
From the opening of the Logis network to new forms of accommodations to the "réservation équitable" (fair booking) with a new quality reference point and a new communications strategy, Hospitality-On takes a look at the most noteworthy announcements together with Thierry Amirault, President of the Fédération Internationale des Logis who was recently re-elected, and Krystel Blondeau, its Managing Director.
What are the main axes of your new 3-year strategy?
Thierry Amirault: Named Plaisirologis 2017, the three-year strategy was revealed in the Board meeting this week and for the first time, Logis's 2,400 hoteliers were able to discover it first-hand via Internet. It is organized around three axes: "réservation équitable" (fair booking), the quality standard, that will be completely revised and more focused on desires and plaisirologis, and the opening of other forms of accommodations. The latter is strategic for us and allows us to take back market shares while pleasing our customers. We also revealed our three-year communication plan, during which we will once again be present on television and other communication axes to give us visibility among our clients and hoteliers.
Krystel Blondeau: In terms of communications, we recommit ourselves to three years in the key media with a fairly large budget. We will encourage televised media and the Web, which is a must today, in order to highlight our new signature, "Welcome to Plaisirologis". A three film saga will kick off the year 2015 and we will launch new digital tools: applications for smartphones and tablets at the end of December, and a desktop site at the end of March 2015.
You present yourself as a "réservation équitable" (fair booking) player. What does that mean?
Thierry Amirault: We have registered the "réservation équitable" logo, which belongs to us today. It will be made available to hoteliers to whom we offer a booking "button" for their own site that is the least expensive on the market (our commission is 2%) and will allow reservations to be made securely and directly online. We also have a more functional button with Logis Premium and we will offer Logis Table starting from January, a reservation system for restaurants with 0% commission. We also offer the least expensive reservation for the general public, at 6%, and gift checks. The latter work well and have a 0% commission. Overall, all elements combined, the contribution to Logis's activities and advertising do not surpass 8-9% of turnover, versus more than 15% today through OTAs. Finally, our loyalty program, launched January 1, 2013 with 13,000 participants , is now up to 90,000 members and generates 110 million euros in turnover. 1.6 million in turnover is also fed back into the network through loyalty checks, it is a good product compared to the cost it represents.
Logis announced it will open to new types of accommodations, why this choice?
Krystel Blondeau: I must first mention that this is already happening in the supply: some of our properties have already elected to diversify to meet the new expectations of customers, who are looking for more freedom while benefiting from professional hotel services. Moreover, the context has been disrupted with the rise of Internet, which upsets habits in terms of clients and commercialization of properties. It is no longer enough to be a good restaurant and hotelier for it to work, you now must be connected to the right partners and have good tools to organize advertising. We have seen a nearly monopolistic takeover of the market by OTAs that has chipped away at the margins of each hotelier. Online agencies are also vacancy vacuums. It is thus necessary to fight back with one's own arms. Finally, the market has also observed the rise of what we call ProAms, or professional amateurs that are actually individuals that advertise accommodations that are competitive with the hotel industry, through fairly powerful sites, without being confronted with the same tax and safety regulations, among others.
In this context, we must resist and counter-attack in order to battle these underlying trends that are probably irreversible, and to regain market shares from a clientele that the hotel industry has lost. Today, the hotel industry covers about one seventh of customers' needs while the other six-sevenths are in front of us. In particular they concern families and groups of friends looking for more freedom and conviviality without the domestic constraints, and thus they need hotel service. Our consideration was thus to tell ourselves that our properties corresponded to these values, but not only. Other types of accommodations, traditional or original, ephemeral or perennial, meet this need. In light of these two types of accommodations, our strategy is to become the referent of the hotel industry and of "personalized quality" accommodations in Europe. This means offering a different kind of stay and experience on the Logis portal where quality will be guaranteed, and by giving a choice between hotels, bed and breakfasts, holiday cottages and cabins in the trees. Becoming the referent means stimulating the customer's reflex to come to us for this type of stay and not just think through OTAs.
What are the criteria must these new accommodations meet to enter your network?
Thierry Amirault: These new accommodations must be truly professional. They must be registered with the commercial register, offer a "hotel service" and a real desire to advertise and communicate, using Logis's tools. On the other hand we remain completely closed to bed and breakfast models, non-professional renters, campgrounds and vacation clubs. As far as F&B is concerned, we have considered opening to restaurants, but have not done so yet, although we are not opposed to it in the future.
You are launching a new Quality standard; what are your goals in terms of customer experience?
Krystel Blondeau: This standard will take the customer experience more into account together with the "Pluses" of each of our properties. With 2,400 properties throughout Europe, we have a real gold mine with a personality and personalization of the places and people expressed through the "Pluses" as well as sometimes surprising ideas that stimulate the desire to discover and book. All these "Pluses" have been promoted through new referencing that serves the Plaisirologis concept.
Thierry Amirault: Plaisirologis will also allow properties that have earned Chimneys or Casseroles to promote the "Pluses" of their property, which may include cooking classes, discoveries, mushroom gathering, snail farms or promenades in horse-drawn carriages. These are all assets for advertising and communications and that's what Plaisirologis is about. The people at these properties must become Plaisirologues (Pleasure-ologists).
Krystel Blondeau: Customer opinions will also be integrated into the reference, because today these are important for customers making decisions. This dimension will be integrated because things change and we cannot ignore it.
What does this quality strategy mean for F&B?
Krystel Bondeau: the first step in terms of Quality that we have already changed in our top F&B references are our "Tables Distinguées" and "Espoirs". Until now the classification was based on references in well-known restaurant guidebooks, and we wanted to regain control over the ranking of our restaurants because we are well-positioned to do so. F&B is one of the strengths of our reputation thanks to the quality of our restaurants and restaurant owners. We implemented it this year and the list of "Tables Distinguées" was revealed at our General Meeting. The principle is simple: our properties that voluntarily strive for excellence have been visited by nine well-known gastronomic experts who designated those that deserved the "Tables Distinguées" or "Espoir" distinction, depending on their experience and the qualification chart established beforehand.
Thierry Amirault : Results were revealed during our General Meeting: among the 103 properties that presented themselves we recognized 58 "Tables Distinguées" and 17 "Espoirs".
What is the logic behind your new strategy?
Thierry Amirault: We are reconquering the market within a difficult economy where we are attacked from all sides, particularly by OTAs or listings that have redirected our clientele. Thus it was necessary to attract consumers again and that is what we have done with this strategic three-year plan. As far as communications and commercialization of properties is concerned, we are also advancing in our Internet referencing. We have already worked on all the POI (points of interest) and all the communities where we are present so that our network has hotels just about everywhere, that they are high on the list of search results and allow easy reservations for our customers. µOur new Internet tools, which will be implemented quickly, allow us to continue in this direction. Equitable booking also improves the possibility for clients to reserve quickly, by telephone or on their smartphone. All this is coherent with our desire to be the European reference for personalized, quality accommodations.
