All part of its digital transformation, Accor Hotels launched Accor Marketplace, a platform to distribute not only its own branded hotels but independent properties. It was clearly a move to regain control of its own inventory and to counter the growing power of the global OTAs.
This January, it launched Table Plus, a new online and mobile booking site for restaurant reservations, giving diners access to book restaurants at AccorHotels across Asia Pacific.
Recognising that food & beverage is the next frontier being eyed by OTAs such as Priceline (which bought Open Table), TripAdvisor (which bought La Fourchette) and Recruit (which bought Quandoo), Accor Hotels is clearly making pre-emptive strike to protect food & beverage revenues before that too is disintermediated.
WIT talks to Louise Daley, Executive Vice President and CFO, Accor Asia Pacific, and formerly CEO of Accor Plus, about the intent and execution behind Table Plus.
Q: What’s the thinking behind the launch of Table Plus?
We see a strong trend where customers expect restaurant bookings to be made online. There is significant growth in the number of online restaurant booking providers, but for our guests we wanted to better tailor the experience to their needs. We have over 600 bookable restaurants in Asia Pacific and it’s important to us that our guests have a consistent quality booking platform that is integrated with the rest of the hotel, dining or membership experience.
We have a lot of passion for Food and Beverage in both our outlets and our membership base – Le Club and Accor Plus. Table Plus is about bringing that passion to life by giving our members more opportunity to experience it. Also, importantly the platform is free to Accor Hotels under any of our brands in the Asia Pacific region.
Q: What’s the technology behind it? Did this evolve from your partnership with ResDiary (the Glasgow-based online booking system for restaurants)?
Yes we are using ResDiary as the engine behind Table Plus. We put considerable effort into looking at different solutions and ResDiary came through as the clear winner. Not only do they have a fantastic product and strong technical capability but their philosophy is centred on helping the restaurateur be successful – their model is based on a licence fee and not a transaction fee, which means if you already have a base of loyal customers, you are not charged every time they return. Their expertise has grown over a number of years not only in their table management software, but also yield management and now digital marketing. We’ve established a firm partnership with ResDiary and enjoy working with them.
Q: Why did Accor decide to set up its own platform, and not use third party marketplaces?
We have a lot of restaurants in different countries which cater to in house and local clients. We want to ensure, via the appropriate data gathering and knowledge building, that our offerings are relevant and our communications as contextualised as possible, so that ultimately guests are getting what they want. We are able to do this by creating our own platform in partnership with ResDiary.
A range of third party providers have strength in some markets but no single provider covers all of them, and the data capture is a little difficult. However we do still use third party marketplaces – we welcome the opportunity to work with any that add value to our portfolio and are prepared to integrate so that we deliver on our goal of great customer experience.
Online bookings for dining options at Sofitel Sentosa, now available at Table Plus
Q: Currently it only offers 11 restaurants – what’s the potential scale and what’s the timeline?
Actually 11 restaurants are just in Singapore alone. We launched in Australia prior to Singapore and by the end of January we will have over 250 restaurants bookable on Table Plus throughout Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and Thailand. We will add restaurants in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and of course China before the end of Q1 which will give us over 400 bookable restaurants.
Q: Like Accor Marketplace, will it also include independent, non-Accor restaurants?
Not in the first instance. However yes this does form part of our longer term strategy.
Q: Who are the customers? Not just hotel guests, I presume?
Of course you’re right, the customers who dine in our restaurants but are not staying as hotel guests are vitally important to us. Usually these are food loving members of the local community who are dining out close to their home. We also have two powerful membership programmes, Le Club Accor Hotels and Accor Plus, whose members thrive on having an array of unique dining experiences to enjoy.
Q: Your thoughts on the disruption happening in f&b and do you see the same trends unfolding as it did in rooms where OTAs have successfully disintermediated brand.com?
This disruption is happening in many areas, not only hotels and restaurants. It is where technology is the functional layer that connects the customer to the business providing the service and/or product. In this space though, there are many more restaurants than there are hotels, so the market potential is enormous. Restaurants just need to be mindful that they have a choice when it comes to partnering (ie go with the transaction model or the licence model) and that the choice has different cost implications. At Accor we chose the licence model because it better suited our needs.
Q: What lessons should hotels learn from that experience? What mistake must they not make?
Make sure you remain connected to your customer and have a direct conversation – we all know it can be costly to acquire customer, and often we need to partner with others to do it, but there are options out there to facilitate the online booking process without paying each time a loyal customer comes back.
Q: Will this be open to Fairmont restaurants as well?
Yes, it is certainly the case that the platform will be available to Fairmont hotels once the integration is complete.
Note: Watch the video of the panel discussion around food & beverage disruption that took place at WIT Conference last October where Louise Daley first spoke about Table Plus.
