A restaurateur-hotelier pairing at the head of Umih
Franck Chaumès succeeds Thierry Marx as confederal president of the Union des métiers de l’hôtellerie restauration (Umih), France’s hotel and restaurant trades union. He takes charge of the organisation alongside Valentin Prudon, elected confederal vice-president. The duo was elected by a majority of the departmental presidents and associated unions.
During the campaign, the two leaders placed proximity to businesses and the strength of the collective at the heart of their project. Their programme combines the defence of traditional restaurants, championed by Franck Chaumès, with that of independent hotels, embodied by Valentin Prudon, a hotelier and president of Umih Corrèze-Creuse.
A Bordeaux restaurateur with grassroots experience
From a family of hospitality professionals stretching back four generations, Franck Chaumès has been developing a number of establishments since 1990, notably in Bordeaux and around the Arcachon basin. President of Umih Gironde since 2021, he has chaired the organisation’s national restaurant branch since 2023.
His election to the confederal presidency follows a union career built first at departmental level before extending nationally.
Carrying more weight in public decision-making
The new pairing has argued for a Umih with greater influence over public decisions and able to deliver practical answers for businesses. It has stated its determination to protect establishments’ profitability in the face of mounting constraints and imbalances in competition.
To achieve this, Franck Chaumès and Valentin Prudon intend to strengthen the resources of the departmental unions. They also want to give the regions a greater role in the confederation’s work.
Artificial intelligence and UmihLab for members
The project includes new services for members, among them AI-supported legal, tax and employment assistance. The organisation had already taken up the subject by offering its members a webinar on AI.
The duo also plans to create a laboratory, UmihLab, designed to make innovation accessible to independent operators.
A French Hospitality Summit and a French Hospitality Week
Raising awareness of the sector’s professions and their contribution to national life is another campaign commitment. Franck Chaumès and Valentin Prudon propose creating a French Hospitality Summit, which would bring together industry professionals and decision-makers.
This event would be complemented by a French Hospitality Week open to the general public. The two events are intended to give greater visibility to the profession and to the people who keep it running.
GHR expresses its perplexity
The election drew an immediate response from the Groupement des Hôtelleries et Restaurations de France (GHR). The organisation, chaired by Catherine Quérard, congratulated the new president while saying it was perplexed by policy directions which, in its view, appear to favour restaurants alone. It sees a risk of hotels and the sector’s other trades being pushed into the background.
The GHR stated that differences between the organisations over their vision for the future of the professions had never been so great. On the restaurant side, it rejects the mandatory display of “fait maison” (homemade) labelling, a new compulsory training requirement and the introduction of a numerus clausus.
On the hotel side, the GHR says it will continue its efforts to regulate short-term tourist rentals and to guarantee fair competition, particularly on tax. This issue had already led Umih hoteliers to take Airbnb to court for unfair competition. The GHR also intends to defend hoteliers’ commercial and pricing freedom vis-à-vis online travel agencies, notably Booking.com, as well as the stability of the tourist tax.
Employer representation in flux
Umih presents itself as the sector’s leading professional organisation. It represents more than 35,000 cafés, hotels, restaurants, nightlife venues, caterers, bowling alleys and thalassotherapy centres, in mainland France and its overseas territories. It claims 68% of unionised businesses in the sector and 51% of employees, a position reinforced by the latest representativeness assessment.
The GHR, for its part, brings together 12,000 establishments employing more than 150,000 people. The boundary between the two organisations is also shifting: at the end of September, GHR Paris Île-de-France announced it would join Umih to become Union CHR Paris Île-de-France, as an associated union from 1 January 2027.
Analysis – By explicitly entrusting the defence of independent hotels to its vice-president, the new tandem pre-empts the GHR’s main grievance. Umih’s ability to carry hotel-sector issues, from short-term rentals to relations with OTAs, will be one of the first markers of the mandate for owners and operators.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
New leadership at France’s largest hospitality employers’ union
Franck Chaumès succeeds Thierry Marx as confederal president of Umih, with hotelier Valentin Prudon as vice-president
Elected by a majority of department presidents and associated unions
Agenda: stronger local unions, AI-powered legal, tax and HR support, and an UmihLab innovation lab
Planned French Hospitality Summit and a public-facing French Hospitality Week
Rival union GHR congratulates the duo but warns of a restaurant-centric agenda
