What Millennials Want, According to AccorHotels

AccorHotels is the latest hotel chain to make a concerted effort to curry favor with Millennial travelers. By 2020, the company will roll out 50 new hotels under a new brand named JO&JOE, described as follows:

JO&JOE is a vibrant living space, a home that is open to the external world and designed to meet the expectations of Millennials and all those who value sharing, spontaneity and experience. JO&JOE rounds out the Group’s economy-brand portfolio, providing a made-to-measure solution for the vast international community of Millennial-minded trend-setters revolutionizing the market.

What are the expectations of Millennials? The buzzwords, according to Accor, include “lifestyle,” “innovative,” “open,” and “interaction.” In practice, those concepts apparently translate as follows:

• “The bar is central to the JO&JOE social experience.” Local and craft beverages should will be featured.
• Local, affordable “craft cuisine” in the hotel restaurants.
• “Collaborative kitchens,” where guests can prepare their own meals.
• A “Happy House” area, where guests “can relax, work, cook or wash their clothes, just like at home.”
• “An ingenious modular sleeping area that guests share without sacrificing privacy.”
• Other rooms modeled after yurts and caravans.
• Rates starting at 25 Euros a night.

If low rates, intelligent food offerings, and non-cookie-cutter rooms are the future of hotels, then I’m all in.

Thanks, Millennials!

Reader Reality Check

Good, or just gimmicky?

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.