S1, E3: What If Luxury Hotels Listened More? This Accor CEO Proves It Changes Everything

How do you redefine luxury hospitality in 2025? For Maud Bailly, the CEO of four of Accor’s luxury hotel brands—Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery and Emblems—it starts with empathy.

In this episode of View From Afar, she chats with host Jennifer Flowers about how she’s reshaping luxury hospitality through bold sustainability, diverse teams and a global vision rooted in local impact.

Transcript

Jennifer Flowers, host: Welcome to View From Afar, a podcast by the travel industry for the travel industry. I’m Jennifer Flowers, Afar’s senior deputy editor. For this episode, I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Maud Bailly, the CEO of Accor’s Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, and MGallery hotel brands, as well as the new Emblems collection.

Since taking the helm in 2023, Maud has been on a mission to redefine what luxury means in today’s hospitality landscape. I’ve been following Maud’s bold approach to sustainability and diversity in an industry that hasn’t always been at the forefront of these movements.

And trust me, Maud’s not your typical hotel executive. At one point during our interview, I spotted the wall of handwritten notes behind her, which turned out to be little mementos from colleagues, friends, and even her daughter. It’s clear to me that Maud understands hospitality is, at its core, a people-first business.

In our conversation, we dive into how she’s reimagining these iconic brands, her commitment to giving back to local communities, and the challenges she’s faced as a woman in hospitality leadership. As Maud says herself, it’s not just about creating beautiful hotels—it’s about impact.

Jenn: It is so good to see you, Maud. I think the last time I saw you it was at a swanky party at a luxury travel conference in Cannes. And where have you been traveling since I saw you? And where are you going next?

Maud Bailly: Oh my gosh. Hello, Jennifer. I’m so happy to see you again. A lot happened since we met in Cannes. I went to Benin to attend the opening ceremony of the brand new Sofitel Cotonou. It was a wonderful moment, not only because it was the first, the first Sofitel of the country, but it was also the first five stars of the country, and therefore we had the chance to meet the 350 people we had been training to share with them the codes of the luxury hospitality.

After that I went to Madagascar Island. Uh, to explore, so pipeline development opportunities. So much beauty. Plus, I saw a great potential for a real sustainable luxury in a nature which is still quite protected. I’m heading next Monday to Amsterdam to attend the celebration of Sofitel Legend Amsterdam, which is going to announce its full, uh, comprehensive refurbishment.

And after that, I’m going to go to Cairo to visit the site of the future Sofitel Legend right in front of the three Giza pyramids.

Jenn: So amazing that you get to go to all these places and also get to look at it through the lens of hospitality and sustainability. Um, I want to Afar readers to get to know all four of the brands under your guidance, which are Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery, and Emblems. Can you talk to me about each of these brands and maybe tell me your overall vision first for Sofitel and then walk me through how that manifests in each of the brands?

Maud: So, in January 2023, I decided to start traveling everywhere around the world to really try to understand the essence of each brand identity. What does Sofitel stand for? What does MGallery stand for? And by the way, what is the M of MGallery standing for? To avoid people seeing “My Gallery” anymore. And what is Emblems?

And therefore, I needed to do a very simple thing. I needed to listen. So I’ve been listening to the GMs, to the butlers, to the concierge, to the reception office manager. To, uh, the housekeeping ladies. To everyone in love with those brands. Sharing with me their knowledge, their love, their regrets, their passion, their frustrations.

Allowing me to really craft more precisely who we are, who we should stop being. And really getting a crispy understanding of the brand. After six months of travel everywhere, we decided to start crafting the brand identity, brand pillars, brand platform, brand partnerships, and then the entire ecosystem of each brand appeared.

So long story short, Sofitel stands for a little piece of France all around the world. It’s not being French in an arrogant manner, trying to lecture the world. It’s being French in a certain capacity to embrace life.

French can be grumpy people complaining all the time, like spoiled children, but we know one thing for sure, we know how to live well.lWe know how to drink well, to sleep well, to eat well, to dance well, to sing well. This is a kind of French zest. Not just “art de vivre,” it’s a mindset. It’s a mix of hedonism and aestheticism.

So with Sofitel, I am standing for a French zest with heartfelt culture, a strong CSR commitment, and this cultural link symbolized by the logo, where you see the French culture embracing and paying a tribute to each local culture. Sofitel Legend is, you know, the highest, even more luxury version of um, Sofitel, usually offering historically rich, iconic properties that are blending heritage with contemporary refinement.

Very often you can have over 100 years [old] buildings like in Sofitel Legend Amsterdam, which used to be the town hall of the city with a beautiful wedding room, which is just stunning, or Sofitel Legend Old Cataract, where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile. Really in this iconic place.

