Laurent Gauze, the owner of Hotel Economique, tells us about his evolution in the hotel sector, the history of Hotel Economique (Ibis brand) and how October was a great help to them.
Since the beginning of his professional life, Gauze has dedicated himself to the hotel sector focusing on the Ibis chain (Ibis Budget, Ibis Styles and Ibis Hotel) in the areas of Spain, Portugal and now France.
Why the hotel sector?
Laurent had two choices: to dedicate himself to law or follow the family tradition of the hotel industry. Over 25 years ago, he had the opportunity to work with AccorHotels and develop hotels in foreign countries. He has been with Ibis for the last 10 years and he says that it has been one of the greatest decisions of his professional career.
Committed to society
In the Ibis chain, they promote social responsibility. They have sustainable gardens and solar panels in all their hotels as well as sustainable products.
One of their main beliefs is- in order to dedicate themselves to the hotel industry, they must take into account people’s lives.
Ibis was one of the first chains to make major changes in the way hotels are run in terms of modernity and comfort. For example, they renewed the beds, changed the design of the breakfast area and have removed all the receptions from the hotels to encourage the check-in and check-out from the mobile app.
October‘s experience
Laurent Gauze tells us about his first encounter with October and how it was very personable. October was able to help enhance the renovation process of their hotel.
Lorena Zaragozá, the outside sales representative at October tells us about the Ibis’ project: “Laurent came to us because he was looking for a new form of financing to renovate one of his Ibis hotels in Catalonia.
Thanks to him, we were able to expand our ability to analyzing and understand the hotel business”Laurent Gauze says “Our hotel renovation went exactly how I had explained to October. So now, October will be partners with us for a long time”
“This was the first of 5 projects within the hotel sector that we had financed that year. October was becoming involved in this hotel sector for the first time,” added Lorena Zaragozá, Outside sales representative at October.
The project, Hotel Economique, was published in July 2018 with the aim to finance part of the renovation of the hotel in Catalonia. A total of 1,601 investors participated in this project.