ibis Celebrates 50 Years
To grow and succeed, hospitality brands must be relevant, relevant to their guests and relevant to their investors. Against a background of fast changing travel behaviour and world-wide development pressures, how do you build and maintain relevance? We sat down with Nina Crazover, SVP Economy Brands at Accor, to discover the secret to ibis’ success and explore what’s next for the world-renowned economy hotel brand as it reaches 50 years of market relevance.
Hospitality Investor: This year ibis celebrates its 50th anniversary. How has the brand maintained its relevance for five decades?
Nina Crazover: As a sector, we often divide guests into business and leisure, and increasingly “bleisure”. But regardless of which bucket they most align with, the one thing that unites the hotel sector, irrespective of segment, is that all guests walk through our doors with an intent. We understand ibis is rarely the destination, instead our role is to the serve the guests’ intent. An "intentional traveller" is someone with a broader objective beyond the hotel, a guest coming for a meeting, conference, gig, trip with friends or loved ones, to explore a destination. ibis offers elevated convenience for the intentional traveller. This is our purpose. As a brand we have been single minded in our commitment to this purpose for 50 years.
Hospitality Investor: What were the ibis founding principles and are these still relevant to the brand 50 years later?
Nina Crazover: ibis was established in 1974 on three core promises: affordability, innovation and reliability. These founding principles are still true and at the heart of our brand today. 50 years ago, ibis was the first hotel brand in Europe to make a high quality, comfortable nights’ stay accessible to all. ibis democratised travel, making quality travel experiences possible for everyone, irrespective of budget.
This is what defines ibis. ibis Heartists (employees) have been at the forefront of modern convenience for 50 years. We serve the travel intent of our guests through affordability, innovation and reliability. ibis delivers the essentials - comfort, quality, affordability, sleep, design, location and service - to enable guests to focus on, and feel good about, what they travelled to do. This is elevated convenience. This is relevance.
Hospitality Investor: ibis started as one hotel in Bordeaux. How did it grow to become arguably the best-known economy hotel brand globally?
Nina Crazover: The network grew at a fast pace revolutionising international travel by ensuring travelers could enjoy the reassurance of familiarity in ‘foreign’ travel. The brand became a trailblazer of standardization, proving that hotels could serve guests around the world with a quality product and friendly staff at a good price.
Welcoming all travellers, ibis led the way in making a comfortable and quality night’s stay accessible to all, reinforcing this promise with the launch of the innovative SweetBedTM which is present in all ibis properties around the world. The award-winning bed is a clear USP, elevating the vital sleep experience of economy hotel guests.
In 2012, Accor doubled-down on the strength of the ibis brand, and established the ‘ibis family’, consisting of three brands, ibis, All Seasons (now ibis Styles) and Etap Hotel (now ibis budget). At that time, the ibis brand family represented approximately 1,600 hotels worldwide. Since then, Accor has added nearly 1,000 properties globally across the three brands, bringing the total to well over 2,500 hotels in 79 countries, thanks to the strength of the ibis brand.
Hospitality Investor: Is Accor able to continue this level of network growth?
Nina Crazover: Absolutely. Accor continues to break new ground with ibis. Globally, the Group has a pipeline of over 320 hotels across the three ibis brands and will continue to expand its presence to new markets in 2024 and beyond. In fact, we will mark the 50th anniversary by opening in our 80th country by the end of the year, with the launch of the ibis Styles Reykjavik Muli in Iceland.
Hospitality Investor: There are now three distinct ibis brands. How do owners and guests choose and distinguish between the three brands?
Nina Crazover: Under the ibis brand family there are three distinct brands, each with a different brand design, personality and promise, all unified by the ibis spirit of openness and the promise of affordability, convenience, comfort and friendly service.
ibis offers caring hospitality for all, a place where each guest enjoys a comfortable, good-quality stay with vibrant social spaces, often using music to connect people. Fresh, new design concepts are being rolled out around the world to great acclaim, bringing the brand’s vision of affordable, comfortable, social design to life through three innovative standardised concepts, Plaza, Agora and Square. The best-known and trusted brand in the segment, ibis is loved by guests globally, delivering affordability, comfort and innovation. For guests and owners alike, ibis delivers reliability.
ibis Styles offers creative flexible hospitality, powered by excellent comfort and unique designs to inspire our guests to express their own creative personality. Each with its own design, ibis Styles has 640+ locations and 640+ designs worldwide.
ibis budget a simple offer of a smart and comfortable stay, committed to reliable affordability.
The three ibis brands are strong alone and stronger together.
Hospitality Investor: So, what’s next for ibis?
Nina Crazover: The 50th anniversary of ibis is a huge achievement, made possible because of our teams. For 50 years, we have welcomed and developed our people, giving them a foundation in hospitality excellence, fuelling their skills and passion. The ibis brands are where people start their careers and where people first start to travel. People start, and stay, with ibis. This has been true for 50 years and will remain true for the next 50 because we know ibis is a rare gem and people are what makes the difference.
In recognition of this, this year ibis will launch a new brand culture program, global employee ambassadorship and brand campaign, doubling down on the brand’s founding principles and reminding the world that ibis is the market leader and a brand to love because of its people.
The 50th anniversary is about reinforcing our position as the leading brand in the economy hotel segment and embracing our future with renewed energy and enthusiasm. For 50 years ibis has got the essentials right and delivered them with heart. People are the differentiator for ibis, because we know you’ll get the most out of your trip when we put the most into your stay.