So, Sofitel and Sofitel Legend belong to this promise of offering a little piece of France around the world in a very authentic, generous, and committed approach of luxury.

MGallery and Emblems are a completely different story. Um, it’s about a collection of boutique hotels. They are smaller, between 50 up to 150, 200 keys.

And this is where luxury is embracing intimacy. Small is beautiful and each MGallery has a story to tell. Each MGallery is a destination because very often it’s a conversion. A conversion of an existing building. So I’ve got 122 Sofitel and Sofitel Legend and 120 MGallery. And, uh, most of my MGallery used to be coffee farms, teahouses, tanneries, police stations, Episcopal palaces, garages, monasteries. And because each of those places have a story to tell. Our clients become collectors, collecting each MGallery boutique hotel experience, curious and looking forward to discovering the next one. And Emblems, which is a new brand we are launching this year.

This is a high-end version of a boutique hotel collection. What is the difference between Emblems and MGallery? More space and pushing intimacy to exclusivity. So with an Emblems, you will have rooms starting at 45, 50 square meters. Uh, more suites, more villas, and sometimes some Emblems will be cottages only or villas only.

So you have the same sentiment of intimacy, exclusivity, but with the feeling of more space. And space and intimacy are really the core essence of luxury. And we are about to open 32 Legends in the three coming years, 48 MGallery in the three coming years. And we already signed seven Emblems. And among them, the very first Emblem is going to open officially in November, this year.

Jenn: Congratulations. I’m sure this must feel, oh, gosh.

Maud: Thank you. It’s a teamwork.

Jenn: It is so wonderful to hear like, what all of these brands mean to travelers. One of the things that really struck us, as Afar, you know, we’re always looking at the most exciting game-changing hotels around the world through our Best New Hotels List that we do every year. And we remember when the Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo opened in Panama and it really had an impact a couple of years ago.

And what we loved is we saw a lot of empowerment for local communities. There was a lot of sustainability happening at that hotel too. It being a historic part of that, that city also had a lot of meaning and all of a sudden, Sofitel, we were really excited about Sofitel Legend again. And I’d love to talk about just in general, you’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that your company is hospitable to its destination and its workers.In addition to its guests. Can you tell me more about this through your work in diversity, sustainability, and empowerment of local communities and women?

Maud: You know, I do believe, Jennifer, in one key thing, uh, attention symmetry. You need to take care of your people in the local communities, uh, the way that you would like them to behave with the others. So, first of all, you need to really walk the talk of your values. So, each Sofitel, but also each MGallery, needs to be a giver, needs to give back.

I know it sounds like crazy because obviously the hospitality industry may be looked at as a taker one. We are taking resources, we are taking water, we are taking energy, we are taking food. How can we make sure that we switch this perception and for real, we get into actions which walk the talk of a committed luxury which also knows how to give back.

So, our commitment to diversity relies on a very strong CSR road map around seven pillars. The first one, and I will go very rapidly to local communities, is about plastic, eliminating any kind, any item of single-use plastic. And we got rid of it. Not only for the, you know, guest spacing items, but also we’re starting working in the back of the house, in the kitchen and everywhere.

And I can tell you it’s quite a journey because sometimes the market is not ready. You need to prove the market to find new alternative solutions to get rid of single-use plastic. We’ve been working on energy savings. And we are leveraging, of course, new technologies to make sure we reduce our carbon emission. And we want to get carbon neutral by 2050, which is tomorrow.

We’re working on food waste.We are 7 billion people on Earth; 1 billion people are starving and food insecure, Jennifer. We have to stop it. I love breakfast buffet. I’m sure you do too. We need to do something nevertheless. We have an amazing opportunity, which is AI. And in all our pilots, which are not pilots anymore, we have implemented our BISC and WINO AI tools to massively reduce by minus 50 up to minus 70 percent our food waste.

Jenn: Wow. That’s amazing.

Maud: Yes. We are working on water measurement and water consumption reduction because to reduce something you need to start to be able to measure it and to know where you’re starting from. So we are working on water and I can tell you that a lot of hotels are located in places under massive hydric stress.

Then we are working on training, making sure that our people fully understand the why of the CSR. Like, you want to open a Sofitel, a Sofitel Legend, a MGallery, or an Emblems? Well, Jennifer, super happy to welcome you, provided you really comply to the CSR promise.

Today, I’m proud to share with you the fact that 70 percent of my 250 hotels are eco-certified. And by the end of 2025, 100 percent of our luxury hotels will be eco-certified. Without waiting for any regulation, we need to walk the talk for the future generations.

