Powering Digital Growth: Accor's Strategic Partnership with Yext

Accor, a global leader in the hospitality industry, has locations across 110 countries — including 5,400 hotels and 10,000 restaurants. Since partnering with Yext, the company has seen a remarkable 30%* increase in Listings impressions, 38% year-over-year growth in website clicks, and they have increased their share of traffic driven by unbranded search queries (i.e. searches like "best hotels near me" or "hotels I should visit"). These results illustrate the immense potential of digital collaboration.

Accor faced a significant challenge when it came to improving the digital visibility of its expansive ecosystem: after all, the company boasts 5,400 hotels and 10,000 restaurants across 110 different countries. But Accor knew it needed to adapt its digital acquisition strategy to cater to changing search patterns, with factors such as proximity, local experiences, and sustainability becoming more prominent in traveler search queries. Additionally, Accor aimed to strike a balance between paid and organic search strategies: with 15% of web searches being novel query types, Accor recognized the importance of refining its organic search strategy and harnessing automation to efficiently cover a wide range of relevant searches — while keeping costs down.

In working with Yext, Accor crafted a comprehensive digital strategy in line with its vision of "Augmented Hospitality." Central to this strategy was "ALL- Accor Live Limitless," a loyalty program and online booking platform that unified all of Accor's brands, services, and partnerships. To engage more members and non-members, Accor leveraged Yext's expertise — and specifically Yext Content (our CMS) for content management. Yext Content gave Accor the ability to organize information about all of their many brands, hotels, and services in one central hub — allowing for accuracy, consistency, and ease of updates. Additionally, by establishing connections between diverse data points, Accor could ultimately respond more efficiently to complex user queries. On top of that, Accor also leveraged Yext Listings, Pages, Reviews, and Analytics. This approach helped them not only boost visibility in third-party search but also to manage more customer reviews — and enhance their online reputation as a whole.

Partnering with Yext led to tangible improvements in Accor's digital acquisition strategy. The company has seen a remarkable 30% growth in Listings impressions since 2019 – generating 38% year-over-year growth in website clicks. In particular, having the ability to provide real-time updates during the pandemic about hotel statuses streamlined operations and diminished dependence on costly paid strategies.

Further, Accor's collaboration with Yext extended to generating localized content. Over 100,000 landing pages were created in 18 languages within 6 months, catering to diverse audiences across various locations. This initiative translated into a noteworthy 109% increase in Pages impressions on Google for Accor, accompanied by a 103% surge in Google Search click-through rates within the first two years.

Finally, Accor is interested in safely scaling their content strategy with AI to reach customers across all your digital touchpoints — something they'll also be able to do with Yext.

30% increase in Listings impressions in two years

38% year over year growth in website clicks (from Listings)

56% of search queries coming from unbranded searches — and growing

Doubled conversion rate for destination pages.

Deployment of 100,000 landing pages in 18 languages covering 3,000 destinations within 6 months.

Pages generated 109% more impressions on Google — with a 103% increase in click-through rate within the first two years.

Effortless display of real-time hotel status during the pandemic.

Decreased reliance on costly paid strategies.

Anne-Laure Blondeau, Senior Director of Customer Success at Yext, concurred, highlighting the potential of AI to revolutionize content creation — something the company is also exploring with Yext.

As Accor and Yext embark on this journey of innovation, their collaboration stands as a testament to the transformative power of combining technology and human ingenuity. With a shared commitment to providing great user experiences, Accor's vision will continue to evolve, drawing on both AI-powered insights from Yext and human creativity.

*Sep '21 - Aug '22 vs. Sep '20 - Aug '21