AccorHotels on how to Challenge Airbnb on Internet Technology in Accommodation Facilities

Topic

AccorHotels on how to Challenge Airbnb on Internet Technology in Accommodation Facilities

Instructions

AccorHotels is a multinational hotel group founded in 1967 and now operates 4,300 hotels under 20 brands in 100 countries. The hotels owned and operated by AccorHotels encompass services ranging from budget and economy lodgings (e.g., ibis, Mercure) to luxury and upscale hotels (e.g., Grand Mercure, Fairmount Hotels & Resorts).

The hotel group, particularly its economy brands, recently identifies a major issue that challenges its market share due to the rapid expansion of the new model of hospitality service provided by Airbnb. Airbnb harnesses the advancement in and prevalence of the Internet technology to rapidly expand its accommodation marketplace offers to 191 countries. It provides a wide variety of accommodation choices including but not limited to apartments, villas, castles, threehouses, and B&B often at a competitive price. In the meantime, along with its rapid expansion, Airbnb is also gaining negative publicity due to concerns about its impacts on local communities and guest safety.

Faced with this growing challenge from Airbnb, the executive team of AccorHotels decides to conduct research to inform its decision relating to developing a strategy that taps into the values its guests are looking for that distinguishes AccorHotels from Airbnb and convince them to continue using AccorHotels’ service. In this assignment, you will play an assumed role as a researcher hired by the hotel group to conduct research and collect information needed to assist with the decision-making process. Before the commencement of data collection, you are to develop a research proposal to communicate to the executive team what is to be attained from the research and how.

Answer preview

AccorHotels has been tremendously growing since its inception in 1967.The Chain of hotels is a multinational that operates 4300 hotel facilities in 20 brands throughout its countries of operations. AccorHotels offers both luxury and economy classes of packages to accommodate all its customers. As the hotel grows, provision of first class service remains the most anticipated objective irrespective of the class (Inversini and Masiero, 2014).  However, the hotels has fiercely received competition from its rival Airbnb which has threatened to reduce the AccorHotels market share. Airbnb has exhaustively invested in internet technology to expand its accommodation services (Farnsworth, 2018).

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