Accor’s All-Inclusive Resort Growth Plan Strengthens Company Grip on Luxury
Skift Take
Accor is staying busy with brand rollouts and expansion into newer sectors like all-inclusive resorts, but make no mistake: This is all about elbowing out the competition to win over luxury customers.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.Accor’s second major growth push announced in less than a week is yet another reminder company leaders see a lot of its future coming from high-end customers.
The Paris-based hotel company plans to raise the stakes significantly on its all-inclusive resort portfolio, currently centered around the Rixos brand but on track to swell to five other brands, Skift has learned.
Rixos along with Fairmont and Sofitel will comprise Accor’s luxury all-inclusive resort collection while Pullman, Swissotel, and Mövenpick will be the premium offerings for all-inclusive resorts. The five newer brands to this space will still encompass traditional hotels along with their new all-inclusive function.
Accor is the latest major hotel company to put more chips into the all-inclusive sector. Hyatt, Marriott, Wyndham, and Hilton all ramped up their own all-inclusive offerings earlier this year. Hyatt’s recent $2.7 billion Apple Leisure Group acquisition gives the Chicago-based hotel company significantly more room in Accor’s backyard than it ever had before — and a significant chunk of that acceleration comes from all-inclusive resorts.
Most all-inclusive operators have some level of a high-end offering. But Accor’s all-inclusive strategy is the latest chapter in its ongoing concentration toward upscale brands, playing out recently with its lifestyle hotels and a new luxury soft-brand. This push into all-inclusive resorts isn’t meant to be a Sandals copycat.
“Our focus is very strongly in the premium and leisure segment,” Gaurav Bhushan, CEO of Accor’s lifestyle and entertainment division, told Skift. “Over the long term, the market will decide the successful and the leaders versus the also-rans.”
The decision to
