In view of this, ARMS, which provides Ticket Restaurant (food coupons) facility to corporates, has been renamed Accor Radhakrishna Hospitility Services (ARHS), through which Accor will launch its other products in the country.

The products, to be launched shortly, include privilege card, incentive coupons for healthcare, uniform, fuel and other facilities, Accor Corporate Service (India) managing director, Laurent Fourier, said.

Accor, which has tied up with the Mumbai-based Mahindra and Mahindra group and Ummed of Rajasthan to own and manage hotels in the country, plans to set up economy, Mercure and Sofitel chain of hotels here.

Accor launched the concept of TicketRestaurant (TR) food coupons in the country. The TR food coupons are bought by corporates for their employees. These are valid in certain restaurants and co-operative stores, a list of which is given to the client. Unlike the allowance paid in cash by the company, these coupons are tax-free, Fourier said.

In about two years, the company has got more than 30 corporate clients and affiliation with more than 4000 food establishments. Its clientele include IDBI, RPG, BHEL, Blue Dart, LIC, Mastek, McDonalds, Marubeni and a majority of Tata group of companies. In Mumbai, a large number of software companies at Seepz have taken the membership, he said.

The concept became popular with big corporates who have in-house catering facility for employees in the main offices but are unable to provide a similar facility at their branch offices. To offer parity to their employees, corporates give TR coupons to their staff in the offices where they do not have the dedicated catering facility, said Fourier.

The small andmedium-sized companies find the concept an attractive offer for their employees, he added. Accor, which operates the largest hotel network with around 3,000 units spread all over the world, has a joint venture with the M&M group. The Indian partner already operates hotels in Mumbai, Bangalore and Tirupati under the Guestline brandname which will soon be changed into Guestline-Mercure to reflect the new management, he said.

Ummed Accor is developing the Sofitel chain of luxury hotels in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The first Sofitel has beed opened in Ahmedabad. To expand its presence in the hotel sector, Accor is also in talks with the government and private agencies to takeover its existing properties. Accor has been negotiating with the government of West Bengal to manage the Great Eastern Hotel in Calcutta.

In line with current global trends, India needs more good economy hotels, said Fourier. On the one hand, there are not enough rooms available for tourists and on the other, the tariff of the five starhotels is very high, he said, adding that staying alone makes India an expensive place for leisure travel.

Besides hotels and food services, Accor operates Europcar, the car rental service, with ITC Travel House. It has also tied up with IndTravel for travel agency business in the country. Due to the well-established network in the hospitality industry, Accor is able to provide and incentives to its clients, Fourier said.

Accor operates the largest hotel network world-wide and is the second largest player in the travel agency business. The group operates a large car rental service in Europe and is the leader in service voucher system with Accor Corporate Services having established its network in around 150 cuntries.