Discussion

Hospitality industry has emerged as one of the most important service sector in today’s world (Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García & Marchante-Lara, 2014). Accor is one of the fast growing and developing hotel in modern days and it has emerged as one of the best service providers that are providing various flagship products. This report will focus on the management of the Accor hotels in comparison with other hotels, concerning its procurement process, transportation, waste management, and expenditure on development and maintenance.

Gerard Pelisson and Dubrule have established the AccorHotels in the year 1967. It was their creativity and effectiveness, which has pushed the boundaries to such an extent that the result is unknown to none. They have 4,100 hotels in 90 different countries with about 2, 50,000 hospitality experts of AccorHotels. They share the same passion and take care of billions of guests universally. It offers the largest brand portfolio encompassing globally acclaimed luxury to popular mid-scale and budget brands in inspiring and renowned resorts.

Accor Hotels has chosen ten priority fields among twenty-three high-priority categories. Here the buyers are able to bestow significantly by detecting and executing various constructive solutions for the hotel. In the year 2003, Accor had launched its procurement charter in order to engage in the evaluation and execution of the important action plans by the suppliers of Accor. If any supplier fails to meet the listed terms and conditions in the charter, he must inform that to the Accor group so that they could make an agreement (Accor, 2013 pp.-204). Accor also conducts suppliers on a regular basis. Moreover, there are some audits that are mainly carried out on the suppliers only. The supplier audits include onsite audits conducted by the consultants and Online CSR assessments conducted by the EcoVadis. However, in the 2013, the Mariott International has spent about 4 billion dollars with different and diverse suppliers and the number is still growing rapidly. The women-owned enterprises of business makes up approximately 10% of their supply chain.

Accor has been committed for improving the efficiency of energy since its emergence and it has been observed from the annual report of Accor that there was a massive reduction of energy usage in 2013 as compared to the last five years (2006 to 2010). It was reduced by 5.5%. Similarly, the Hilton Hotels Corporation has upgraded their LightStay system that tracks the total energy consumption level and with the same it predicts the influence of performance on the hotel cost. Accor has also targeted the expenditure in the process of hotel maintenance and development as well as the employee and guest behavior. It is working hard to deploy its energy efficiency program. It has also installed several renewable facilities as well (Accor, 2013 pp.-72). By 2015, this hotel industry has reduced the use of carbon and energy emission by ten percent and it is still dedicated enough to deploy the program in order to modify the management of energy in its hotels.

This hotel industry is encouraging its guests in order to use the transportation solutions that are environment friendly and gentle. There are few Accor brands, which offers free of cost shuttle buses and bicycles to the customers when they are close to the airports. Nearly 80 hotels under Accor are well equipped with rejuvenating stations for their customers or guests (Accor, 2013 pp.-73). For instance, there are 11 Suite Novotels in France, which offers free use of EV to their guests. According to the charter, the rules for the construction of new hotels recommends that there must be cycle ways in each construction project and also there must me the availability of pedestrian paths for the public transportation and cars and cycle parking space in the hotels.

Environmental Management of Accor Hotels

Hotels in U.K produces 289,700 tons of wastes each year and 79,000 tones of that consist of food wastes (Tuppen et al., 2017). There are twelve types of wastes, mentioned in the charter 21. Near about 2.3 million of wastes are produced by the Accor every year and above two-third of the entire waste consists of concrete, wood, furniture and non-hazardous wastes gathered from the construction projects which is much more than the Best Western. Best Western produces 2.3 million of wastes. The wastes collected due to the preparation and extraction of fuel constitutes three-fourth part of the total wastes (Accor, 2013 pp.-79-81). Accor recovers and recycles the most problematic wastes like the paper and cardboards, plastic packages, fluorescent tube lights and bulbs, batteries, organic foodservice wastes, glass bottles etc.

The main role of the facility managers are to control, coordinate and organize the strategic management (Barker, 2013) and also the operational management of the hotel so that to ensure an efficient operation of all the physical aspects of the hotel. They deal with the different contractors and suppliers for carrying out upgrades and maintenance and also to provide various services such as security, cleaning and maintenance of the hotel property (Barrett & Finch, 2013). Therefore, to make the business more efficient and effective, the facility managers should explore new emerging techniques and technologies to develop various different metrics and data to measure the outcomes and performance (Cole & Kelly, 2015). For instance, in hotel like McQuarries, they use a trending technology of cloud computing and online technology as well.  This can be adapted by the Accor since it in turn will save cost due to low investment (Buhalis and Crotts 2013). The facility manager should also be every clear about the main objectives of the business.

