New Chief Commercial Officer for Europe role announced at Accor today

Accor today announced that Karelle Lamouche has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer for Europe.  In this newly created role, Karelle will lead Accor’s European commercial team with responsibility for driving the business revenue strategy for the company and its partners across all European markets.

Reporting into Franck Gervais, CEO Accor Europe, Karelle will be responsible for the commercial strategy for the European business. Focused on leading the company’s loyalty and customer experience, sales and distribution, marketing, revenue management and business analytics teams, Karelle will create a more holistic, integrated and customer-centred approach and deliver a consistent strategy for all Accor brands throughout Europe. Central to the role will be the launch and delivery of ALL, Accor’s new loyalty programme which goes live late this year.

Franck Gervais, CEO, Accor Europe said: “In an increasingly complex and evolving market, it is vital that we continue to build on our strategic aims across the business to ensure we further strengthen our market-leading position and enhance the company’s comprehensive portfolio and partnerships.

“Karelle will develop the strategy for all of Europe, leading and implementing an innovative approach to identify new commercial opportunities and harness the existing brand, sales, revenue and customer channels. ALL represents a fantastic commercial and customer opportunity to transform the business and Karelle will be central to the strategic delivery of this launch in Europe.

“This is a key role for the business and the combination of Karelle’s entrepreneurial mindset, strategic vision and ability to collaborate effectively with groups from across the business makes her the perfect fit for such a critical position.”

Karelle Lamouche, Accor, Chief Commercial Officer, Europe

Karelle Lamouche said: “Europe currently has a thriving hospitality market and I am proud of our role as an innovator and leading operator. Today we enjoy a period of growth and transformation, and we continue to challenge ourselves to become even stronger, increasing performance and commercial excellence.  We are committed to our continued responsiveness, vision and dynamism as we build brands of choice, become the benchmark in delivering the best guest experience and ultimately deliver upon our business ambitions across the continent.”

Karelle has been with Accor since 2003, most recently as SVP for Sales & Marketing, Distribution and Revenue Management across all its brands in Northern Europe, which includes the UK, Benelux and Nordics.  Prior to that she was SVP for Economy & Budget hotels in the UK, with overall responsibility for operations and marketing across the ibis family of brands – ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget.

In this role she spearheaded the development of an innovative hospitality process, using proprietary technology to enable greater interaction between hotel talent and guest. The people-centric mobile technology makes employees less static and increases their interaction with guests and teams, using technology to empower staff and enable greater customer experience. The transformation to hotel and guest operations in the UK was extensive and this best practice is now being rolled out across Europe and beyond, in ibis and select Mercure and Novotel hotels.