"Our goal was to relocate a hospitality group to the heart of these cities"

Gogaille is a brand we created 3 years ago. Gogaille is old French, and it means to spend a warm and friendly moment all together. We are developing this project on a very specific market. After already hearing about capitals and big cities this morning, we are now going to change our focus because we deal with intermediate sized cities, prefectures and sub-prefectures in France. Potentially we will duplicate this model in a few years across Europe.

De-structuring the hotel industry

We started with a market observation: for the past 40 years, the hotel industry has been on the periphery. Hotel groups and brands are tending to desert city centres and move to the outskirts, with a majority of new buildings being in retail parks. At the same time, city centres are emptying out with a few small retailers remaining, but they are in the minority.

Our goal was to re-establish a hospitality group in the heart of these cities. A large part of our business is in F&B&E, and not just simply in accommodation.

Forty years ago, when you stayed in a hotel, you had a key that gave you access to a room with a flat screen and a coffee machine for an upmarket experience. Private stock has now caught up with this experience, notably thanks to home improvement shops. Just look at the accommodation available on Airbnb for example. The private room that one can rent on a platform has caught up with the basic product that the hotel industry used to provide.

If this is the phenomenon that we see nowadays, we started our deliberation by asking ourselves: “how can we remain a professional in the hospitality sector? Why is it that when I go to a restaurant, what I eat is better than at home...