Accor, the world leading hospitality group, has announced it will provide the winner of E4’s new TV series, ‘Fred’s Last Resort’, hosted by First Dates’ hotel star Fred Sirieix, with a 12-month placement opportunity across three of Accor’s flagship hotels in London.

The programme will see twelve young contestants placed in a five-star resort on the Cote d’Azur in a competition to learn every aspect of working in the hospitality industry. It will challenge participants to learn new skills needed to provide first-class customer experiences, following the excitement, humour, and challenges along the way.

The winner will be provided with the opportunity to spend a year working within Accor hotels across London, enjoying bespoke training placements at Novotel London Canary Wharf, Sofitel London St James and The Savoy, a Fairmont managed hotel. The tailored programme will include Training & Development via the Accor Academy to support the winner’s professional development, a dedicated mentor throughout the year and a tailored career programme in each hotel dependant on their area of interest, gaining experience and know-how from some of the industry-leading experts.

Accor are a giant of the hospitality industry, so we are thrilled to offer our lucky winning recruit the chance to work for them. During filming, our recruits got to experience the luxury of Les Roches Blanches Hotel in the South of France - and now the winner will get a huge breadth of training that only an international brand like Accor is able to offer – it really is a life changing opportunity. Fred Sirieix

The placement will offer the chance for the victorious contestant to work across a variety of roles in flagship hotels of some of the best-known hotel brands in hospitality, offering a comprehensive and bespoke training to catapult the winner into the sector.

Prior to the placement, Accor will also be providing the winner with a tour across the Group’s European hotels, from Warsaw to Montreux to Lisbon, offering an insight into the range of opportunities that exist within the hospitality industry and the span of Accor’s brands.

Fred Sirieix is a great role model and champion of hospitality careers so we are delighted to be working with him and partnering with Channel 4 on this important show, which we hope will help transform many people’s perceptions of the hospitality industry. Hospitality is defined as the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers – it impacts people’s lives positively and is a sector driven by passionate, hard-working people. This, however, is not the perception in the UK. Fred’s Last Resort will hopefully help tackle some of the misconceptions of the sector and spotlight how rewarding hospitality careers can be. Supporting and nurturing young talent is so important within the industry, and we look forward to providing the winner a career-changing prize, offering support, guidance and the tools to grow their knowledge and skills as they embark on their journey into the world of hospitality. Baiba Plume, Accor Director of Employer Branding

The series will be airing on E4 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 14th March and available on All 4.

About Accor

Accor is a world leading hospitality group consisting of more than 5,300 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues throughout 110 countries. The group has one of the industry’s most diverse and fully-integrated hospitality ecosystems encompassing more than 40 luxury, premium, midscale and economy hotel brands, entertainment and nightlife venues, restaurants and bars, branded private residences, shared accommodation properties, concierge services, co-working spaces and more. Accor’s unmatched position in lifestyle hospitality – one of the fastest growing categories in the industry – is led by Ennismore, a joint venture, which Accor holds a majority shareholding. Ennismore is a creative hospitality company with a global collective of entrepreneurial and founder-built brands with purpose at their heart. Accor boasts an unrivalled portfolio of distinctive brands and more than 260,000 team members worldwide. Members benefit from the company’s comprehensive loyalty program – ALL - Accor Live Limitless – a daily lifestyle companion that provides access to a wide variety of rewards, services and experiences. Through its Planet 21 – Acting Here, Accor Solidarity, RiiSE and ALL Heartist Fund initiatives, the Group is focused on driving positive action through business ethics, responsible tourism, environmental sustainability, community engagement, diversity and inclusivity. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France and publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information visit group.accor.com, or follow Accor on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

More about Fred’s Last Resort

A glamourous, luxury hotel in Southern France paired with endless sunshine sounds like a luxury break for most people – but not if Fred Sirieix has anything to do with it. Far from playing Cupid, we’re about to see a side to Fred we’ve never seen before, as he takes on his biggest challenge yet.

Giving back to the industry in which he made his name, and which almost buckled under the weight of a global pandemic, Fred’s Last Resort (8x60’), we will see our favourite French maître d, recruit 12 young people at a crossroads in their lives and throw them into a life changing, highly demanding role in the exacting world of luxury, high-end hotel hospitality.

Our new recruits will have to lose the lounge wear and smarten up their appearance and attitude, as there is a challenging road ahead.

Located in a spectacular hotel on the French Riviera, the area where Fred himself trained as a youngster, the team will welcome demanding clientele from across the globe who will expect nothing less than premium service. Following strict rules and tackling all types of challenges, it’s up to Fred and his recruits not to disappoint, but will Fred be able wrangle his unruly recruits into keeping the hotel experience up to his high standards?

If the recruits make it through the season, they will not only have learned some very exclusive, new transferrable skills to help them succeed in life, but one of them will also receive a life-changing role, a sought-after internship at a top tier hospitality group. However, if any of the staff don’t step up to the plate, Fred won’t hesitate to say, ‘au revoir’.

Fred’s Last Resort is co-produced by Betty TV and Canard, both part of Objective Media Group, and Motion Content Group. The series will be distributed by All3Media International.