The Accor offers the largest portfolios of brands encompassing widely acclaimed luxury brand to the popular mid-scale as well as budget brands in its renowned resorts. It has a list of more than 20 brands to meet the needs and desires of its guests. Its brands ranges from the luxury hotels like the Raffles and Banyan to the budget friendly brands like the Ibis and Novotel. It also provides residence to several places such as at the Praslin in Seychelles and Makati in Philippines. They serve as a private home where one can return to time after time. Apart from theses, numerous hotels like the Raffles Singapore, Raffles Istanbul, Raffles Hainan, Raffles Dubai and Raffles Makkah Palace that are considered as the best place to meet. These are the essential stoppage for the travelers for business, events and social galas. Whether it is a board meeting, or a car launch, a team building game at the beach or a striking gala dinner at a historic temple ruin, each element of a meeting and event is carefully considered at Raffles. However, the Ibis budget is the budget brand under AccorHotels. These are the smartest, casual, contemporary and friendly hotels with less space than that of like Raffles. They offer great service at a dream price. The cotemporary rooms are for those guests who desire to get the most of their money.  

Procurement

Technology is rapidly advancing in the modern days and this in turn is changing the needs and expectation of the customers of every sectors. The way in which the hotels all over the world, conducts its business is also getting influenced by the advanced technologies. However, the adequacy of the technological platforms in the hotel industry could be assessed by having a look at the various trends present in the hotel industry such as Wi-Fi infrastructure, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, digital conference facilities, mobile communication and automation  (Levitt, 2013), robots & infrared sensors, cloud services, smart room key, converged LANs and entertainment on tap. For instance, McQuarrie offers various services like golf, event catering, spa and health facilities to their customers to satisfy them. Similarly, in IHG hotels, spa coupons and massage coupons are offered to the customers.

The major competitors of Accor such as, the Starwood and Cendant Corporation etc use their forecasts as well. This is absent in Accor. With the same, as Accor caters all the segments, the customers of the hotel finds it difficult to consider Accor as a brand.

The customers of the hotel industry are incorporated with customers from different segments. As business travelers are also a part of the customer segments of the hotel, there are numerous services that Accor could provide them. Business travelers often visit hotels in order to attend some sort of meetings or conference in the city (Stipanuk, 2006). They could be more attracted to the hotels if there will be availability of cyber space along with free Wi-Fi facility in the rooms, where they can do their work sitting in their own place. Also, the interior of the hotel rooms could be designed accordingly. For example, there is availability of study rooms in the Mariott International hotel rooms. With the same, setting up of meeting rooms and conference halls for the convenience of the customers in their new hotels will attract them more often (Hassanien & Dale, 2013). Bookings made online are easy to track and keep a record of. Furthermore, Accor can also build amenities such as nightclubs or lounge areas as a part of their property in order attract more and more guests.

Accor’s expenditure on the renovation and maintenance of its property has experienced a major down fall in the year 2013. In the year 2012, this hotel industry has spent a sum amount of 39 million dollars on the maintenance and development of each of its hotels, which has decreased to 27 million dollars in the year 2013 (Accor, 2013 pp.-266).

Development expenditure consists of expenditure on plant, property, equipments and working capital (Mill, 2012). In 2013, Accor has spent a total of 217 million dollars after the accession of the Posadas’ hotel network group in South America and 193 million dollars after the Mirvac acquisition. It has also spent 21 million dollars on the deposit related to the Sofitel Los Angeles.

In the year 2012, property, plant and equipment of freshly gained companies equate primarily to the hotels that are owned by the Mirvac Group, for near about 51 million dollars and Grupo Posadas’ South American hotel network, for 23 million dollars. In the year 2013, the 59 million dollars in property, plant and equipment of latest acquired companies relates to the allocation of the purchase price of Grupo Posadas’ hotel network in South America acquired in 2012 for 54 million dollars and to the purchase of additional ibis Colombia shares for 5 million dollars. Capital expenditure in 2012 includes refurbishment work for 256 million dollars, for the most part in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as 212 million dollars for new buildings, of which 25 million dollars for the exercise of call options in Poland (Accor, 2013 pp.-233).

Fig. 1 figures at cost

Fig. 2 figures at impairment and depreciation losses

Fig. 3 Net figures on property, plant and equipment

Fig. 4 Net carrying expenditure at the end of the period

Mariott International offers high numbers of coupons to their customers. In current days, it is running a total of six active coupons, promo codes and discounts that are redeemable on the website mariott.com whereas Accor hotels do not have any coupons. There are military discounts offered by the Mariott, which is unavailable in the Accor brands.

Conclusion

The evaluation of the annual report of Accor has given much helpful information related to the condition of the Accor hotels in the year 2013. However, it is important for very organization to think about the necessary changes that could be implemented in order to develop its business. From the above discussion, it could be said that the issues that are faced by the hospital management in 2013 was hitting both its economic as well as organizational background.

References

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