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The Future is Franchise
How Accor’s franchise model drives performance in an asset-light era.
September 10, 2026
As hospitality accelerates toward asset-light growth, franchise has become a defining model, combining entrepreneurial agility with the reach of a global hospitality ecosystem. With 61% of its network franchised, Accor has made franchise a strategic priority to accelerate growth and increase market share.
Leire Leoz, Chief Franchise Officer, Premium, Midscale & Economy explains why the only success is shared success.
Franchise is, at its core, a long-term partnership built on aligned interests and measurable value creation. Owners commit capital and take on execution risk; in return, they expect more than a brand name: they expect performance, clarity, and a partner they can rely on.
With 3,500+ franchised hotels worldwide, Accor is accelerating the expansion of its industry-leading franchise platform, empowering local operators and delivering sustained value across 45+ brands with distribution, loyalty, commercial expertise and global scale.
The model is inherently win-win: it helps owners unlock revenue, strengthen long-term asset value and remain competitive, while enabling the Group to scale efficiently and advance its asset-light strategy. When owners succeed, Accor succeeds.
The Franchise-Forward Dynamic in Hospitality
The global hotel franchise market is expected to grow from US$37 billion in 2024 to US$77 billion in 2033, fueled by investor appetite for higher margins, faster market entry, and a more resilient operating model. With lending rates, development costs, and travel patterns in flux, franchise offers a lower-risk pathway to growth as independent operators align with established global brands to stay competitive.
In this dynamic environment, Accor has made franchise a strategic priority, recognizing the model as key to accelerating growth and increasing market share. 61% of the network is currently under franchise; the Group aims to reach 75% by 2030.
Globally, 80% of Premium, Midscale and Economy signings are already franchise contracts, with master franchise agreements and portfolio acquisitions with trusted in-market partners accelerating the division’s “franchise-forward” transformation. The model is also opening a new avenue of growth in Luxury & Lifestyle, with collection brands Emblems and MGallery leading the expansion.
More and more hotel owners are choosing franchise because it gives them the best of both worlds: the freedom to run their own business, backed by the strength of a global hospitality company.
Delivering What Owners Value Most
Owner expectations shape Accor’s franchise model. For Leire Leoz, it comes down to three things: performance, simplicity, and trust.
Performance: Creating Value Over the Long Term
Owners do not invest in a logo. They invest in business growth and return on capital.
Accor’s performance levers are built to deliver it, with a portfolio of 45+ brands spanning segments, a distribution network with global commercial reach, its loyalty program and booking platform ALL Accor with its 120 million+ loyalty members driving demand and repeat stays, and revenue management expertise that helps hotels capture market share.
Scale matters: a network of 5,800+ hotels gives owners buying power and visibility no independent property can build. So does expertise: ensuring that every franchisor decision creates tangible value.
For Accor and its partners, results are measured not in short-term uplift, but in investment growth over the long term.
Simplicity: Giving Time Back Where It Matters
Hospitality is a complex business, and complexity carries a cost in time, money, and energy.
Accor’s differentiator is a simpler owner experience: friction removed from processes, problems solved faster, roles and expectations made clear.
Clarity results in better execution, improved execution enhances the guest experience, and that shows up performance.
Simplification is not about doing less – it’s about creating value by letting owners spend more time on what moves their business.
Trust: From Contract to Long-Term Partnership
Trust is not established by words on a contract. It is built through consistency – by listening to owners, operating with transparency, and backing words with actions.
Its real test comes when plans meet reality: a market shock, an operational setback, a project that stalls. Showing up in those moments with solutions and a collaborative mindset is what turns a franchise agreement into a long-term partnership.
Trust earned is trust reinvested: over 50% of Accor’s existing franchisees own multiple hotels within the network.
Performance: Creating Value Over the Long Term
Owners do not invest in a logo. They invest in business growth and return on capital.
Accor’s performance levers are built to deliver it, with a portfolio of 45+ brands spanning segments, a distribution network with global commercial reach, its loyalty program and booking platform ALL Accor with its 120 million+ loyalty members driving demand and repeat stays, and revenue management expertise that helps hotels capture market share.
Scale matters: a network of 5,800+ hotels gives owners buying power and visibility no independent property can build. So does expertise: ensuring that every franchisor decision creates tangible value.
For Accor and its partners, results are measured not in short-term uplift, but in investment growth over the long term.
Simplicity: Giving Time Back Where It Matters
Hospitality is a complex business, and complexity carries a cost in time, money, and energy.
Accor’s differentiator is a simpler owner experience: friction removed from processes, problems solved faster, roles and expectations made clear.
Clarity results in better execution, improved execution enhances the guest experience, and that shows up performance.
Simplification is not about doing less – it’s about creating value by letting owners spend more time on what moves their business.
Trust: From Contract to Long-Term Partnership
Trust is not established by words on a contract. It is built through consistency – by listening to owners, operating with transparency, and backing words with actions.
Its real test comes when plans meet reality: a market shock, an operational setback, a project that stalls. Showing up in those moments with solutions and a collaborative mindset is what turns a franchise agreement into a long-term partnership.
Trust earned is trust reinvested: over 50% of Accor’s existing franchisees own multiple hotels within the network.
Behind the Partnership: An Owner Mindset and a Scalable Platform
Strong franchise partnerships rest on shared objectives and aligned thinking, combining the local market insight and operational leadership of hotel owners with Accor’s brand power, distribution engines, and global support.
As a former owner-operator, the Group brings a unique perspective to that exchange. Hands-on experience of owning, leasing, managing, and operating hotels across decades of markets and cycles brings a balanced view of what a franchise partnership should deliver – from both sides of the table.
That understanding is embedded in structure. The Global Franchise Center of Excellence, led by Leire Leoz, supports, aligns, and strengthens franchise operations worldwide. Part knowledge hub, part governance body, it exists to make Accor the preferred franchise partner for owners and investors, focusing on what drives impact: brand integrity, operational excellence, and top-line performance.
Alongside it sits the Accor platform, global and hyper-scalable across distribution, sales, loyalty, procurement, technology, and ESG.
Accor 360° Solutions brings the Group’s expertise directly to hotel owners and teams. ALL Accor, the award-winning loyalty program and booking platform, connects them with 120 million+ members worldwide. A strong balance sheet provides resilience through economic cycles.
A network of 210+ world-class developers, designers, and architects supports new build and conversion projects. Procurement operates at a scale impossible to achieve independently. And guidance on ESG helps investors future-proof their strategies and safeguard against regulatory risk.
Hospitality has always been a people business, and franchise is no different. A contract opens a franchise partnership, but it is a relationship that sustains it – one built on trust and value delivered for both sides. For Accor, franchise is about building partnerships that last.
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