As someone who bought 2 $100 Accor gift cards and was an Accor+Platinum member, I thought I'd share my perspective on this issue. First, what is key to understand here is that not all hotels accept these gift cards, and even for the ones that do, not all staff understand how to apply the gift cards to your rate. You will have the best luck applying these gift cards at higher end hotels (i.e. Sofitel). Second, you need to be on a rate where you pay the full amount at the hotel. You cannot use these gift cards on the Accor site, they can only be used at the property to settle the bill. Third, these gift cards can only be used in certain regions (I believe it's Oceania and Asia). Fourth, these gift cards from my experience can be used on Accor+ rates, having used two $100 gift cards to pay for a stay at the Sofitel Melbourne.
Whether it makes sense to buy an Accor gift card versus other gift cards is certainly open for debate. There are some clear advantages I see to using the Accor gift card like the ability to use up the entire value to cover a stay (I can't tell you the number of gift cards I have that have say 10 cents balance remaining, I still end up ahead with the bonus points but it's annoying). However, if you buy other gift cards like the restaurant choice gift card you'll have more flexibility since you can use it at a number of restaurants and I believe even at hotels (provided the hotel lets you split pay the cost using gift card and your normal payment method). For my money, I'd probably veer more towards the flexible gift cards, particularly when the bonus points you receive remain the same.
-RooFlyer88