Last but not least, diversity. Especially in the current context. We are deeply committed to empowering and leveraging diversity as a key level of collective intelligence and collective performance, i.e., supporting women, including in key senior roles within the industry, but also giving back to local communities.

And we are supporting NGOs all around the world. I was three weeks ago in Kenya with my wonderful team. I brought them to visit the MGallery Gem Forest in Nairobi, and they are supporting an amazing NGO run by um, a fantastic lady, Krysteen Savane, and the purpose of the NGO consists into opening the doors of the arts to the children, the poor children of Nairobi, and having access to art, dance, ballet, music can be a life game changer, and it is.

And each MGallery has to support an NGO or to support women around, uh, empowering programs. It’s amazing. And same story for Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo. I had the privilege to attend the opening party and to be there in March 2023 for the celebration of this wonderful hotel, which was reigniting again, back to Legend philosophy, an historical building.

Some people from Panama came to, to see me. They had tears in their eyes because they showed me a picture of their grandparents, very well-dressed in the early, early ’20s, and there were at that time, the very classy, chic members of a club, hosted in the building of the Sofitel Legend Panama, who got completely destroyed, and then rebuilt, refurbished, and they were telling me, you are bringing us these memories back to life.

Plus, you must have seen that Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo in Panama is massively supporting local craftsmanship because they are selling the product of all the local artists within the hotel and also helping, um, I mean, dozens of communities to live through those sales. So yes, it’s about the planet. It’s about water, it’s about plastic, it’s about food waste, it’s about eco- certification without waiting for any regulation, it’s about women, it’s about giving back, it’s about walking the talk and leveraging the beauty of the local community because we owe them what our hotels are.

Jenn: That is so powerful. And, you know, the thing that keeps coming up when I talk to you is this listening and empathy, when we’re talking about your vision, your strategy, the way you’re manifesting these brands in different ways. And I, I noticed, I think we were just talking a little bit earlier about behind you, you have a wall of what looks like pieces of paper. Tell me what that is; I think you’re saying it’s just like people writing in. Tell, tell me. I’m so curious.

Maud: Behind me are the little notes I’ve been lucky enough to receive from friends, from my husband, from some colleagues, peers, owners, my teams.

And, uh, I think it’s also helping to create a good mood and environment to be surrounded by, you know, things which make you feel good and remember that what really matters in life is, uh, the emotion you’re going to bring, you’re going to craft for your guests, for your owners, for your teams. It’s all about authenticity, generosity, hard work. You know, the hospitality industry is a people industry. So we do things with passion without counting our energy or anything because we care and we are aligned. So, uh, I’m trying to walk the talk of what I believe in.

Jenn: I love it. I love it so much. When I discovered that. . . . It wasn’t, but . . .

Maud: And it wasn’t a planned question!

Jenn: . . . it says so much about what you’re about and to have that to serve as a reminder every day you come into the office, that, that this is what matters, it’s a really beautiful thing. So Maud, I wanted to dive into women in hospitality. Can you tell me a bit about what challenges you face as a woman in the hotel industry and how you’ve overcome those hurdles?

Maud: It’s not an easy topic, so what could I say? First of all, things are getting better, OK? Uh, we must be fair, and I think that things are getting better. It used to be a really men’s world, and I must say that I see around me more and more women in the hospitality industry at top executive roles. For instance, the example of Accor ExCom, um, eight years ago, we are two at the ExCom, me as a chief digital officer and the lady in charge of HR, because usually you see ladies in HR and communication and that’s it.

With time, we saw clearly the number of percentage of women going up to 30 percent and even higher than that, at the ExCom level of the group, which is massive. Meanwhile, we have more and more ladies at regional executive committees, and if you look at my executive committee, I’ve got 43 percent of amazing female talent in my “maison” in charge of Sofitel, Sofitel Legends, MGallery, and Emblems.

So yes, we can see clear progress. Nevertheless, I can benchmark my southern Europe CEO experience and my current one. I had 42 percent of female GMs, general managers, in charge of hotels when I was in charge of southern Europe. And remember, when I was in charge of southern Europe, it all went together: midscale, upscale segments and brands.

Now I’m only in luxury brands. All of a sudden, this number is now only 24 percent female GMs. So I’ve been told that it was quite a good percentage because so far I had the best percentage but you can understand that, knowing me, I’m not going to be happy with that. So we’ve been trying to understand why and also trying to kill some toxic beliefs sometimes from women themselves according to which, women are only dedicated to matrix functions: HR, communication, procurement, legal, marketing. No, you can be whoever you want. The field is infinite. And if you want to lead a PNL, you can lead a PNL.

