French hotel investor and asset manager Atypio has its sights set on expanding its portfolio across Europe as well as its heartland in France, in partnership with Accor.
That is according to Matthew McGrath, investment director at Atypio Hotels, who said that while the group was looking at repositioning assets in secondary cities across France, “Today we’ve achieved a mature stage on the French market and we’re looking forward on the development with Accor abroad across Europe.”
Similarly, French hotels giant Accor has affirmed its commitment to growth through such partnerships, with plans to open 120 hotels in Europe in 2026. “That’s a huge amount of openings, even for a company like us,” said Philippe Bijaoui, Accor’s chief development officer for Europe and North Africa, premium, midscale and economy.
“We can do it by partnering with people like Atypio. This is the only way we grow; finding ways to partner with companies like them and to help them grow so they help us grow as well,” he explained.
Growing top- and bottom-line revenue
Atypio added the Hilton Garden Inn Le Havre to its portfolio at the end of last year after Naos Hotel Group went into receivership. Overall, Atypio manages 41 hotels, 37 per cent under managed contracts and 63 per cent directly, and 37 of which are operating under Accor brands. Of its hotels, Atypio owns 27 and has been deploying capital expenditure (capex) to reposition those assets.
Atypio’s first partnership with Accor was the rebranding of what is now the Hôtel Mercure Chantilly Resort & Conventions in 2018. “The whole challenge for us at that time was how to reposition this 200-room hotel, €15 million in revenue, and find the right brand for the next investment cycle. The strength of Accor is how many brands they have, and each brand corresponds to an investment cycle,” said McGrath
Bijaoui added that the hotel was not in an “easy location” and therefore the right brand was essential. He said that Accor helped identify the right channels to bring in top-line revenue, specifically meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) business and leisure guests during the weekends. In terms of bottom-line, Accor’s procurement division Astore supported with renegotiating supplier prices, such as food and electricity.
“Between the top-line and bottom-line, we have contributed to the success of this property,” he said.
McGrath confirmed that the hotel has seen earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth from €1 million in 2018 to €4 million: “Accor has been the right choice from A to Z on that project where we’ve repositioned the hotel correctly, and we’ve gained the revenue we were looking for, and the growth is there.”
A partnership for the future
As well as plans to expand elsewhere in Europe, other priorities for Atypio include repositioning the 12 hotels it now manages following the finalised consolidation deal between Covivio and AccorInvest at the end of 2024 – the latter of which recently announced it would be rebranding as Essendi.
McGrath said there would be “major capex required” to reposition the hotels and that, “with the support of Accor helping us understand the markets and keeping or choosing the right brand, we were able to finance that capex, because there’s also logic behind finding some ROI behind the investment we’re doing, and what is the next story for each property”.
Bijaoui, meanwhile, underlined Accor’s expertise in local real estate as a strength in supporting the expansion plans of partners like Atypio, as well as understanding the needs of different owners.
“In order to help owners, we have this approach of ‘think like them’. Each owner has different views – some owners are short-term, other owners are more longer-term, like Atypio, they want to keep their asset for a long time,” he said.
“These agreements are not the same even if they move from France to Belgium or Luxembourg. It’s not the same at all, it’s not the same jurisdiction, ways of working or cost structure.”
All those quoted in this article appeared on stage at IHIF EMEA, held in Berlin, Germany, between 31 March – 2 April 2025, in a session called: From trends to action: Inside visionary developments.