The Hospitality Group Building a Sports & Entertainment Empire on Social (HBBIP #147)

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We find ourselves in the dog days of summer, when the whole Europe office is MIA and those of us stateside are also dreaming of escape. My thoughts are turning to beaches, mountains, quiet idylls far from the maddening crowd. Crisp white sheets, little jars of fancy conditioners, complimentary breakfast buffets.

I’ve got the travel bug, ladies and gentlemen. And as an analyzer of social media trends, I can state with quantitatively backed confidence that it sure seems like everybody is going to Europe. Now I’m all for stylish, cultural excursions, but I also sweat a lot, so that might be a deal-breaker for me, at least during summer.

But sure, let’s say I want to go to Europe sometime in the near future. What hotel should I stay at? As always, we turn to social media. And if my feed is any indication, there seems to be a pretty definitive answer.

The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): Accor Hotels

Say bonjour to everyone’s favorite multinational hospitality conglomerate: Accor!

Founded in France in 1967, Accor has brought the world a range of luxury, midlevel, and budget accommodations, everything from the Fairmont to ibis. Having stayed at the ibis, I hope to one day work myself up to the Fairmont, but you know what? Even the ibis was pretty solid, so thank you Accor for that.

It’s a lot of fun (really!) reading Accor Hotels’ Wikipedia page, and seeing how secretly incestuous/interlinked the world of hotel conglomerates is. Did you know that Accor used to own Motel 6? Well, you do now. Isn’t that fun?

Even more fun, though, is seeing what an incredible content ecosystem Accor Hotels has built on social media. With a surprisingly diverse array of inputs—everyone from French rappers to soccer superstars to travel creators—the posts are fresh as newly laundered pillowcases, and the growth is undeniable. Grab a snack from the minibar, and let’s take a closer look.

How Is Accor Performing on Social Media?

Accor Hotels Creator Count, 2020 - 2025

Accor Hotels’ creator count expanded from 914 creators in 2020 to 3.8k creators in 2025, a solid 4.2x increase over six years. Compared to other metrics, creator count growth was steady throughout the monitored time period, with a more notable acceleration beginning in 2022. The brand’s creator ecosystem nearly doubled in size between 2023 and 2025, reflecting the broader travel industry’s corresponding investment in creator marketing.

Accor Hotels Post Count, 2020 - 2025

Post count increased at a roughly equal rate, with mentions of Accor Hotels expanding from 3k pieces of content in 2020 to 17k posts in 2025, a 5.6x increase. Unlike other metrics (I know I keep teasing this, but I swear there’s going to be a payoff), posting activity climbed every year without interruption, demonstrating expanding visibility on social.

Accor Hotels EMV, 2020 - 2025

Okay, this is not yet the place for that payoff. Here we have another steady example of regular growth. Earned Media Value (EMV), a reflection of Accor Hotels’ share of viral conversation on social media, rose from $10.2M in 2020 to $75.6M in 2025, a 7.4x increase. EMV grew steadily throughout the six-year period, with especially strong gains between 2021 and 2022 and again from 2023 onward. Although the rate of increase moderated slightly in 2025, the brand still reached its highest EMV on record.

                                                                                                    Accor Hotels Impressions, 2020 - 2025

Here we go! Now something is happening.

Impressions grew from 417M in 2020 to 1B impressions in 2025, a 2.5x increase, but the tale of the tape tells a more complex story. Accor Hotels experienced a significant decline in impressions in 2021 before beginning a sustained recovery. This pattern is mainly due to an outlier 2020 for the Accor brand news-wise, featuring both the good (new Paris Saint-Germain kits!) and the bad (a global pandemic causing catastrophic losses for the hotel industry!). 2021 proved a little more normal, but alas, still lower in terms of impressions.

Accor Hotels Engagements, 2020 - 2025

Here’s another one where the trajectory isn’t what you’d expectory. (Sorry.)

Accor Hotels’ engagements grew from 6M in 2020 to 31.2M in 2025, a 5.2x increase. However, the brand reached its pinnacle in 2024, when engagements reached a record 38.4M before declining in 2025. While this decline was out of sync with YoY increases in other metrics, it’s more broadly in keeping with trends we’ve seen for other brands, where engagements lags slightly behind impressions. Still, it’s important to keep this discrepancy in mind when we take a look at the social platforms and content driving results for Accor Hotels.

Which Social Channels Were Key to Accor Hotels' Growth?

Accor Hotels' Share of Impressions by Platform, July 2025 - June 2026

Instagram overwhelmingly drives Accor Hotels' global impressions, accounting for roughly three-quarters of the pie, which is a pretty greedy serving. TikTok serves as a secondary awareness channel, while YouTube and Facebook contribute comparatively modest shares.

