Michael Issenberg, chairman and COO Accor Asia-Pacific
FOLLOWING the official acquisition of FRHI Hotels & Resorts made known last week, AccorHotels is now working on an integrated hotel loyalty programme.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at a media luncheon hosted at the Raffles Hotel last Friday, Michael Issenberg, chairman and COO Accor Asia-Pacific, said: “We are working on the loyalty programmes now and we will ultimately have a combined programme.
“For instance, we know that the Fairmont loyalty program is more recognition based than point based. So that’s what we are studying now and we will (eventually) make sure our customers get what they need,” he elaborated.
While the acquisition now makes the upscale and mid-market operator now a key luxury hotel player, Issenberg emphasised that rebranding the hotels “is not part of the plan”.
He said: “On one hand it is important to have a common background for the brand but it is also very important for them to be distinct like we have the Fairmont and Raffles (names) which is all about the individual brand and we want to respect that.
“Perhaps we may do a bit of tweaking for one or two hotels but it is to ensure that they stay relevant and not about rebranding,” he added.
When asked about the potential job cuts with the generation of 65 million euros (US$72 million) in “revenue and cost synergies” with the integration, Issenberg said: “We announced this (figure) as part of the transaction and we are confident of achieving that, and synergies do mean job reductions.”
Issenberg said he was unable to comment further on the specifics of the downsizing due to its sensitive nature, but added that Accor will be finalising this over the next few months.
