Meeting with Yannick Aragno, Founder of HOPTYA and former hotelier.

Yannick Aragno, founder ofHOPTYA and former hotelier took part in the interview game: “Hotels, a profession, a meeting”. Thanks to him for taking the time to share with us his experience and his vision of the world on our sector.

Could you introduce yourself, tell us about your background and how you came to found HOPTYA?

I studied 100% hotel management. I joined the Lycée Hôtelier de Marseille to do a BEP/CAP Hôtellerie-Catering, I wanted to be a chef. I quickly realized that this was not the path I liked. At the time, there was an accommodation option for the second year, it was thanks to this option that I discovered the hotel sector. That's much better for me, I followed up with a technological baccalaureate and then a BTS in the same sector.

I had the chance to do my BTS internship in Paris at the Sofitel Paris Forum Rive Gauche hotel (now Marriott Paris Rive Gauche). I was able to discover Paris, which was a change for the young person from Marseille that I was. I decided to move there after graduation. In 2000, I joined Accor as a receptionist at Mercure Paris Bercy (now Ibis Style Paris Bercy). I was lucky, I met very good people there, I was able to show my involvement and I quickly evolved. In 2 years I became Reception Manager. It was a fairly large hotel with over 300 rooms, it was an experience that allowed me to understand the importance of procedures for teams to work in the same way.

Following this experience, I joined another smaller Mercure hotel with a hundred rooms as Deputy Director. That's when I discovered Yield Management. It was a revelation. In 2003 Accor had already begun to integrate this strategy with the implementation of TARS (AH's Channel Manager), which made it possible to manage distribution channels and different price levels according to forecasts and increases in bookings.

Following that, the hotel was sold, I became independent in spite of myself, but I liked that, the change of brand from Mercure Opéra Lafayette to Hotel Jules was a difficult experience because it was difficult but very rewarding, we gained autonomy and above all we had to manage a lot more things on a daily basis. The hotel was managed by GLA Hotels, which had a revenue manager on its team. I remember at the time he came to the hotel to implement the new distribution strategy with us and I still see him telling us “we need the Pseudos City Codes to load the consortium rates into the GDS” (Global Distribution System) and I remember saying to myself “but what is he talking about?” In a group like Accor (I think this is still the case today), we don't manage that at all at the hotel, so joining a smaller group allowed me to discover this world of GDS, Channel Managers and more generally of hotel e-distribution.

After a few years in this hotel, I joined the management team of the Hotel Duminy Vendome as Deputy Director, my main mission was Revenue Management. My greatest pride is to have succeeded in a fairly radical change in the customer mix, we went from passive marketing with a hotel sold almost than with Tour Operators to a more varied mix, without losing occupancy we were able to significantly increase the average price.

Finally, my last operating experience, the Tsuba Hotel... I participated in an incredible project! The transformation of an office building into a 4-star hotel with 82 rooms. The project started in 2013, the hotel opened in March 2017. I was involved in this project from the beginning, when the plans were created and at the beginning of the concept that would be born a few years later. I participated in most of the meetings and site visits, strategic decisions, the choice of equipment or materials, the business plan, pre-marketing and pre-opening, including the recruitment of teams, the implementation of procedures and the launch of the hotel.

This adventure continued until the covid 19 pandemic. At that point the owners decided to sell. I participated in the transition and supported the new owners until December 2021 when I decided to stop the collaboration to create HOPTYA.

With the lockdown, quite a few hotels were open, the business had trouble starting for me, I took the opportunity to do important network work. I made a point of sourcing a lot of suppliers in order to have a good idea of what is on the market and to be able to offer my customers solutions that adapt to their establishments and their needs.

Was there a project or mission that impressed you?

Surely the craziest mission was the Tsuba experience. I did not invest financially in this hotel, but I put my heart and guts into it. Even today, if there is a water leak, I can tell where the water shut-off valve is because I was so involved in the construction of the hotel. There were three years of work, it was a fairly heavy site, at one point only a third of the floor and half of the walls were left.

In fact, I have an anecdote, yesterday, I had an appointment at the Champs Elysée and the director of Tsuba (COO) called me and told me that they had not had a telephone for a week. I tell him “listen, I'm on the Champs, as soon as I finish my appointment, I'll stop by”. I went and we fixed the problem in a few minutes.

HOPTYA is a consulting and support firm for hoteliers. How did you come up with this idea and who are your customers? People from your network, independent hoteliers starting out?

Through my background, I have acquired some experience, with techniques that seem important to me for a more fluid and optimized daily operational activity. My experience has allowed me to build a logic with methods and tools that some hoteliers may lack.

My support is aimed both at hoteliers who are already established but who have not had time to sit down to think about optimizing their daily lives, to find the “thing” that will make things go better, more quickly and with fewer resources, as well as to new hoteliers who do not yet have all the keys to the job.

Many hoteliers do not have these techniques or have not had the time to deploy them. Generally, we underestimate what to do when we take a hotel and manage it on a daily basis. With HOPTYA, I offer a complete functional audit, thanks to this observation and my expertise, I can list the points that need to be optimized, we identify trends and areas for improvement.

In summary, we make an observation through the audit, we establish a road map, the hotelier can “simply” follow the points for improvement alone, my mission ends there, if he needs support, to be helped with the implementation, then we set up long-term support.

