Accor to Build Global Ecosystem for Direct Meetings, Event Booking

French hospitality giant Accor announced this week it is building its own meetings and event ecosystem to support sourcing and booking activities. The company said the new platform aims to unite more than 5,600 Accor hotels around the world and will host an inventory of 2.5 million square meters of event space as well as more than 800,000 guest rooms.

The vision is to provide a self-service option for clients to view and book event space, guest rooms and catering services—and the direct booking system will also integrate with Accor’s loyalty program ALL Accor. Version one of the platform will be available by late 2025 to sales teams connected to Salesforce and will offer online booking for small, accommodations-only groups for up to 30 guest rooms. Version two, which will provide more robust access to and booking for meeting room and event space and larger guest room blocks, as well as “connectivity to external channels” will come online in 2026, according to Accor.

Accor is working with platform technologist MeetingPackage as the “backbone” of the system, but will also be developed in collaboration with other technology providers, including Oracle OPERA Cloud Sales and Event Management, Backyou, iVvy and Amadeus Delphi. Enabling integration with all of these providers will enable MeetingPackage and external third party channels across Accor’s global portfolio that includes Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel, MGallery, Pullman, Mövenpick, Novotel, Mercure, and Ibis as well as lifestyle brands like The Hoxton, Mama Shelter, SLS, and SO/ through Ennismore.

“Through this new digital Meetings & Events ecosystem, Accor’s entire event inventory will become more visible, accessible and appealing,” said Accor chief sales and revenue officer Julien Houdebine in a statement. “This digital transformation aligns with recent research from Accor highlighting that in-person meetings are more valued than ever.”

Accor cited Allied Market Research projecting the overall value of the business travel industry is forecasted to reach US$2 trillion by 2028 and Global Business Travel Association research that pegged global business travel expenditures at US$1.4 trillion in 2026.

Accor’s strategy looks to achieve more than capture market share and is another move by a hospitality company to bring corporate business into direct booking status—disintermediating platforms like Cvent and other third parties that provide meetings marketplaces and management tools for enterprises. Participation in such distribution and marketplace systems is expensive. Bringing meeting and event bookings directly to Accor reduces exposure to that channel cost, if the platform—and marketing—proves robust enough to attract and keep the business.

Houdebine also underscored that the meetings ecosystem and eventual direct booking program would integrate with the ALL Accor loyalty program, which is a proven lever in getting transient bookings into direct channels.

Marriott has done similar work and technology platforming for transient business travel, looking to attract more direct bookings ostensibly targeting the small and midsize business travel market with its Bonvoy Business Access program. It will be interesting to watch at what market segment Accor aims its new platform—to large enterprises or to the fragmented meetings landscape that isn’t broadly managed with enterprise tools. Whether Accor will look to provide some data capture and management reporting tools as part of the platform could be key to its success.