Travelling companion

Rafał Ostrowski, ‘Eurobuild CEE’: Last year AccorHotels sold 38 hotels to Orbis. It also handed over all of its hotel brands in the CEE region at that time to the exclusive management of Orbis. Why did AccorHotels decide to give away its entire CEE business to Orbis? Laurent Picheral, CEO, HotelServices in Central and Eastern Europe, Accorhotels: This was not really a case of giving away AccorHotels’ business to Orbis. We know Orbis very well; AccorHotels, as the majority shareholder in Orbis, has total trust in this company. I myself used to be one of the former CEOs of Orbis a few years ago and I personally know Gilles Clavie, its current CEO. AccorHotels completely trusts the highly recognised know-how of these people. This is for us an absolute win-win situation. We have a very reliable partner to manage our operations and to bolster development. It is much better to have a very reliable local partner who knows the local market very well than to have somebody ma