Olivier Bon, Co-Founder of Experimental Group, Dan Cebula, Founder & CEO of DEPUR Expériences and Stéphane Manigold, President of Groupe Eclore and UMIH Restauration IDF share the challenges they have encountered in the face of changes in the sector during the Hospitality Operator Forum.

Olivier Bon, Co-Founder of Experimental Group “[Clients] travel a lot and have access to a lot of things”

Experimental Group is a fairly young hotel group, our first hotel is just 8 years old. It was initially a restaurant group. We opened cocktail bars around the world, and restaurants. We are present in 7 countries. We started out with a love of good food and that's what has fuelled our DNA of always having great decor and great food as well as great service and a unique atmosphere. In the countries where we set up shop, we took inspiration from the style of the destinations we were in rather than trying simply to duplicate a set style.

When we started in the hotel business, we didn't have the ambition to revolutionise nights - they were already very well honed. So, we brought a lot of services. It was our pre-existing experience in F&B that allowed us to bring in many new things. For example, we worked on the mini-bar in the rooms by eliminating the mass consumption products that customers were used to seeing. We also worked on a different coffee offer. We have worked on details that make our hotel rooms better than the rest of what was on offer on our 4- and 5-star categories.

Fifteen years ago, when we chose our name Experimental Group; we had no idea how on-trend this would become as everyone now travels for an increasingly unique experience.

The central role of F&B

We were not the first to work on this subject, but our experience in F&B has meant that we have always brought a lot of F&B into our hotels. One of my mentors in the hotel business, André Balazs, used to say that to make a successful hotel you have...

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