Sébastien Bazin, president and CEO of French hotel firm Accor, will not renew his current contract and will leave the global brand company within the next two years.
Bazin made the announcement to shareholders at Accor's annual general meeting Wednesday that he would leave in May 2028 or earlier if a suitable replacement is found. Accor confirmed Bazin's decision to CoStar News Hotels.
Before starting this role in August 2013, Bazin was managing director for Europe at Colony Capital, one of Accor’s largest shareholders. He had a place on Accor’s board and was critical of its then management.
Upon taking the top role at Accor, Bazin quickly moved to make Accor asset-light. He helped spin off AccorInvest, now Essendi, to offload the company's hotels, including a 55% sale of owned properties for €4.4 billion in 2018.
At the time, Bazin said Accor would keep the largest single percentage of hotels, which would be capped at 30%, and thus retain voting rights.
Last month, Accor signed a memorandum of understanding with Essendi, along with partner Blackstone, to divest its existing 30.56% stake for up to €975 million. Accor receive €675 million upon closing and an earnout of up to €300 million, and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
Among other notable deals during Bazin's tenure, in 2016 Accor acquired FRHI Holdings for $2.9 billion, which included brands Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Raffles Hotels & Resorts and Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts. Bazin told CoStar News Hotels at the time that his excitement about the deal prompted him to ride his bicycle at 3 a.m. around London’s Hyde Park.
Then, in 2018, Accor acquired Swiss brand Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts for 560 million Swiss francs ($712 million).
There have been missteps such as the decision to open its distribution to independent, non-Accor hotels, part of Bazin’s plan to make Accor hotels part of thriving communities, not just as standalone accommodation options.
When Bazin started as CEO in 2013, Accor had 14 hotel brands and approximately 3,600 hotels. Today, it has 44 hotel brands and 5,836 hotels and 881,427 rooms in 110 countries. Its hotel development pipeline stands at 1,527 hotels and 257,134 rooms.
Since January 2023, Accor's brands and hotels have been placed into two distinct divisions: premium, midscale and economy, and luxury and lifestyle.
In the first quarter, Accor reported hotel occupancy increased by 1% year over year to 61.5%, average daily rate increased by 3.4% to €112 and revenue per available room increased by 5.1% to €69. Accor's revenue increased in constant currency by 2.3% to €1.31 billion, and its current market capitalization stands at €11.3 billion.
As of press time, Accor’s stock was trading on the Euronext Stock Exchange at €46.43 per share, roughly flat year over year. Euronext was down 2.1% over the same period.