Video: Why AccorHotels Wants to Keep Collecting Brands

AccorHotels has been on one massive spending spree over the past couple of years, and by the the sounds of it, things won’t slow down anytime soon.

And the reason for this is pretty simple. Accor is no longer a midscale-economy hotel operator. It is transforming itself into — in the words of Steven Taylor, global chief brand officer— a “lifestyle and travel platform”.

Speaking at the inaugural Skift Tech Forum in Silicon Valley in June, Taylor outlined Accor’s vision for creating an “augmented hospitality strategy”, which draws inspiration from the likes of Netflix and Amazon

“We’ve essentially bought or acquired a new brand every single month for the last two years, which has fundamentally changed the shape of the business,” he said.

“We do get a lot of questions about how many brands is enough, and I think if you look at it from a consumer point of view the way in which they engage with brands, what they expect from brands, the number of brands they want to connect with has grown exponentially.

“So I don’t believe a large hospitality group can survive and compete with the large technology platforms that have increasing relevance, with a small number of brands,” Taylor added. “Our focus is on building this very broad brand comprehensive portfolio to cater to every single consumer need.”

You can watch the entire interview above, or consider reading more coverage of Skift Tech Forum.

At Skift Tech Forum in Silicon Valley, travel tech executives gathered for a day of inspiration, information, and conversation.

For more details on the upcoming Skift Restaurants Forum and Skift Global Forum in New York City, please visit our Forum site for details.