AccorHotels continues its acquisition spree, entering into exclusive negotiations to take over John Paul, a technology-enabled private concierge and loyalty services business
The deal on the table values John Paul at around $150 million, with Accor looking to buy an 80% stake in the business. The balance will remain in the hands of John Paul founder David Amsellem, who will stay on as CEO of the business.
John Paul has developed its own CRM and profiling platform and has a number of other patented technologies, something which Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin noted in its statement.
He said that bringing John Paul into the Accor business will lead to"solidification of our customer relation through an attractive offer and a higher usage; an increased personalization of our services thanks to a deeper customer profiling with non hotel driven information; and the strengthening of our CRM with affinity data."
Accor's new business is involved in running parts of the loyalty offer from businesses including L'Oreal, Citroen and AirFrance. Members of schemes run by John Paul have access to a supply network of 50,000 partners in 50 countries offering services such as hotels, restaurants, event tickets and spas.
Earlier this year John Paul merged with Les Concierges, creating a global business with 1000 employees and a consolidated turnover of $70 million.
Accor said the deal sits with its intention to move away from being a hotel company towards what it describes as "a travel companion providing innovative services to travellers at every step of their journey".
Recent deals by Accor include:
Related reading from Tnooz:
Hotels and OTAs race to revamp their loyalty programs to boost bookings (April 2016)
Diary of a hotel company in digital transformation (Nov 2015)
What can a hotel guy tell a room full of airline people about transformation? (Oct 2015)