Accor is one of the world largest hotel organizations with the most powerful portfolio in the

industry. With 33 brands from luxury to economy and over 4800 hotels across 100 countries,
Accor presents mostly all over the world. Accor was first opened in 1967 by two friends Paul
Dubrule and Gerald Pelisson. Over the last 52 years, since its formation, Accor has earned its
own reputation for its services among customers all over the world. Accor is positioned as global
leader in the lifestyle sector. (Accor Press Release, 2019). There are 33 brands currently
operating under the guidance of Accor. These brands are organized into three segments: upscale,
midscale and economy. In order to know thoroughly what are the differences between the
upscale and economy segments. We take Sofitel – standing for luxury segment and Ibis Budget –
presenting for economy segment as the example to do the analysis.

Sofitel is a Luxury International 5-star brand demonstrating the French Art De Vivre, creating
chic experiences for travellers in a modern and luxury way. Sofitel presents at 43 countries with
121 hotels in the network and 30,588 rooms in total while Ibis Budget positioning as Classic –
Economy International 2-star brand with the slogan “Street Smart Hotels”. With the simple, cool
design, Ibis style is a brand for budget travellers who want to experience comfortable and relaxed
spaces in town. Compared to Sofitel, Ibis Budget is only available at 20 countries but the number
of hotels in the network is up to 614 and 61,266 rooms, larger numbers than Sofitel. This is easy
to understand because Ibis Budget – like its name – is suitable for different level of travellers.
Therefore, a big network of Ibis Budget was built in order to meet the demand of the budget
segment’s customers.

Let’s take the look at the differences between Sofitel and Ibis Budget:

SOFITEL IBIS BUDGET

Positioning
Luxury Economy
Feel the pulse Street smart
Playful – Audacious – Entertained - Energized Smart – Fun - Cool – Easy Going
Network & Pipeline
121 hotels & 13 projects 614 hotels & 69 projects
Hotels
Average number of rooms: 200 – 250 keys Average number of rooms: 100 keys and more
Room average size: 40sqm Room average size: 12,5 – 13,5sqm
Total gross floor area/ room: 90 – 110sqm Total gross floor area/ room: 22 – 25sqm
Executive Lounge: Signature Club Executive Lounge: None
Food & Beverage
No restaurant but breakfast room and vending
1 Breakfast restaurant
machine
1 Destination restaurant No bar
1 Hi – SO signature rooftop bar
Facilities
SoSpa No spa
SoFit No fitness center
Swimming pool No swimming pool
Meetings, Events & Others
Ballroom based on market demands No meeting room
Business Centre No business centre

“Hotel groups are very aware that one brand does not suit all and they offer branded hotels which
may offer similar facilities but at different levels of luxury and service” (Gillian Dale, 2005).

Room division department is one of the important departments of a hotel or resort. It is

responsible for Housekeeping and Front Office. The general operation of reception, reservations,
concierge, switchboard and night management is under control of the room division department.
However, there have some differences between luxury brand and budget brand at this
department.

Firstly, the requirements for the head of room division department in luxury brand are higher and
stricter than the ones in budget brand. They must perform the tasks to the highest standards.
While in budget brand, the tasks are done basically and meet the fundamental standard.

 In luxury brand, room division department should monitor trends of customer satisfaction
with a focus on continuous improvement. To the contrary, in budget brand, the services
only meet the basic requirements. Besides, in luxury brands, room division department
should operate within departmental budgets; monitor the appearance, standards and
performance of the team with an emphasis on training and teamwork. It must ensure that
all the team member have an updated knowledge of room categories and amenities
through training, maintain good work relationships among other departments and with
customers, ensure team member must go along with hotel security, fire regulations and
all health and safety legislation. Another important thing for the head of the room
division department is that he/she must be proficient in property management systems
and be actively display a proactive leadership style.
 In budget brand, the requirements seem to be simpler. Room division department in
budget brand hotel only need to oversee the operation of the Front office and
Housekeeping team, ensure everything is smoothly operated. It must only ensure the
customer satisfaction, maintain relationship among departments, monitor the availability
of the control systems and ensure the operation is under the right guidance.

Secondly, room division department in luxury brand will perform more tasks than budget brand.
The specific tasks are mentioned above.

In fact, “It is difficult to understand the difference in service and quality between different
classes of hotel. A budget hotel such as an Ibis still aims to offer good customer service and a
wide range of services but is by no means as luxurious as a Sofitel or similar class of hotel”
(Gillian Dale, 2005). However, it still has differences for the operations between Sofitel and Ibis.
At Sofitel, once guests arrived at the entrance, they will immediately greeted by the uniform
porters and they will quickly help to carry guests’ luggage. At Ibis Budget, guests will carry
luggage themselves to the reception desk.

Next step, at Sofitel, the receptionist will greet and quickly find the reservation and have the
porters direct guests with their luggage to the room within just a short time. The process of
welcoming, guiding and delivering guests to their rooms is quickly and professionally
performed. While in Ibis, guests will also be welcomed by receptionist and found the reservation.
However, they will not be directed to the room like what the staff at Sofitel do. Guests will go to
their room by themselves. Besides, the service at Sofitel is more professional than Ibis. The staff
at Sofitel is more fluent in performing the process and they know everything well within the
hotel.

