Accor to pay for staff vaccinations

Hotel group Accor has said that it plans to pay for its employees to be vaccinated by late summer, although it will not insist on staff being vaccinated.

According to the Financial Times, chief executive Sébastien Bazin said: “We are not going to wait for government. We will be buying our own vaccines if we can get them but we don’t want to do it [taking] from existing government programmes… It should not be taking away from fragile people.”

The group – which has a global portfolio of 5,000 hotels and residences across brands including Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Fairmont and Raffles – reported a £335m loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) yesterday in its 2020 results, however Bazin was confident the group will “weather the storm”.

He also said the group plans to grow the lifestyle hospitality company, which is set to be created on completion of the Ennismore merger in the first half of this year from 73 hotels to around 300 over the next four to five years.