And each time I’m meeting amazing women, I’m telling them, Listen, I’m not saying it’s easy, but I’m telling you it’s possible. You can be a leader in charge of a PNL and you can be a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend—whatever you want.

You may feel exhausted, full of doubts. Uh, but at least try, because it’s possible. And if I can do it, yes you can.

Jenn: Do you think there’s anything missing in terms of supporting women in executive hospitality roles?

Maud: I think we still have unconscious biases, and we need to work on them.

I still hear some remarks like, She’s a bit emotional, she just had a child, do you think she can make it? Like, as if men didn’t get children, you know?And men can have emotions, too.

So, it’s more about, can we try to keep working on those biases and, you know, wrong beliefs, which are still poisoning, a bit, our daily lives?

And I must say that in some countries, it’s not that easy.

I’ve been traveling to Japan to South Korea and even some parts of India. It’s still difficult for women to try to reconcile a personal family life and a professional career. So we also need to help them as a worldwide international group to help them to, to become who they are. I just appointed recently, about the two hotels I previously mentioned, the MGallery Nairobi Gem Forest is led by a lady, Shaileen Jiwa, and the Sofitel Cotonou in Benin is also managed by a lady, Juliette Peron. I think that leading by example, proving it’s possible, having those role models all around the world, sharing with a lot of transparency that it might not always be easy, but it’s possible. Stopping being toxic to each other, making people believe that everything is perfect and easy every day.

It’s not true because we are all at the end of the day, human and genuinely fragile, but also passionate and committed, and we organized last November a conference at Accor Group, uh, whose theme was for the luxury and lifestyle division, whose theme was, uh, yes, you can, and we shared precisely wonderful female GM’s’ examples who came to testify and share their testimonies about their personal and professional, uh, career and how they made it in a very authentic and genuine, transparent way. And I shared also with the entire audience the sentences and the toxic beliefs we didn’t want to hear any more, because if we don’t accelerate for our daughters, for the coming generations, true gender equity and more than that, true diversity will take like forever.

And this statement for diversity, especially in those present crazy times, has become more important than ever. And again Jennifer, I don’t want to be surrounded just by women. Don’t get me wrong. I want men and women, senior and junior, all different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. My HR lady is Polish.

My legal SVP is from Hungary. My COO is an Australian guy, half German and half Japanese. Can you imagine that when you put all those lenses on the world together, the richness, the diversity, leads obviously to a massive, increased, empowered, enabled collective intelligence, the most performant teams.

Jenn: I love that having representation and more diverse voices probably leads to a better hospitality product, right?

Maud: Oh yeah! If you tell me about diversity, i.e., the capacity to be surrounded by people who are radically different from you, bringing you or forcing you to look at things, issues, challenges, with different, you know, lens and glasses on life, then I’m going to tell you yes, we need this for the hospitality industry because if you look at the current challenges that our industry is facing, it’s a blessed industry: growing, emerging markets, appetite for luxury experiences never falling down, whereas maybe luxury goods, not so sure. People want emotions, people want to travel, people want to share together. But if you want to be relevant, and if you want to attract and retain your clients, you need to create emotions.

And to create the most relevant emotion, you need to be surrounded by as many sensitivities as possible. Because the better you know human beings and their different sensitivity, the more relevant you can be.

So I believe that hospitality, because it’s a people industry, can really benefit from this diversity because it’s a way to leverage the power of, um, you know, cultural understanding and this capacity of challenging each other and reconsidering the world and offering and crafting maybe new ways of serving our guests.

We have to value and celebrate diverse teams because their richness is probably our greatest value. And me as a leader, I’m a conductor. I’m not as strong as each of my experts. But my role consists into identifying each talent, feeling how I can reveal its potential.

And how more than that, I can put them together to create a unique and diverse and so powerful collective dynamic, whose power will be bigger than just adding each individual.

Jennifer: Thanks for joining us for this episode of View From Afar. In the show notes, you’ll find links to the websites for Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery, and Emblems Collection, and more information about upcoming openings, including the exciting Sofitel Legend hotels coming to Prague, Jaipur, and Cairo, plus the newly refurbished Sofitel New York that Maud mentioned.

Ready for more Views From Afar? Visit afar.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok. We’re @AfarMedia. If you enjoyed today’s exploration, I hope you’ll come back for more great stories. Subscribing always makes that easy. And be sure to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platforms. It helps other travelers find it.

This has been View From Afar, a production of Afar Media. The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland, with special assistance from Jennifer Flowers.