AccorHotels launches Jo&Joe brand to appeal to Millennials

Hoping to appeal to Millennials – the generation aged around 18-35 ‒ Jo&Joe is expecting to open a total of 50 venues by 2020, in destinations popular with this age group. Proposed locations include Paris and Bordeaux by 2018, along with Warsaw, Budapest, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo.

The venues will be located close to city centres and public transport hubs, and less than 15 minutes away from major points of interest. Rates are expected to start at EUR 25 (£22) per night.

The concept has been created, according to Accor, for “the vast international community of Millennial-minded trendsetters revolutionising the market”, and “to meet the expectations of Millennials and all who value sharing, spontaneity, and experience”.

Disruptive​

Joe & Jo is the latest creation from AccorHotels’ Marketing Innovation Lab, which seeks to identify, test and share what it calls 'customer-centric, disruptive solutions'.

Future guests, experts, students, an Accor executive committee and teams have collaborated in this case to produce a brand that will aim to challenge traditional hotel conventions, and be ready to respond to future changes in hospitality and social interaction.

Paris-based design, marketing and digital technology management school Webschool Factory was also involved, while the overall design was created with UK company Penson, which has also helped to create the offices of Google, YouTube, Jaguar Land Rover, and Playstation.

The new hotels will also seek to be community hubs, offering classes in yoga or DIY, along with concerts and other events open to local residents (which Accor has called ‘Townsters’) as well as hotel guests (which Accor calls ‘Tripsters’).

There will also be a restaurant offering a menu starting at EUR 10 (£7); a bar offering a wide range of craft products, beer, wine, and cocktails; plus a collaborative kitchen allowing guests to cook their own meals.

Break with tradition​

There will also be a ‘Happy House’ area, which will act as a private area for guests to relax, work, cook or wash clothes, in a home-from-home style.

Guests will be able to choose from different room options, including ‘Together’ – a shared, modular sleeping area with large beds, access to private lockers, private reading lights, and USB ports. ‘Yours’ will feature rooms and apartments for two to five people, with a private bathroom and kitchen.

‘OOO! (Out of the Ordinary)’ will be for people travelling alone, or for groups of up to six people, and will offer accommodation in the form of yurts, hammocks, or caravans.

Sébastien Bazin, chairman and chief executive officer of AccorHotels, said: “Break with tradition, forget old habits, be surprising, authentic, unexpected, bring a breath of fresh air to AccorHotels. Do it quickly, and do it well. It wasn’t an easy brief to put into practice, particularly when you’re primarily targeting Millennials, who can be very difficult to win over. But with the launch of Jo&Joe, we have now more than met that challenge.”

Frédéric Fontaine, senior vice president of the Global Marketing Innovation Lab, said: “More than just an accommodation solution, Jo&Joe has been conceived as an experience enhancer thanks notably to its offbeat design, innovative digital ecosystem and catering offerings. With its ‘open house’ concept, the brand diversifies the customer journey by welcoming guests as well as locals, who treat Jo&Joe venues as an annex of their living room.”