Interview by Rosanna Caira
Recently, Hotelier had the opportunity to interview Omer Acar, the new CEO of Raffles and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts at Accor’s new corporate headquarters in New York, where he spoke of the company’s new brand vision and its focus on growing the Accor brands in North America.
Hotelier: In recent months, Accor has made changes with the Fairmont and Raffles brands both in Canada and internationally. In Canada, for example, last year, Heather McCrory, former CEO retired, and more recently, COO Sara Glenn also left. The company also added offices in Dubai. Earlier this year, you replaced Mark Willis, who was previously CEO, and Accor now has a new corporate office in New York as well as in Dubai. How have all those changes affected the company?
Omer Acar: First, we need to define what change means. When you say change, people are not afraid of change; people are afraid of instability. Changes are a part of our DNA and lifestyle. It may become a negative when it creates uncertainty. In that aspect, Fairmont as a brand existed so many years. One thing we can rely on is the stability of the brand and what it stands for. Whether we have an office here or there, and I can give you many examples of brands where executives move from city to city, I would consider the change not on the brand, but on the location of the leadership. We understand there is a strong DNA of what Fairmont stands for and that DNA has been created in Canada. And itʼs important for Fairmont to keep that DNA. That’s why we are keeping our Toronto office with all the team members. Actually, we just hired one more person recently so the recruitment continues.
Hotelier: How different or similar are the Fairmont and Raffles brands?
OA: Raffles and Fairmont have been cousins for many years. Being together complements not competes the offering of Raffles and Fairmont. Obviously, Fairmont is a larger scale hotel, we are the connector because our new vision is all about how we make you feel special. Itʼs going to be part of our brand campaign.
That is easy to say to any of our employees and colleagues or team members. “What did you do today to make someone feel special?” Special itself doesn’t sound [significant] alone but itʼs a very special word when you define what we actually do in hospitality to make you feel special. And if we can achieve that, it’s fantastic. It feels good when you receive it. It also feels good when you remember it after years and then when the memories come, the emotion that you felt comes back.
Hotelier: It’s long lasting.
OA: Exactly. It’s similar in retail; it’s about which retailer sells the dream or as I like to say executes the dream. When retailers sell the dream, you buy something. After you wear it 10, 20, 50 100 times, it still has a value but you go for a new one, but the emotion and the feeling when you remember, it still gives you the same impact.
In that aspect, whether we are in Paris or New York ─— yes it’s important to be in North America because, we are closer to our properties, and our owners and developers — but there are also more opportunities for us in North and Central America to grow both brands. And so as much as it is about Raffles and Fairmont, it’s about the Accor footprint in North and Central America. That’s why we have this office on Fifth Avenue — to be able to show boots on the ground; we are here. And we are delivering value to our developers.
Hotelier: Previously, Accor did not have a strong footprint in North America with most of its brands. This is really strategic for you in that respect?
OA: Yes, but it’s not limited to Raffles and Fairmont, but all our brands. This is possible, of course, in New York City. And we have many team members here from Accor. We have team members from global sales, marketing, global development. Our colleagues are not only focusing on two brands, there’s a wider scope.
Hotelier: When I look at your plans for the future, it seems that more of the focus is on international growth for Fairmont, as opposed to North American. Is that the case?
OA: I think it’s balanced. I mean, define North America. Do we want to be in Miami? There are so many cities in the U.S. And when we say North America, I include Canada, but U.S. also, are we in every city that we should be operating in.
Because of interest rates, the costs to raise new projects are costlier. What is good about Fairmont is that the residential component helps that development be more lucrative for a developer; it makes very good sense for us because Accor is the Number-2 residential operator in the world with that scale. And this is something that will give developers more opportunities.
We are looking at more ski resorts in the U.S. and we are looking at different key cities. It is important, but I wouldn’t [define] it less or more; it’s as important as growing our footprint in Central America and South America, in North America but in the rest of the world also.
Hotelier: I assume most of the expansion will happen in the U.S rather than in Canada, because in Canada we are more limited due to the size of the country and population.
OA: Yes. And, of course, in Canada, you have a very large footprint by population. Second, we are so far well represented in all the key cities, and sometimes with multiple properties, as we know on the west coast. So, in that aspect, I would not limit ourselves; we will always look at opportunities where we believe we can bring value to that development. It’s not about just opening a hotel. Yes, opening a hotel, but is there a value for that owner, with the right location, and right partnership. As much as it may be different for some developers, [itʼs important] for us to carry that Fairmont spirit. We have a very strong human touch, which is very important to me. Whether it’s an empathy, whether it is a respect …whether it’s to make you feel special.
And empathy is a great one, because empathy is putting yourself into other shoes. And you probably want to consider before acting or saying something, how would the other person will feel. And that’s an important part of it. Yes, we believe in our heritage. We believe in our past. But we also have to deliver the present and the future. Because the question that I say, every morning when I wake up, is what do we do today?
