Sébastien Bazin, chairman and CEO of Accor, was the most vocal. Buoyed by his recent decision to split the company into two business units, he said Accor is now able to regain ground from the OTAs.

　　Hoteliers, led by the biggest brands, must get tough on online travel agencies, according to a panel of CEOs during the 17th International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin.

　　Sébastien Bazin, who was named chairman and CEO of Accor last August, was the most vocal. Buoyed by his recent decision to split the company into two business units, he said Accor is now able to regain ground from the OTAs.

　　"OTAs represent a great loss. Reclaiming that space is about measurement, risk and pricing that service. OTAs are a great innovation, but if you are big enough, and Accor is, you have to control your destinations,” Bazin said during a general session titled “The world according to the global CEOs.”

　　Accor, he added, opens an Ibis hotel every three days and a new Accor hotel of any brand every two days.

　　"Six (hotel companies) control 70% of the market, but none has really been active in the last decade. Did we do anything about TripAdvisor? No. Did we do anything about the rise of OTAs? No.

　　"It’s time to wake up and do something about this,” Bazin said.

　　Michael Glennie, president and COO of FRHI Hotels & Resorts, which plans to increase its portfolio by 50% in the next four to six years, said that while on the whole the industry welcomes OTA business, it must be more efficient in driving bookings through its own channels.

　　"The OTAs merely say, ‘more’ (and) fool you if you cannot convert customers into return customers,” he added.

　　Club Méditerranée, an all-inclusive vacation provider with one brand, is different to the other panelists’ companies, said its chairman and CEO Henri Giscard d’Estaing. The group is in the business of creating destinations, and he said 60% of customers come to the company directly.

　　The company is involved in a Chinese bid to be ruled upon in the French courts in the next month.

　　Regaining ground

　　More concern on the panel came from a fear that major brands are losing customer control and loyalty, especially among younger travelers.

　　"It is important to differentiate revenue management and social media to extract market share, especially as demand will not see a huge rise,” said Jim Abrahamson, president and CEO of Interstate Hotels & Resorts, who added that the boutique space would remain the market’s hottest segment.

　　Bazin said the leisure industry had much to learn from the mobile phone and telecommunications industry, especially the way it used capital to not only defend what it had but also to expand—that is, defense investment and offense investment.

　　"They effectively made strategic partnerships,” he added, before asking out loud whether the hotel industry should be doing more of that itself.

　　"To compete effectively, we have to make more (of that type of) bet. But make that bet! Even if it might be the wrong one,” Bazin said.

　　Hoteliers should focus on their mobile channels as well, even in the luxury segment, Glennie said.

　　"Facilitating customers’ website experiences is where we’re spending money. But how do we prioritize, and who’s going to invest in that?” he asked.