How to Plan for an Uncertain Future

The Decision Brief Sébastien Bazin, Group Chairman & CEO, Accor Moderated by Sean O’Neill, Senior Hospitality Editor, Skift THE VERDICT Bazin was candid: Accor cannot match its U.S. peers on margin because “we’re missing the flow of credit card volume and benefits. We simply don’t have it. Doesn’t exist outside of America.” He said Accor compensates with faster top-line growth in the markets that will matter most over the next decade. He made the Forum’s most aggressive growth bet by a hotel CEO: more hotels in India than in France within 10 years. PATHS FORWARD Partner with local leaders to enter markets you cannot crack alone. Bazin said Accor chose InterGlobe (parent of IndiGo Airlines — 63% domestic market share) as its India partner because “for us as Europeans to develop in India without an Indian partner, we’re going to fail.” He said India will likely become the largest hospitality market in 12 to 15 years. Any global company entering a high-growth market without a local partner with real distribution could make the mistake Bazin said he’s avoiding. Build luxury around movement. Bazin described Orient Express as a brand that connects a yacht, trains, and hotels into a single experience. He said the yacht eliminates the pack-unpack cycle by bringing the hotel to the guest — “the best hotel waiting for you outside of Nice Airport on the water.” The competitive edge in luxury is shifting from the property to the journey between properties. Plan now for AI’s workforce impact. Bazin said a third of the hotel workforce will be impacted by AI. He said CEOs have a duty to retrain before they replace — “those people don’t deserve to lose their job, so as a CEO, just think ahead.” He framed the principle as “automate the ordinary, humanize the extraordinary.” WHAT TO WATCH His bet — more Accor hotels in India than in France within a decade — was the largest single-market growth commitment any hotel CEO made at the Forum. At roughly a hotel a week, it will need strong local market partnerships to deliver that. Bazin said he killed a signed Raffles project in Mykonos because the design called for 200 private swimming pools on a water-scarce island. He said every hotel opening should pass a two-column test: what the property takes from the community versus what it contributes. How many other hotel companies are willing to kill a signed deal on that basis — and whether travelers or investors reward that discipline — is the open question. Access all the Skift Takeaways from this event, as well as full session videos, presentation documents, and more editorial coverage at our Skift Global Forum attendees hub.