skift Podcast brings you that conversation between Bazin and Ting. They talked about why Accor wants to be part of travelers’ everyday lives, the lessons Bazin has learned from making so many acquisitions, and whether the hype around Accor matches reality. (The CEO, not surprisingly, believes it does.)

Hannah Sampson

May 11th, 2018 at 1:30 AM EDT

Tags: accor, mergers and acquisitions, sfe2018, skift forum europe, skift podcast, the skift travel podcast

Photo Credit: AccorHotels CEO Sébastien Basin spoke at Skift Forum Europe in Berlin on April 26, 2018. Skift

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