On the occasion of the Women’s Forum held in Deauville from 14th to 16th October and of which AccorHotels is a partner, the group, the world’s leading hotel operator, announces that it has been selected by UN Women as one of the 10 champion corporations of the HeForShe – IMPACT 10x10x10 pilot initiative.

As part of this initiative, AccorHotels has made the following pledges for end 2017:

1. Gender parity in management and equal pay:

  • 35% women hotel managers
  • Commitment to reduce the pay gap between men and women at the Paris head office and in three other countries

2. Sensitize and motivate male employees in favor of gender diversity, with:

  • 35% male membership of internal network WAAG (Women At AccorHotels Generation)
  • 50,000 male employees involved as HeForShe champions

Changing mentalities in the hotel sector

As a member of the HeForShe movement, AccorHotels has also committed to changing mentalities in the hospitality industry by paying particular attention to female guests. Though the share of women travelers staying in its hotels increased from 26% to 34% between 2000 and 2013*, the hotel chain sector remains tailored by men for men. For this reason AccorHotels is currently conducting a survey in partnership with IPSOS** that clearly demonstrates that women, regardless of their culture, have their own expectations regarding all hotel segments. 90% of them consider an offer specially designed for women as innovative. As early as 2013, upscale brand MGallery, had developed Inspired by Her, an offer specifically tailored for women.

Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO of AccorHotels declared, “I am absolutely convinced that women should be free to have fulfilling careers and be given the same opportunities as men. As CEO of AccorHotels, I know that we have the resources and capacity to bring about real change. Our values, our Human Resources policy and the WAAG, our internal diversity network, speak for it. Employees, partners and guests, we must all stave off gender-related prejudices, offer a more gender equal remuneration policy, promote more women to managerial positions, ensure that men commit to this change and, through our endowment fund Solidarity Accor, encourage projects that help train and integrate young women in difficulty.”

AccorHotels’s selection follows the creation in 2012 of WAAG, its internal gender diversity network, and the signature, in January 2015, of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), the women’s empowerment program upheld by UN Women and the UN Global Compact.

HeForShe is an international solidarity movement for gender equality initiated by UN Women. Its objective is to ensure that men also take a stand for gender equality. By creating IMPACT 10x10x10 in 2015, UN Women is expanding this solidarity movement and has identified 10 corporations, 10 universities and 10 governments to be its spokespersons. Barclays, Koç Holding, McKinsey & Company, PwC, Schneider Electric, Tupperware, Twitter, Unilever, Vodafone are the nine other companies that are part of the IMPACT 10x10x10 pilot program, alongside AccorHotels.