Paris (AFP)

The CEO of the French hotel group Accor, Sébastien Bazin, believes that the situation "will not get better" in the coming weeks for the hotel industry in France because of the curfew in eight metropolises.

“This summer we were at -40% compared to the summer of last year, in March we were at -90% so there was a short-lived rebound, from July 1 to September 4. Now we are at -60% "he said Tuesday on France inter.

"And then things will not work out, with the curfew, in the weeks ahead," continued the CEO of Accor, which has some 5,000 hotels around the world and emblematic brands such as Ibis , Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure or Pullman.

Asked about a possible rebound in activity during the school holidays of All Saints' Day, he replied: "We do not know damn nothing because now people reserve 4 days before their departure. But it will not be very nice ".

In Europe, where Accor makes half of its turnover, "it's a disaster", said Mr. Bazin, pointing to "a total inconsistency between the measures taken between the States of the Union: for the traveler it is is incomprehensible, so it does not travel ".

"It is high time (...) that we put a common procedure between the different countries" in order to allow movement between them, he said.

If China "left exactly as before the Covid in the space of 9 months" and the United States "suffers less because it has 350 million customers in the same territory", "Europe is the place where we suffer the most, with Latin America, "he said.

To "stick together" with the French restaurateurs subject to curfew, the "voluntary owners" of the group will offer them to "take possession of (their) hotel restaurant" by putting "their brand, their identity, their concept, their menu, their checkered tablecloth, ”he announced.

"They will welcome their neighborhood customers and make sure that these customers come to sleep with us at a cost price" in order to respect the curfew at 9 p.m., which will give rise to "a margin sharing", explained M Bazin.

Hit hard by the health crisis, Accor suffered a massive net loss of 1.5 billion euros in the first half of the year and will cut 1,000 jobs as part of a savings plan, including "300 to 400" in France, he said Tuesday.

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