Accor Hotels' Share of Engagements by Platform, July 2025 - June 2026

When it comes to engagements, the picture changes only slightly. Instagram also dominates here, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all interactions. Notably, TikTok delivers approximately one-quarter of total engagements, demonstrating considerably stronger efficiency than its impression share would suggest.

Let’s see how this dynamic plays out when we look at…

Who Are Accor Hotels' Creators?

1. Accor Arenas Emerge as Dominant Conversation-Drivers

From July 2025 to June 2026, a majority of Accor Hotels’ most impactful posts were generated by musicians, rappers, athletes, sports leagues, and concert venues amplifying events held at the Accor Arena in Paris (formerly Bercy) and Accor Stadium in Sydney. These music and sports clusters together saturated Accor Hotels’ top posts leaderboard with concert announcements, artist clips, halftime performances, and match coverage.

Naturally, the Accor Arena Paris dominated amongst French creators, especially musicians. Kery James ($1.6M EMV, 72 posts) released clips from his Accor Arena dates, while ferregola_lepadre ($1.2M EMV), Singuila ($1.1M EMV), Naza Bomaye ($1M EMV), and others scored big with concert announcements, helping cement Accor Arena as an ambient co-brand for the entire French urban music scene.

On the Australian side, it was all about rugby. The National Rugby League ($1.9M EMV) proved Accor Hotels’ No. 7 overall EMV-driver, gaining traction around the NRL Grand Final. Meanwhile, the brisbanebroncos ($353k EMV), NRL Footy Show ($335k EMV), and NSW Blues ($247k EMV) all generated Accor Stadium-tagged posts around State of Origin, Grand Final, and major concert events, notably Metallica filming at Accor Stadium and Grammy-nominated artist Teddy Swims performing at the NRL Grand Final.

2. Kylian Mbappé Is Accor Hotels’ Signature Global Creator Partner

If you’re going to have a standout brand ambassador, it might as well be Mbappé. Fresh off yet another historic run at the World Cup, the French soccer superstar is scoring still more goals for Accor. Mbappé ranked as the brand’s No. 3 EMV-driver ($1.6M) and authored the top three individual posts on the leaderboard ($263k, $262k, and $253k), appearing throughout the brand's ecosystem with clearly coordinated content. Mbappé’s posts are largely advertorial, with scripted content around wellness, contests, and giveaways. However, this brand partnership paid dividends by being amplified across various media sources. Vanity Fair, for example, featured a cover interview with Mbappé, while creator @mathismolinie hyped up a contest for a Mbappé-gifted stay at Accor: "Two weeks ago, Kylian Mbappé offered one of his followers a stay with ALL Accor, and I had the chance to experience it in advance."

While Accor Hotels can build on this partnership to offer an expanded creator roster and less advertorial content, the brand’s work with Mbappé offers a clean, well-executed celebrity partnership with clear content architecture, and a promising template to build on.

3. Accor Hotels’ International Footprint Reflects Travel Content, Luxury Sub-Brands

Strip away the Arenas and the soccer players, and content about Accor Hotels reveals a more hospitality-relevant creator community with genuine passion for Accor’s broader portfolio of hotel brands, including Sofitel, Raffles, Novotel, Fairmont, ibis, and ALL.

One strong thread of hospitality content comes from a handful of travel-focused, points-and-miles creators. For example, India-based creator thatcreditcardguy ($283k EMV) generated high-EMV posts about using Amex Centurion earnings at Accor's luxury properties, while Brazilian account all.br ($538k EMV) favored Roland-Garros hospitality and hotel experiences, and the Great Indian Points & Miles Show ($235k EMV) built Accor into a loyalty and travel rewards content format.

In fact, the Roland Garros partnership, activated through the ALL Accor Live Limitless sponsorship, is the most developed non-Arena, non-Mbappé theme in Accor Hotels’ data: Roland Garros ($1.2M EMV) documented the "Limitless Experience by @all.accor" with Gaël Monfils, VIP fan zone access, and a "Quiet Room & La Beauty Room" suite, often tagging the brand directly in soccer content. Together, these posts suggest the Roland Garros activation is Accor Hotels’ most concerted content moment, where hospitality, sport, and aspirational access converge into a single, repeatable frame.

Overall, Accor Hotels’ current content mix is a promising foundation for further growth. Headlined by entertainment and standout partners like Mbappé, and lifted by a broader travel and hospitality space that’s investing more heavily in creator marketing, I expect Accor Hotels to continue its rise to the top.

*All data, unless otherwise specified, stems from CreatorIQ's public-facing brand leaderboards. We will never share performance metrics from a customer's CreatorIQ profile, or any brand's private information.

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