Accor, InterGlobe look to inject ‘audacity, vision’ into their hospitality ties, eye 300 hotels by 2030

The two companies are setting up a new entity to jointly operate a hotel franchise business, which includes a fresh loyalty programme and a third partner—Treebo Hotels. The new business aims to have a portfolio of 300 hotels under Accor's brands by 2030, which would be developed by Treebo under a master licence agreement. Both Rahul Bhatia, group managing director of InterGlobe Enterprises, and Sébastien Bazin, chairman and CEO of Accor, spoke to Mint about the reset.

New structure aims to revive growth

The new entity will integrate InterGlobe Hotels and the upcoming entity, creating a single structure to manage the growth of Accor’s budget and mid-market brands in India like Ibis and Mercure. It expects to have 30,000 rooms by 2030. In parallel, the companies are creating a joint loyalty programme where hotel customers can use their points for flight bookings and vice-versa—blending Accor’s travel ecosystem with InterGlobe’s aviation presence.

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Bazin said that the new partnership framework had emerged from a desire to inject “audacity, mission and vision" into a relationship that had grown sluggish. “We were missing audacity, mission and vision till last year. Rahul and I decided we wanted to do something more with this business. We have unshuffled ourselves and have the right skeleton now: IndiGo, Ibis and Treebo and are doing something larger with it," Bazin told Mint.

Bhatia, who in June 2024 offloaded a 2% stake in InterGlobe Aviation for ₹3,360 crore to fuel his group’s hospitality and emerging businesses, said that he would not be making additional investments in hotels for now. “Miiro (our international hotel ownership company) is doing extremely well and we are satisfied. For the Accor partnership, we also have the capital to grow it to our ambition. We don't see any more investments in the short term," he said.

InterGlobe is also rolling out about a dozen Miiro-branded hotels in Europe and other parts of the world. Bhatia did not rule out the possibility of Miiro becoming part of the global Accor system, saying, “We have a fantastic relationship together. Will we have Miiro integrating into this larger relationship? Time will tell."

Accor expands India footprint with new brands

The French hotel group currently operates 71 hotels in India, including 30 in partnership with InterGlobe. Of these, 25 are Ibis hotels, with around 4,600 rooms. Accor also has 40 new hotels in its development pipeline. The entity’s expansion aims to capitalise on a fragmented market and rising domestic and outbound travel demand.

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In 2024, Bazin acknowledged that their joint venture InterGlobe Hotels—set up in 2004 to tap into India’s budget travel segment—had fallen short of expectations. “Together, both of us did not succeed," he had earlier told Mint. While Accor rapidly expanded Ibis in China, its India play lagged. “India could support 500 such hotels," he said.

InterGlobe Hotels Private Limited reported an operating revenue of ₹545.6 crore in FY24, up 20.7% year-on-year. It turned a profit of ₹2.9 crore, reversing a loss of ₹8.9 crore the year prior, but continues to carry a ₹737.5 crore accumulated loss from previous years, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies accessed via business intelligence platform, Tofler.

Accor, meanwhile, is ramping up its India portfolio. The company this week launched a new 440-room Fairmont Hotel in Mumbai. In the same complex, it plans to open a Morgan Originals property with about 110 rooms. Bazin also confirmed that three or four new Accor brands, including Morgan Originals, Ennismore, the Handwritten Collection and MGallery, are expected to enter the Indian market soon. "We are going to add more brands. There will be an enormous display of Ennismore and the Handwritten Collection and MGallery Collection," he added.

Mint reported this recently as well that more than half a dozen companies were bringing new hotel brands to India.

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Treebo, founded in 2015 by IIT Roorkee alumni Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary and Kadam Jeet Jain, was originally called Zipotel. Its integration into the new entity being created by InterGlobe Hotels and Accor is expected to play a key role in Accor’s expansion into smaller cities and India’s unorganised hotel segment.