In hotel, staff uses different channels to communicate across departments to ensure the efficiency
of the operation. Three of the channels can be mentioned are walkie – talkie, email and
telephone.

First of all, walkie-talkie, Walkie – talkie is used at departments like Food and Beverage,
Recreation, Front office, Engineering and Security. This channel helps the departments
immediately catch the information. In emergency situation, walkie talkie seems to be useful. For
example, maintenance staff can be anywhere in the hotel, therefore whenever guests have
problems that develop in their room such a technical error of the air conditioner, in this situation
the admin of the Engineering or the head of this department will use walkie – talkie to inform the
information to the whole team, the one who is available will get there to fix the problem as soon
as possible. Therefore, guests won’t have to wait for so long to have the problem solved.

Secondly, email seems to be a major channel of communication. In hotel, people use email when
they want to inform the upcoming events, new SOPs, new procedures or simply the training
plans and many more among hotel’s departments. This type of channel helps to spread updated
information to all the staff of the hotel as well as make sure that important notice and
information won’t be lost during the process of spreading information. For example, the training
manager wants to update the new training plan to all the staff, he/she will send email to the head
of each department and then have them spread this information to their staff.

Finally, telephone is also an important tool for internal communication in a hotel. Each of
department is equipped with a telephone. Unlike walkie – talkie, all of the departments have their
own telephones. Besides, telephone is also the channel that used to connect with the guests. In
emergency case, telephone is also useful. For example, if when guests check out, they have
problems with their bills and want to be clarified, in this situation, the FO team will use
telephone to connect with FB team to find the root of the problem for the guests. Like walkie-
talkie, telephone will help to save time and solve problems personal-to-personal quickly.
Moving to the next problem, Sofitel is the most luxurious brand among the brands of Accor.
Therefore, it focuses on the business traveller, people who want to experience fine dining,
experience the French lifestyle as well as enjoy in a luxurious way. Ibis is positioned on the
budget segment. Family traveler or those who have middle and low income will tend to choose
Ibis, as it also provides basic facilities with the reasonable prices. With the difference between
the market segments, the needs and customer satisfaction between these 2 brands are also
different. At Sofitel, customer requires the professional manner among the staff. Everything must
be well-prepared and performed professionally; staff must be friendly, useful. They put their
self-esteem in top priority then the service must be worth money. To the contrary, at Ibis,
customers only need to have essential comfort; they just need to provide basic service.

Currently, both Sofitel and Ibis are applying different strategies to provide quality customer
services. At Ibis, it emphasizes its focus on serving people who have short period of travelling
traveling such as weekend. Problems emerging during their stay are promised to be solved within
15 minutes, if they fail to do so, guests will be offered a free stay. Furthermore, “the business
strategy of Ibis is to let the customers enjoy living in an international standard hotel with
economical price. That means the customers could get excellent value for money in Ibis.
(Strategy of Ibis Hotel and Skoda Marketing Essay, 2018). At Sofitel, they are using many
promotions and programs in order to get customers back as well as stay loyal with them. They
have special offers for individual and groups, subscription cards and offers for business. Besides,
they also develop loyalty program through accumulated points. This will not only help to attract
new customers but also maintain a number of loyal guests.

For both brands, we recommend two additional strategies in order to increase guest satisfaction.
Firstly, making surprise for long stay customers. It means that before guest arrives, they can
prepare a small gift put inside their room. Gift can be small like the symbol of the hotel or a
voucher of using private meal at special places of the hotel. For short term customers, they can
prepare a welcome note with some wishes and beautiful pictures of the hotel put on guest room.
In both situation, guest will feel be warmly welcomed and will appreciate this.
Secondly, each hotel should make survey about guests’ hobbies or dining habit when they make
reservation. After that, when guest arrives, basing on the survey, the information must be
informed first to the staff so that they could offer suitable dish for guests and inform if there any
allergic dishes so that guests will be more satisfied. Focusing on the details will help customer
feel the professional of the hotel.
REFERENCES:

Accor. Powerful Brands. Retrieved from:

https://group.accor.com/en/hotel-development/brands/our-brands-portfolio

Essays, UK. (November 2018). Strategy Of Ibis Hotel And Skoda Marketing Essay. Retrieved
from

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/strategy-of-ibis-hotel-and-skoda-marketing-
essay.php?vref=1

Essays, UK. (November 2018). Customer Satisfaction and Expectation in Hotel. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/what-is-customer-expectation-and-satisfaction-
marketing-essay.php?vref=1

Sofitel hotel. Retrieved from:

https://sofitel.accorhotels.com/asia/index.en.shtml

SinanVerboz et al., (July 2013). Product Differentiation in International Accommodation

Establishments: The Case of Accor Hotels. International Journal of Education and Research,
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Gillian Dale. (2005). BTEC National Travel and Tourism. Heinemann