Fairmont is a big flag. People are looking at us with that trust. How do we carry that flag for the next generation? What are we doing today that creates that beautiful story of Fairmont for the next 15 to 20 years so the next generation will continue being proud of the heritage, but also living in the present and the future?
Hotelier: How do you plan to do that?
OA: First of all, we have to make sure that we preserve the culture. Everything starts with our “Heartist” — at Accor, itʼs about our employees who work from the heart. And, that is the key because I can sit here and we can talk about strategy, we can talk about forecasts, we can talk about next year and the year after, but who’s going to deliver that? The team members are going to create that momentum. We need to make sure that we continue feeling proud to work for the Fairmont brand. There’s a lot of focus on the heart of the house. When I visit the properties, I visit the back of the house before the front of the house. I tend to visit first the change room and the [staff] cafeteria.
But as an industry, we probably had to ask ourselves a bigger question post COVID. What is the priority? What is important? And I think we should face that, and we should be honest to ourselves. Some of us did better, some of us not. But we want to continue to be our best — an employer that creates that pride factor being a part of that Fairmont family.
Hotelier: People have always been an important part of the equation for Fairmont. With COVID and post COVID and labour shortages, itʼs got to be a lot harder these days to find those people?
OA: Yes, and to inspire a new generation and to grow hospitality. I’m a passionate hotelier. My background comes from operations. And I love being in the hotel but not everybody’s priorities are the same. And therefore we need to respect that. And we need to address that if we want to continue being a sustainable business and relevant. I call it the power of three, which is, not 1,2,3. It’s a triangle. Our job is to service our GMs and employees. Our job is to service our owners and our job is to service the guests. That’s the most important factor. There are three of them. They can exist, maybe without me, but the culture that it creates, and this tree holds it together because if one falls, [it impacts on everything]. If you don’t have an employee you don’t have a guest. If you don’t have a guest, you don’t have employees. It creates employment. If you don’t have an owner or developer, you don’t have a hotel. They’re all crucially important. But once you build a hotel, again, it’s our corporate office that preserves that culture. It goes from generation to generation and that is very strong at Accor.
We create a Talent and Culture purpose at Accor. We break it down, and the brands are all actually saying the same thing. But that purpose, the heartfelt care that we show to one another, it’s a very emotional soft work. It’s not only about talking about percentages or ratios, we’re talking about creating a culture, and Accor leading that way, not only on Talent and Culture, but also on the Social because when we talk about ESG, we talk about the environment. But we have a full responsibility on Social because one goes with the other, you cannot eliminate that. And giving back to the local communities, engaging with the local communities, respecting your heritage, respecting where you come from — these are all part of our Social. As much as we manage those great hotels those hotels are owned by society. And whether you host a wedding, a Bar Mitzvah, a birthday, they all own part of it. We just have to make sure we are the guardians of that on behalf of our owners, and make sure they are presented in a timeless manner and that they don’t get old, but they are always relevant.
Hotelier: Would you say the way Fairmont operates today has changed through the ownership of Accor?
OA: No. Accor’s vision is on what is important in the hospitality business. And we are not only looking at hotels, we own restaurants, theatres, the Orient Express, a yacht business. We are going to different layers of hospitality. But I’m very proud to say that with every meeting that we have with our head office, it keeps emphasizing that culture. It’s really of prime importance. You cannot ignore it because it’s in our daily jargon. I end up speaking to our Talent and Culture more times a day than I talk to other departments.
Hotelier: Going back to international growth, and your focus on the U.S. with more Fairmonts, how many locations would you’d like to see?
OA: It’s not a number.
What I like to see is every hotel operates very consistently. And, they are well kept, to make sure that we don’t have a wide variety of product out there. Itʼs important that when you walk into a Fairmont Hotel, there are certain expectations. Itʼs our job as a brand to make sure those expectations are met. And that can be through design, that could be efficiencies, that could be technical functionality of the hotel, etc. Our job is to make sure we deliver value to our owners so they can continue to invest. And we continue with that partnership to make sure our hotels
are performing.
Hotelier: Are development decisions being made in New York now for all of North America or in Dubai?
OA:We have developers everywhere in the world. The way it works is our developers are not only serving Raffles or Fairmont, they are serving other brands. And, that is the right thing because you don’t want to have Developer A pitching for Fairmont, Developer B pitching for Raffles; you want to look at that location and [determine] what is the best for the developer for that location and come up with a solution. At the end of the day, when it comes to Raffles and Fairmont, or the opportunities that come to me, we look at it, we analyze it, and we make decisions accordingly.
Hotelier: But Raffles doesn’t exist in North America?
OA: We have one in Boston.
Hotelier: Will there be more Raffles coming on stream?
OA: We are talking about a few opportunities in Central America. Mexico is very important for us for both Fairmont and Raffles; we can handle more Fairmonts. As you know, most of the traffic outbound from North America is to Mexico. We have a good presence with Fairmont. So, how can we deliver value to our developers in Mexico and South America. We are looking at ski resorts in North America. We are looking at beachfront in Miami; we are in advanced discussions with some owners to have new projects.
