Guest Column: Accor looks to the future

By Simon McGrath, Accor’s Vice President, Australia.

It was a very significant week for Accor when we announced our pioneering “Optimum Service Standards” programmes for the China and India inbound markets to Australia.

Firstly, ATE was being held in Sydney, and with a stagnant inbound market for the past three years, the market was looking for new initiatives to help offset the potentially damaging rise in the Australian currency.

And, secondly, the launch of our programmes coincided with the announcement by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that – for the first time ever – China had topped the monthly inbound statistics.

The ABS revealed a 30% jump in arrivals from China in February 2011 (compared to February 2010).

The 77,000 arrivals topped the numbers from traditional inbound leaders New Zealand, the UK and USA, and while the figures were inflated by Chinese New Year falling in February, they followed an equally dynamic January, when some 10,000 Amway incentive winners came to Sydney.

Indian numbers have also continued to surge and growth is forecast to be around 10% annually, though Accor hotels have recorded rises in excess of 20% for the past few years.

A reflection of the changing times can be found in the fall to 5th place by the Japanese inbound market, with a 12.5% drop in February to just 33,500 visitors.

The industry should not be too surprised by these trends because the rise in Chinese and Indian visitation has been in evidence for the past decade.

In fact, Accor has been working on its Optimum Service Standards for a couple of years now, but while some individual hotels have upgraded services and facilities for the China and India markets, no group has launched a fully accredited programme like Accor’s Optimum Service Standards.

The key to the programme is external accreditation from expert bodies in the China and India communities.

The process has to be long term and not tokenistic. There is little point putting in systems without training all staff about cultural specifics of Chinese and Indian travelers.

We are commencing training in May and hope to have up to 20 hotels fully accredited by the end of July.

So what will the Optimum Service Standards involve?

They will include particular foods on the menus and as part of the breakfast buffet, Chinese and Indian-speaking reception staff, Chinese/Indian TV channels and media, concierge assistance and other services.

While not radical measures, there will be a comprehensive checklist of inclusions that hotels will have to put in place before they get accredited.

And once accreditation is granted, there will be constant reviews to ensure that services are maintained at the highest levels. In fact, if a hotel fails to maintain specific services for Chinese and Indian guests we will consider taking away their accreditation.

We have put together full manuals for the programme with items that are mandated, recommended or optional, which allows the hotels some degree of flexibility, while always ensuring a base level of service around the clock.

Fortunately, our hotels already have a large number of Indian and Chinese language speakers, so we will be able to harness their skills and experience in the programme.

Such programmes were introduced for the Japanese industry in the 1980s, but for some reason the industry has not been as pro-active with the Chinese and Indian markets.

There are still many false perceptions about the Chinese and Indian inbound markets, so we thought it important to address the issue from two fronts.

Firstly, by ensuring that our guests from China and India have access to services such as food and communications that will help ensure they feel comfortable and remain well-connected with their homeland.

But secondly, we saw it as very important to provide ALL our frontline staff in key hotels with a better understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Indian cultural specifics.

This was done with the Japanese market in the 1980s and has been long overdue for both the Chinese and Indian inbound markets.

These markets have changed significantly in recent years. For instance, we are now seeing many high-level incentive groups coming to Australia.

The 10,000 Amway representatives from China stayed only in upscale accommodation during their visit to Sydney and enjoyed the crème de la crème of restaurants, entertainment and attractions.

Our introduction of the new standards coincides with Accor’s massive expansion across China and India.

We opened our 100th hotel in China recently and all our brands are featured across the country, so Chinese travellers now feel very comfortable with our brands.

Our expansion in India is also gathering force and these two countries are priorities for our future growth in the Asia Pacific region, so it is imperative that we are well prepared to handle the requirements of both first time and repeat visitors from China and India.