Over 300 students in Asia-Pacific join competition to reinvent Novotel brand

Competition was fierce and creative juices flowed, as 300 hospitality students from across Asia-Pacific went to work in the 2013 Accor Take Off! Student Challenge. Their mission: completely reinvent the Novotel brand for the year 2020. After months of effort, five finalist teams faced a jury of Accor regional managers in Singapore, with the LEHders team from Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa in India named the winners. Take Off! is an annual competition held by Accor to strengthen ties with hospitality schools in the region and to identify future talent for the hotel industry.

The Challenge: Reinvent Novotel

The 2013 Accor Take Off! Student Challenge kicked off in September, asking students to reimagine the Novotel brand to match changing guest expectations in the year 2020. Turnout was impressive, with 100 teams representing 40 different schools and universities from 10 countries in Asia-Pacific participating. The www.accortakeoff.com website attracted 40,000 visitors during the challenge, with over 17,000 casting their votes for their favorite team.

Opening new frontiers in hospitality careers

"Our rapid growth means that we hire over 10,000 people each year in Asia-Pacific alone, and the Take Off! competition is a great way to provide students with exposure to Accor, while also helping us identify great talents with a real passion for hospitality," said Patrick Ollivier, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Accor Asia-Pacific. "This online competition - a first for the hotel industry in this region - is indicative of Accor's passion for innovation and complements our existing channels for reaching out to future employees, including our Accorjobs online portal, LinkedIn group and Facebook page."

Five finalist teams from five different institutions - Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Silpakorn University International College (VATEL) (Thailand), Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa (India) and Republic Polytechnic (Singapore) - were invited to participate in a nail-biting finale held at Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, where they faced tough questions from senior Accor managers representing marketing, operations, development, human resources, loyalty and sustainable development.

The hotel of the future: personalized, hi-tech and sustainable

The teams presented some very interesting approaches, but three key themes are clearly on the minds of the hoteliers of tomorrow: personalization, technology and sustainability. All proposals featured highly customizable hotel products, such as moveable walls, personalized menus and mood lighting. The proposals were very technology-focused, integrating smartphone apps and social media. And everybody presented unique solutions to the hotel industry's environmental challenges, including rooftop gardens, piezoelectric floors and renewable energy.

"Take Off! was for us a privileged opportunity to interact directly with students and, as they represent not only our future colleagues, but also our future guests, we learned a lot about what they will expect from our hotel brands in the future," said Graham Wilson, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing, Accor Asia-Pacific. "For example, sustainable development - a topic that we already know is important for Gen Y - was taken into consideration by all the teams. Most importantly, all the presentations integrated a high level of technology and particularly smartphone apps in their 'Novotel 2020' concepts, and we will be looking very closely at some of their propositions to see if we can make them reality."

And the winner is...

This year's winner was the LEHders team - Chaitanya Adgaonkar, Sagar Neve & Dushyant Periwa - from Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa in India, who impressed the jury with their NOVA concept. NOVA - which stands for Novotel's Own Virtual Assistant - is a smartphone app that integrates voice recognition technology with all aspects of hotel operations. Through NOVA, the hotel guests of tomorrow will be able to search for hotels; make reservations; check-in; unlock their room; and order other extras like room service, airport transfers and spa treatments.  

"We are incredibly thrilled to win the 2013 Accor Take Off! Student Challenge," said team leader Chaitanya Adgaonkar. "The journey from first round online to the finale in Singapore has been really exciting. Competing on a global level was really inspiring and brought out the best of us. We are really grateful to Accor for giving us the platform to showcase our ideas. We think it's amazing that a hospitality leader like Accor is valuing ideas from students."

The winners take home a 5-day/4 night holiday at an Accor hotel in Bali, Phuket, Bangkok, Seoul or Hong Kong, including round-trip air tickets.

The runner-up prize went to the team from Silpakorn University International College (VATEL) in Bangkok, whose "Smart Novotel" application aims to revolutionize the way guests interact with and stay at hotels in the future.

"We are very happy with the results of this year's Take Off! challenge and are very impressed with the quality of ideas proposed by the students," concluded Mr. Ollivier. "We're already looking forward to next year's competition, which will be even more exciting. Stay tuned!"

For more information about Take Off!, including all presentations and videos, visit www.accortakeoff.com.