For those who launch their hotel, we make a checklist of what there is to do to manage a hotel, and we implement a tailor-made strategy with what the hotelier must learn to do, what he can subcontract, the imperatives...

There are also occasional tasks that do not need to be done by the hotel on a daily basis. For example, for a website, I always advise entrusting your site to a professional who knows a minimum of the hotel world. In this case my role is to select 2 or 3 market players who are the most suited to their institution/budget, we consult them together, with the hotelier, we compare them and I support them until the decision is taken, or even until they are put online if necessary.

My final objective is that, when I leave, the hotel is independent in all the points dealt with together.

In terms of challenges, what is the biggest difficulty for you in this entrepreneurial adventure?

The biggest difficulty is surely that the consultant is not yet perceived at his fair value in the hotel industry. In certain sectors such as marketing, tech or digital, it is much more recognized. I don't know why, maybe, because it's seen as a burden, an expense, that the return on investment is difficult to calculate. Gaining efficiency is a very abstract value.

While fumbling around on some topics can be expensive. “Do not remain alone in the face of the complex problems of your profession” is this vision that I have been defending for 1 year already.

The missions of the consultant can be a simple observation to understand a malfunction, a more or less long support depending on the needs or very punctual on a particular subject or on a choice to be made.

For example, we often talk about choosing a PMS, which is crucial, because it will be at the heart of hotel life and support the team on a daily basis. We do not change PMS every year and therefore it is important to take the time to think about choosing the most optimal solution while accepting to be ready to make certain sacrifices in favor of others that are more interesting. Using a consultant to analyze needs and offers can facilitate the choice.

Today the challenge is to prove to hoteliers that there is real added value and that you can save a lot of time and efficiency by calling on a consultant. It is one to one, the consultant adapts to the situation and brings an external perspective that is necessary, because when you are caught up in this daily life, you no longer see certain problems.

Covid has brought us out of two complicated years for the sector. What do you think are the biggest challenges that hotels will have to face?

The first is recruitment. Today, as we can see, all the hoteliers I talk to have a lot of trouble recruiting. Sometimes there's a pay problem, but that's only part of the problem. There are other issues which are working conditions and the quality of work. They say that in the hotel industry, we have to work every weekend, every holiday, but today, we have to find arrangements and manage schedules differently to make our jobs more attractive.

The second point is the ecological issue, because it is imperative that hotels act on this subject. They must change by obligation, for example with the new ranking criteria, but above all, because it is becoming obvious, we cannot continue like this. Moreover, I think that the word industry should be removed from the “tourism industry”. Just because you're in a hotel doesn't mean you have to change sheets and towels every day.

There are plenty of other areas for improvement on the ecological side. At the end of the year, cash receipts will be optional and printing a paper invoice should become an option and an email invoice a standard. Another subject, breakfast, the customer wants to have a buffet and eat what he does not usually eat at home, but is it the right model in terms of ecology and waste management when you know everything that goes into the trash at the end of a service for obvious reasons of hygiene.

I am in the process of finalizing a training course in partnership with an association that encourages companies to engage in an eco-responsible transition. We worked on a simple and fun way that involves employees to meet the needs of the Atout France ranking but also to initiate real change.

What is your vision on the place of digital technology in the sector?

For almost everyone, even the oldest ones, digital technology is omnipresent in daily life. I don't see why it shouldn't be present in the hotel industry. We gain in efficiency and customer service. For example, today, it is difficult to imagine having to fill out a form on a hotel's website and wait for hours for the hotel to give availability and rates in order to book. Unfortunately, it still exists for some, and these hotels are losing a lot of bookings.

Today, all of this can be automated. All time-consuming tasks with no added value can disappear to offer a better customer experience and make jobs more rewarding.

In the Grand Quartier (hotel where we were doing the interview) for example, check in is done at terminals. On the one hand, there is the customer who is completely autonomous, he is familiar with it and uses it effectively. On the other hand, there is the one who is less so and who will be accompanied by the receptionist who is always present. In the end, these two customers coexist very well together.

For digitalization to work well, it must be thought out beforehand. It is necessary to have analyzed the needs and especially the interconnection of all the tools. We see so many hotels, victims of shiny object syndrome, saying “oh I absolutely have to have it” when talking about the latest tool released, either because they are very focused on novelty or because they have been influenced by a bad consultant or a very good salesperson. Unfortunately, it is after we realize that this solution does not connect or connects poorly with the PMS and therefore finally not used properly and becomes a liability rather than an asset.

Digital technology is therefore essential, but must be interconnected with all ecosystems and all this is thought out beforehand and takes time. The team must also be mobilized. Not long ago, I had the opportunity to do a training course for deploying a PMS. The hotelier decided that he wanted to change his management solution without planning or thinking about it. The team was not mobilized for the event. The training took place with very few people. There must have been four or five receptionists, but in the end, there were only two!

Inevitably, the transition went badly, it took weeks to return to “normal” functioning.

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to open a hotel?

Do not hesitate to be accompanied.

Either he already has experience as a hotelier, this is not his first opening or management. In this case, he will only need to be assisted occasionally on the most complex points or if he lacks knowledge on a subject.

Either he starts in the hotel adventure and there, it is important to understand what it means to manage a hotel as a whole. You can't start without thinking about how to deal with complexity. The external perspective and the attentive ear of the consultant are therefore very important.