Accor Hotels is making significant changes to its “Le Club” loyalty program. From next year, it will become much more difficult to earn and maintain status with the program.
Le Club is the loyalty program of Accor-branded hotels including Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, Ibis and Pullman.
The major change is the way in which status is earned in the program. Currently, status earn is based on the number of points earned, including bonus points, throughout the year. However, from next year, points will be split into “Rewards Points” and “Status Points”. Only Status Points, which are earned only through spend on eligible hotel stays or meetings, will count towards status qualification. Bonus points, as well as points earned with a program partner, no longer count.
Alternatively, members can continue to earn status based on the number of nights stayed in an Accor hotel. Platinum status can be earned by staying 60 nights per year at Accor properties.
The number of Status Points earned for each stay will depend on the amount spent, with earn rates varying slightly by hotel. These rates are based on the amount spent in Euros. This is fairly uncommon, as US Dollars are usually used. One member has converted this into Australian dollars, in order to demonstrate how much will need to be spent at Accor hotels to earn status under the new system:
Once converted to AUD using the xe conversion rate as of Saturday 2 April 2016, the required expenditure in AUD is as follows:
- Platinum – $8260.44
- Gold – 4,124.76
- Silver – 1,178.09
I suspect that other loyalty programs will see a boost in their membership.
With Platinum status now requiring a hotel spend of over $8,000 per year, there is no doubt that status will soon be much harder to achieve. In particular, the fact the bonus points no longer count towards status earn will have a large impact. Many members, unhappy with the changes, are now considering other hotel loyalty options.
I had found the Accor program very useful and it’s a shame what they are now doing to it, from my view of course.
But not everyone feels this way. One member, who will continue to earn Platinum status by staying at least 60 nights in Accor hotels each year, hopes the reduced number of elite members will lead to a more consistent application of benefits, such as complimentary upgrades, in the future.
To be honest, as a platinum with approx 80-90 nights a year at Accor, I’m hoping this will translate into more consistent benefits as it limits the number of Platinum members… It will make Platinum a smaller club, and hopefully they will bring in Lifetime Platinum as well.
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