Accor Sets Sights on Rest of Europe for Its Co-Working Business

Favorable winds are blowing behind Accor’s co-working brand Wojo. It has now launched dedicated spaces in Germany and Austria, while in its home territory of France, the government is ceding control of remote work — or “teletravail” — regulations to companies.

Wojo has also just completed a three-day takeover of a football stadium in the heart of Paris, designed to showcase to employers that employees can work or have meetings in “extreme” locations, according to its CEO.

Suites, stands and lounges at the Parc des Princes, home of the Paris Saint-Germain football club, sold out in hours. The changing rooms were considered, but with no natural light Wojo decided not to include them. “We want to show companies that things have evolved,” said Stephane Bensimon. “Companies need to find a new model, to show a day here can be efficient, and productive. You meet people, and it inspires creativity.”

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Accor has been rolling out its Wojo Spots — effectively a secure Wifi connection and a plug — across the group’s brands, including Ibis and Adagio, for several months.

But on September 1 it expanded deeper into Europe. “What we’re doing with the German Accor team is transforming meeting rooms and offices, and in Austria as well,” Bensimon added.

Playing Catch Up

The stadium publicity stunt was likely needed to shake up mindsets in what is a conservative country.

“Culturally, management likes to have their teams close to them, physically speaking,” said IWG‘s Christophe Burckart, managing director, Regus France, Monaco and North Africa. “France is catching up, especially with countries who are more open to new ways of working, like the UK and the U.S.”

Mehdi Hemici (left), senior vice president business development and partnerships, Accor and Stephane Bensimon, CEO at WOJO, at Parc des Princes, Paris.

France’s labor minister Elisabeth Borne is now relaxing the rules for companies. “It is now up to the management of the company, in discussion with the representatives of the employees, to define the rules for teleworking,” she announced last week.

However, Bruckart said the onus really will be on companies to make it work, despite a new public framework. “The government is really pushing to have those agreements made, but they can’t make decisions on behalf of them. They are trying to create the condition and framework so teletravail is actually developing in France,” he said.

Before Covid, less than 25 percent of French companies had policies in place. Today that’s above 60 percent, according to a recent IWG survey. Some 54 percent of its customers were also spending more than three times a week outside of their main office.

This is good news for IWG, but it also bodes well for Accor too. If it can crack France, it’s more likely to succeed elsewhere.

Accor has its eyes on pushing further into Europe, and recently appointed a business development representative for Germany, Austria and France. But Burckart doesn’t seem too concerned.

“Opening centers in Paris, or Bordeaux, it’s an easy one,” he said. “You will always find customers. But big corporations want to partner with a provider that can welcome their staff everywhere in the country, not just the big cities.”

IWG was offering extra services such as sports, he added. “People don’t just want to come to work,” he said. “We opened a workspace in the Stade de France in 2016. It’s always been pretty full.”

Sidenotes

Multiple new business travel trends could accelerate, if you take one insurer’s statement to cut back on its flying as soon as next year seriously.

Zurich is taking the axe to its business travel program as part of a wider plan to become a greener company. The European insurance giant wants to reduce emissions from air travel for employees to 70 per cent below pre-pandemic levels — by 2022.

Of course, there’s lots of sustainability hyperbole at the moment, among all the international climate-focused events taking place. And it’s also way out of sync with a range of predictions made by travel industry leaders.

Quai Zurich Campus in Switzerland. Picture: Zurich

“A 70 percent reduction is a really big commitment, I think the biggest I’ve seen to date,” noted Paul Tilstone, managing partner of consultancy Festive Road.

Assuming Zurich takes action, what stands to happen?

First, if the company is smart about this, a 70 percent reduction in emissions doesn’t have to mean 70 percent fewer flights, or business trips. Zurich will likely switch a lot of travel to rail.

Clearly for a company that employs 55,000 people there’ll be more use of video conferencing. As Zurich’s Group CEO Mario Greco said: “The experience of the global pandemic has shown us a pathway to improving many aspects of our daily and working lives, and there’s no going back.”

With that, we can expect more “cluster” meetings.

“This is one of the larger commitments to reduce emissions I have seen, which is very positive to see,” said Spencer Brace, head of growth strategy at meeting platform Troop. He said it reinforces how companies need to consider cluster meetings, with virtual conferencing used at selected sites, rather than everyone gathering in the same location.

For Severnside Consulting’s Chris Pouney it reduces what he calls a “city swarm,” where companies send multiple people to the same event.

Zurich could also start making more informed choices when it comes to using sustainable aviation fuel, according to Tilstone. United Airlines, for example, has just agreed to purchase 1.5 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel over 20 years from Alder Fuels. The airline claims this is one and a half times the size of the rest of the world’s airlines’ publicly announced sustainable fuel commitments combined.

Another byproduct of Zurich’s vision could be that more travel suppliers will speed up electrification projects.

“Suppliers are now aware that sustainability will impact travel, the question is how much and are they reacting quick enough to changes to their customer’s needs,” Tilstone added. Airlines are reacting, but like sustainable fuel it will take time, with engines still in the works and a lengthy certification runway ahead.

There’ll also be questions as to how Zurich will calculate the emissions exactly, but suppliers and airlines should still be taking note as more companies follow suit. Snack and pet food company Mars is reported to be targeting 145,000 fewer flights per year, or half its pre-pandemic amount, due to cost, environmental and health considerations.

“Previous pushes for reduced flights to achieve carbon reduction targets have conveniently delivered internal targets as cost reduction exercises. This time feels different though,” Pouney said.

10-Second Corporate Travel Catch-Up

Who and what Skift has covered over the past week: Avianca, easyJet, Four Seasons, Las Vegas, Lufthansa, Marriott, serviced apartments, Standard International.

In Brief

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