Luxury Hotelier - June 2008 - (Page 20)

20| Personalities Accor veteran, says. “We are marketingdriven and brand-driven now.” Mr. Karaoglanian agrees. “Gilles is very detail-oriented,” he says. “He’s marketingoriented, creative and open-minded.” “He has strong opinions, but he always wants to share,” Mr. Brechignac says. “The corporate culture now at Accor is entrepreneurial.” Mr. Pélisson has taken cues about entrepreneurial luxury over the last several years from French luxury-goods companies. It’s critical to understanding service consistency, he explains. “When I look on the consumer side, luxury industries like jewelry, automobiles, leather goods and textiles are a source of inspiration for Sofitel,” he says. Internet, media and entertainment companies influence him as well, he says, because he saw during his careers in telecom and at Euro Disney how effective a “wow” factor can be for guests. “In a simple environment, you can create happy surprises, you can go beyond what the guest expects with a simple touch, with a simple gesture, and that is what people remember the most,” he says. “Every time I see a company that can make that happen—whether it’s in the airline industry, the Internet, or any company that offers great service to the consumer using interaction and customization, even if it’s behind the scenes—I am fascinated.” Mr. Pélisson closely scrutinizes the differences and similarities between luxurygoods manufacturers and luxury service providers. As a hotelier, he says he can learn much from luxury-goods companies about service consistency, an element Sofitel lacked prior to its repositioning. “How can we make sure our consistency of experience is at the right level? This is where we still struggle to make sure our staff can really deliver that kind of consistent product day after day,” he says. But at the same time, he and his team are quick to point out their primary objective is to keep the Sofitel experience unique, a task much easier said than done. “Compared to buying a Louis Vuitton bag in a Louis Vuitton shop, or buying a Ferrari, the experience you get at Sofitel or at Four Seasons, for example, will vary from one day to another because of the people you interact with,” he says. “You have hundreds of people having hundreds of different experiences in the same hotel. This level of complexity, of variety in experiences, makes the mastering of it fairly complicated.” Complicated yes, but insurmountable, no. The Sofitel team reinforces its ideals by training staff on standards but keeping the door open to interpretation. Mr. Caillère offers an example. “Think of it this way: The French are famous for bread and wine, but the idea is to make the guest discover his own interpretation,” he says. “In Beijing, I want a good French wine list, but I want to discover the excellent Chinese wines as well.” The devil may be in the details, but Mr. Pélisson keeps one eye trained on the future of luxury trends including sustainability and technology. “The guest of tomorrow expects great technology and personalization,” he says. “Sustainability is a great example. I like to keep an eye on innovative companies that are doing off-the-wall projects, projects they can do because they are young and new. I look at new hotels, new types of buildings.” The hotel industry hasn’t hit the peak of excellence, he says, and that’s why he encourages his company always to reach higher. “It takes a lot of perception that we are asking of our staff, and that’s complicated. But that’s what we strive for because the more we go into luxury, that is what our guest expects.” He won’t rest until he gets it right. Development plans Sofitel’s worldwide development has ebbed and flowed since its inception, and Accor’s management team now believes the brand has a firm strategy in place. “We did our first wave of development in the 1980s with properties in Miami and Houston,” says Christian Karaoglanian, Accor’s chief development officer. The late 1990s brought another round of newbuild development, leading to what Karaoglanian called a turning point. “Finally, we said we can’t fight upper-upscale,” he says. “You need to have hundreds of properties to do that and we can’t achieve it. We need luxury with fewer properties.” After Sofitel’s repositioning is complete, 80 percent of the hotels will be Sofitel, 10 percent will be Sofitel Legends and 10 percent will be So by Sofitel. The process of refining the network is intricate. Properties that fit the Legends and So profiles will re-flag. Others that don’t fit the new Sofitel ideals will re-flag to the Pullman and Novotel brands. At the same time, the brand has 60 properties in its global pipeline, 85 percent of which will be new builds. Sofitel properties are strictly owned and/or managed, not franchised. To date, Mr. Karaoglanian says Sofitel hasn’t lost any management contracts because of the repositioning. The brand right now is focusing development on the United States. “Globally, the U.S. customer represents 30 to 50 percent of all luxury travelers,” Mr. Karaoglanian says. Olivier Poirot, president and chief executive officer of Accor North America, agrees. “We have a lot of ambition for the North American market,” he says. “Our North American footprint is fairly small, but the importance is large. It’s difficult to express how important these properties are.” — InfoConcierge FOR MORE INFORMATION: Sofitel: www.sofitel.com » Luxury Hotelier | June 2008 | www.LuxuryHotelier.com http://www.sofitel.com http://www.LuxuryHotelier.com

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Luxury Hotelier - June 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Inform Journal Network Personalities Insight: Smith Travel Research/The Bench Properties Insight: Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne Inspire Deliver Protocols Insight: HotelWorld Innovate Development Indulge Advertisers Index Editorial Index Source Listing Dossier

Luxury Hotelier - June 2008

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