Hotelier: When you you look at Fairmont and Raffles, what distinguishes those two brands from each other?
OA: Scale. We call Fairmont a connector as a brand. So you come to Fairmont not to be isolated, you want to be there. Fairmont is the place where a city’s heart and soul go on tour. Look at Toronto, you enter that bar anytime of the day, the City of Toronto is there. Raffles is a little bit more of an escape. Fairmont is a very inclusive brand. A lot of our meetings and gatherings happen in Fairmont Hotels, whether it’s a peace conference, hopefully more of them, or celebrations. But on the weekend, Fairmont has a very strong DNA of young ones. Monday through Friday, it’s a place where adults gather in meetings; on the weekends, family members join in. It’s a continuation of that story. We balance the weekday business with the weekend. It fits in our heritage that we love family; we love multi-generational travel.
Hotelier: Would you say that the notion of a luxury brand has changed in the last five years due to the pandemic.
OA: Right after COVID there was an impact of this. But I think in our lifecycle, we will see those mini cycles, you know, we have seen those in times of crisis.
And that will continue. But is there a game changer in the ultra-luxury consumer; they’re obviously looking for more suites, more villa products. We see that demand. But at the end of the day, especially for Fairmont, we have large inventories in the hotels; we cannot only rely on the Suite business, we still have that inventory, we need to make sure that we make the best use of it. So as much as yes, post COVID there was that feeling that [leisure was] growing, now it’s more balanced it; corporate is coming back.
Hotelier: So business travel is growing?
OA: Yes, event buisness is growing.
Hotelier: Do you see more virtual meetings taking place and isn’t that impacting corporate sales?
OA: Whoever I talk to, I ask that question. Just as you and I could be doing this [interview] virtually, right? Is it the same? No, and people understand that. And I think, if you’re in the business of inspiring people, and the only way we can do this is by being face to face, because humans need that touch; that screen takes a lot away.
That’s why convention business is coming back, I mean, the events that I attend, some of them are already back to 2019 numbers. And as much as there’s pent-up demand on the leisure travel; it’s also happening now in corporate travel. It’s so nice to see, especially in our business and if you’re an incentive group, people want to inspire one another and get that energy from human to human and that’s why Fairmont wants to be cutting edge on the event space. We are looking at new ways of inspiring our guests through technology in the events space to make sure we have cutting-edge solutions. If Fairmont is a gathering place and we are a connector and we want to make guests feel special, the only way we can do that is to be ahead of
the game.
Hotelier: Can we talk about rates a little bit? Obviously, since the pandemic, room rates have gone up and customers haven’t really resisted much. Are you starting to see a change now?
OA: We didn’t have enough staffing at the beginning of post pandemic so we were selling a lot of suites and rooms. Rates were high but the volumes were not high. So as the volume is coming back with corporate, the blended rates are going to come down. Leisure rates are not going back to pre-pandemic. The game changer is how you make yourself different from the competitors, by how do I inspire you? You know, we used to have a saying at Fairmont about turning moments into memories. Now we changed that to turning moments into special memories. Because special is what makes you come back. When I connect that special feeling, then you will come back and you will say I want to spend more time here.
Hotelier: Is that part of the brand vision for the company?
OA: Yes, I also feel that we are ambassadors of Canada. When I joined in January, I wanted to learn and understand and continue to make Fairmont timeless – not fashionable because fashion changes but style remains. I want Fairmont to be stylish. I involved our general managers in this [vision]. They came here and we built it together. I brought Edwin [Frizzell] from Toronto, Jens [Moesker] from Vancouver because he has a very interesting portfolio. The idea was to see their perspectives and they were very crucial players in this journey. After three months of listening to everybody, and being in Dubai three times and being in Toronto three times, spending time talking to individuals, this is what I believe and the team believes…We value connections….
We have a culture to preserve. And that’s the biggest asset we have. What makes the brand is not the property, it’s the soul —
the people.
Hotelier: What do you see as the greatest change moving forward?
OA: My personal perception on this is [we need to be] more value driven and personalized. The bar keeps getting raised. We need to give our guest and our employees meaningful moments they can take away. One solution fits all [is gone]. You need to recognize and understand inclusivity and diversity. And that’s going to take it to the next level.
For example, it’s not just having a Kid’s Club. It’s what activities do you do in that kids’ club. It’s also how they educate the little ones so the parents are proud when they take that time off. The kids, the little ones are well looked after but they’re also being inspired and educated instead of putting them in front of a movie screen. We are eliminating those. We are seeing more art classes, more social responsibility, more environmental responsibility. If you’re a beach resort, can we go and rescue some of the reef. And, if you are in nature, what can we do to better understand it? It’s about taking it to the next level. You know, as a father, I sometimes feel guilty if the kids are on electronics. We want to make sure they have something they can take home as a memory — not just watching a movie in our amazing destinations, but combining that local culture and local fabric into their experience.
Great interview!