Accor, the world’s leading hotel operator with over 3,600 hotels and close to 170,000 employees worldwide, has published the results of its Take Off! challenge today. Some 500 students from 68 universities, business schools and hotel management schools worldwide entered this competition organized by the Group from April 2nd to June 18th 2014. The goal for this 3rd contest was to create an original mobile service that could transform the hospitality world and customer experience.

The winning team comes from Vatel International Business School in Thailand. The three students, Nakorn Sirinuntananon, Rudeerus Apinuntano et Pitchaya Mepattana, imagined a full option application which can be adapted within any hotel of the Group. Thanks to this app, guest can relax on his bed and control everything from his phone. He can order what he needs or can organize his trip in the town.

This challenge ties in with Accor’s digital transformation drive and mirrors this Group’s aim – as the leading hospitality school – to spur student creativity and harness it to tackle down-to-earth, demanding challenges in the hospitality business, as well as to identify a pool of young talents to support Accor’s development worldwide.

THE ROUNDS (3 STUDENTS ON EACH TEAM):

Round 1: April 2nd to 29th

  • 132 teams presented their project online with a photomontage.
  • 17 teams short-listed.

Round 2: May 8th to 21st

  • 17 teams posted a video online illustrating their application.
  • 5 teams selected for the final

Round 3: June 17th and 18th

  • The finalists present their project using technology from Kony, the industry’s leading mobile application development platform.

THE PROJECTS FROM THE 4 OTHERS FINALIST TEAMS:

  • Hoteliers Now: a team from Les Roches International School of Hotel Management in Switzerland submitted an application using Google Glass technology to make daily life easier for employees and deliver optimized customer service.
  • PriceIt: these finalists from the Centro Superior de Hosteleria de Galicia in Spain devised an application enabling customers to choose a hotel based on the rate they are willing to pay for a room in one of our Group hotels (across the brand spectrum).
  • Qwacé: students at the Queenstown Resort College of Hospitality in New Zealand created a mobile personal assistant bringing customers 100% personalized services.
  • The Palma Group: this team from the Wavecrest College of Hospitality in Nigeria created a mobile communication and training application for Accor employees worldwide.
See for more.

Accor, the world’s leading hotel operator, offers its guests and partners the dual expertise of a hotel operator and brand franchisor (HotelServices) and a hotel owner and investor (HotelInvest) with the objective of ensuring lasting growth and harmonious development for the benefit of the greater number. With around 3,600 hotels and 460,000 rooms, Accor welcomes business and leisure travelers in 92 countries across all hotel segments: luxury-upscale with Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, and Grand Mercure, midscale with Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure and Adagio and economy with ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget and hotelF1. The Group boasts a powerful digital ecosystem, notably its booking portal accorhotels.com, its brand websites and its loyalty program Le Club Accorhotels. As the world’s top hospitality school, Accor is committed to developing the talents of its 170,000 employees in Accor brand hotels. They are the daily ambassadors of the culture of service and innovation that has driven the Group for over 45 years.