[Lifestyle] Accor’s Gaurav Bhushan talks global rise in lifestyle sector

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The Lifestyle segment’s success has been rewriting the rules in the hospitality sector for several years now. The health crisis hasn’t dampened the segment’s appeal: it is actually seeing the steadiest growth rates in the sector around the planet.

As talks continue with Ennismore about creating the world’s biggest lifestyle operator, Accor Lifestyle CEO, Gaurav Bhushan, discusses the changing face of hotels playing in this space and the direction the Ennismore partnership may lead the growing sector.

 

You are head of Accor’s Lifestyle division. How did this Lifestyle journey start, for you personally and for the Group?

I have been with Accor for a long time, for 20 years. Before my role now I was Global Head of Development. The Group moved into Lifestyle 10 years ago, when we opened the SO/ Bangkok. People were shocked. It was a bit non-traditional. But it has been one of the most successful hotels because the ambiance, service, style and delivery are so unique.

At that point in time, we realised the customer was starting to evolve and that we had to follow the customer. Lifestyle has taken on a whole new meaning. It was a ‘toy’ back then, but it has grown into a serious business with amazing potential. At this point, 25% of our pipeline by value is in this segment.

 

The Lifestyle concept isn’t always clearly demarcated and can be slightly hackneyed at times. What are the main pillars underlying the Lifestyle concept at Accor?

Lifestyle hotels typically derive a big portion of their income from F&B and entertainment – it can be between 40 and 50%. This is because they tend to be closely tied to their local communities, and F&B is a very local business, so F&B revenue in these hotels is a very significant part of the total.

That isn’t the case for our other brands. This local element is a differentiating factor – again, lifestyle hotels are very plugged into their community. And they have a way of intertwining distinctive design, which often bears a designer’s hallmark, and a more intangible ethos that comes from the background music, fragrances, etc. Their look and feel, and the story they tell, is very much at the heart of what makes a Lifestyle hotel. And they are Accor’s fastest-growing segment today.

 

One of the highlights in 2020 was the start of the talks between Accor and Ennismore with a view to creating a shared Lifestyle platform. Tell us more about Ennismore – its hotels, brands, geographic wingspan and revenue.

First of all, Ennismore isn’t a B2C brand or a hotel brand – it’s a B2B brand. And we will be using this brand with our hotel owners, for our business and in our sector. Ennismore is very much part of the Accor ecosystem, but it is operating as an autonomous platform within Accor with its own group of people.

We will start with 12 brands and more than 70 hotels, and we will be looking at opportunities to grow and develop more brands. We already have 110 hotels in the pipeline, so this sector is looking at steady growth ahead.