Accor opens booking platform to independent hotels

Hotel group AccorHotels has opened its AccorHotels.com distribution platform up to a selection of independent hotels.

The new service will gradually become available to hoteliers in the first target markets starting at the end of June 2015, and guests will be able to access it from July 2015.

Eventually, AccorHotels hopes that its platform will offer more than 10,000 hotels in 300 key cities worldwide, or a threefold increase in the number of hotels on AccorHotels.com as a result of the move.

The independent hotels distributed on the AccorHotels.com platform alongside the group's brand hotels will be selected on the basis of hotel criteria with guest reviews taken into account.

AccorHotels.com already claims to be the leading online hotel booking platform in several markets, including France, Brazil, Australia and Germany and hopes that as a result, independent hoteliers will be attracted to it as an alternative distribution channel.

It said the new offer would guarantee transparent display rules, access to customer data and competitive commission rates.

The new initiative will supplement the services developed by Fastbooking, a company taken over by the Group last April, within a new BtoB digital services activity.

Sébastien Bazin, AccorHotels chairman and CEO, declared: "Transforming our distribution platform into an open marketplace is a major initiative for the Group and the result of a new approach to our profession and business model. AccorHotels is placing its powerful digital tools at the service of independent hoteliers and increasing the choice available to its customers by adding more hotels and more destinations. We are becoming a trustworthy, selective and transparent third party and we are once again amplifying the in-depth transformation undertaken within the Group since 2013. These initiatives and the launch of the new AccorHotels application are designed to enrich the content of our digital ecosystem and reinforce our position as a hospitality industry pioneer and trailblazer."

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