Accor's Robust 2022 Invigorates Bet on Local Hybrid Hospitality

Executives at Accor, Europe's largest hotel operator with about 5,445 hotels worldwide, envy how U.S.-based hotel operators have consolidated North America. But they argue they have a better sense of the ground game for hospitality in the rest of the world.

Accor's executives believe that, as the Americans go abroad for growth, they'll find it hard to compete against Accor's local footprints, its broader array of more than 40 brands (including Sofitel, Hoxton, and Ibis), and its operational models that they say will be more appealing to local investors.

Accor executives appeared buoyed in their beliefs by their 2022 financial results, released on Thursday, which were slightly better than the year before the pandemic.

In 2022, the Paris-based group generated a net profit of $427 million (€402 million) on revenue of about $4.47 billion (€4.2 billion).

The performance was driven by Accor charging high room rates that, in the second half of the year, were up 12 percent from the pre-crisis level in nearly all regions except for pandemic-plagued China. Revenue was up 4 percent on the pre-crisis level. Rising costs weighed on profit, however. Profit was 13 percent lower than in 2019.

Accor's management forecasted the company's rebound would continue in 2023, with full-year revenue per available room — a key industry metric — expected to rise be