The health crisis has definitely given a new impetus to the digitalisation of all our brands, whether it be for our power brands (with eco, budget or mid-scale positioning) or our luxury and lifestyle brands. New digital processes have emerged much faster than expected.
There is a clear desire on the part of customers to limit contact, a phenomenon that is not about to disappear... At Accor, we had to completely rethink the customer journey, lightening it with digital solutions and optimising the human contact. A new global guideline that requires agility and adaptability. All the transversal departments linked to the customer experience, including ours, worked together to carry out this extraordinary transformation.
The advent of cloud technologies now allows us to meet these new expectations and to deploy them much more quickly than in the past. In addition, as these new solutions no longer require dedicated infrastructure within the hotels, we can further reduce our carbon footprint, which is a very important issue for Accor.
In the field, the new solutions proposed are acclaimed by our users and considerably revolutionise their stay. Accor Key, for example, allows guests to obtain their room key directly on their smartphone, Self Check-In kiosks also offer a different experience to customers in a hurry, and contactless payment is also developing more and more, either via prepayment or Pay by link type solutions. All of these technologies and many others save considerable time for both customers and our colleagues in the hotels.
These solutions allow us to provide the autonomy requested by our customers, to accelerate the tedious processes on the front desk or to optimise the tasks on the housekeeping, F&B and maintenance side, thus freeing up our teams' time and constantly improving the customer experience. We have just considerably strengthened our Guest Technology structure to accelerate the adoption of these solutions in the network.
This wide range of solutions is designed and deployed by the Accor Tech teams, hand in hand with all the other departments dedicated to optimising the customer experience. Above all, we listen to our hoteliers, going in situ to meet them around the world! We want to adapt the services and offer a range of optimised software in line with their needs, which differ from country to country and culture to culture.
The hotel of tomorrow? with the development of giants such as AWS or Sales Force, or via our various partners on the PMS (Property Management System) side, it will be resolutely rethought and improved, thanks in particular to artificial intelligence or voice and facial recognition. The smart hotel will continue its revolution and we must therefore constantly think about integrating the human element, capitalising on and optimising the solutions on which we can provide added value.
Please note : Accor's Design & Technical Services Luxury & Lifestyle Europe teams will be present at the Table Astronomique to meet architects, decorators and designers in anticipation of new international projects. See you on 8 and 9 November - Pav. 7.3 booth L94
