“We live well, we sleep well, we eat well”: Why Sofitel’s boss is leaning into its French heritage
“We know how to live life”
Maud Bailly is on a mission to give Sofitel a new lease of life as a global luxury marker – with a very French identity
Maud Bailly could be doing anything. In her glittering career she’s worked in the French finance ministry and the French Prime Minister’s office. She’s run a train station – Paris Montparnasse – and indeed the entire country’s railways as director of trains at SNCF – and she’s sat on the board of Groupe Casino, one of France’s largest retailers.
And now, as global CEO of the French hotel giant Sofitel, she is coordinating the delivery of some scones to my partner, having heard she’s under the weather.
“That’s hospitality,” she says with a beaming smile, which does rather suggest she’s found her calling.
A “flagship” Sofitel in London
Bailly is in the chain’s London St James hotel on another leg of what must feel like a punishing world tour. Sofitel is 60 years old, and Bailly has not been slow in making her mark. After her appointment in January of last year she set about “cleaning” the estate – cutting ties with some of the brand’s hotels – and is now overseeing the renovation and refurbishment of vast swathes of the estate, much of which requires being there in person. In the course of a twenty-minute interview she talks about recent trips to Strasbourg and New York and soon she’ll cut the ribbon on a new Sofitel in Benin, but she remains cheery; our chat is pushed back slightly so that she can host members of the team for a glass of champagne to thank them for their efforts.
“For us London is a flagship,” she says. “It’s a top city, especially after Brexit. It’s my… other European capital.”
That may be why the St James outfit is soon to join the list of those being given a touch-up. The lobby will be renovated in 2024 and selected suits in early 2025, both masterminded by French interior starchitect Pierre Yves Rochon. It’s all part, for Bailly, of reinvigorating the brand.
‘French zest’ at the heart of Sofitel
“It’s an opportunity to rethink who we are, the ideal occasion to reflect on who we are, what makes us different in a very aggressive competitive set. There are so many brands, why should we choose Sofitel? We needed to clarify our identity,” she tells me.
What that means for her is across four pillars. She wanted to emphasise the logo (“the blending of French culture with the local culture”), the brand’s corporate responsibility and culture. But throughout it all is the most difficult to explain in words: a “French zest.”
“The idea is to be a little bit of France everywhere,” she says.
The appetite for Sofitel is getting stronger and stronger. We have clarified the brand, we have cleaned the network, elevating the promise
“Not in a lecturing way. But in a way of embracing life; we French people are complaining all the time, we are super grumpy, but we know how to live life.
“We know how to live well, sleep well, eat well,” she laughs. With French brands riding higher than ever around the world, especially luxury brands, she appears to be onto a winner. In local markets – like Benin, where the hotel was ‘co-designed’ – she is making a conscious effort to engage the local community in the design of the hotel to ensure that the blend between the French joie de vivre and the context stays just right.
“Most of the guests (at the Strasbourg hotel) were neighbours, not sleeping in the hotel,” she says. “They came for lunch, for breakfast, for wedding anniversaries – a bit like being the beating heart of the neighbourhood.
“This is proximity luxury, which is what I like. We don’t stand for ultra-luxury, being eight stars full of marble and gold. I’m not going to be the reference point for nightlife. Never going to be an 8-star hotel. But I would like to be a recognised, clearly distinguished, cultural, five-star hotel brand with a promise of the same brand markets no matter where you stay, in Australia, in China, in Benin… you will feel the same sense of welcoming, the same ‘touch,’ which is hard to express.
“Everything in luxury needs to seem seamless, and needs to be bespoke. I don’t need to be a bling bling brand, but I do want to (deliver) sustainable, locally anchored luxury.”
Appetite for luxury
Whatever she’s doing, she’s not struggling for interest in opening new Sofitels. The group – owned by Accor, and which also encompasses MGallery – is now ‘asset-light’ meaning that they sold their hotels, and operate them instead on the behalf of owners. Owners are getting in behind the renovations too, with a refresh of the New York property announced just a few weeks ago.
“The appetite for Sofitel is getting stronger and stronger. We have clarified the brand, we have cleaned the network, elevating the promise,” she says. But her excitement is around building the atmosphere, the ‘feel’ of Sofitel.
“I’m a big fan of that phrase, culture eats strategy for breakfast. EBITDA, all of that, will come as a result of culture.”