Expedia - Accor non-refundable hotel France - advice?

[KarenD]

Hi all

We have a hotel in Paris booked through Expedia for late August 2020 - it's the Novotel Paris Les Halles, so an Accor hotel.

We've cancelled our trip but this is a non-refundable booking, made through Expedia.

Accor's cancellation policy for France is as follows:
For hotels in France (including all overseas regions):
• For a stay cancelled between March 1st, 2020 and September 15th, 2020 inclusive, guests may receive a credit voucher only for all cancellations for the full value of their reservation for use at the same hotel. To cancel and receive a credit voucher, please contact the hotel directly. Hotel France: book online at all.accor.com

I contacted the hotel but they can't help as it's a third party booking. Expedia will only talk to anyone with a booking within 10 days - if you call they make you enter your itinerary number and if it's more than 10 days away it hangs up, and there's no other way to contact them.

Has anyone had any success in this situation or have any advice? I wonder if we could consider a credit card chargeback at some point.

I think we'll just need to wait until the booking gets closer and then try and sort it out. Would prefer a refund as we won't use the credit voucher in time, but understand that their policy will likely prevail

 

[rginoz]

Hello KarenD. I sympathise with your plight, because I am in a somewhat similar situation myself. I've got a booking for multiple nights at an Accor hotel, booked direct with the hotel, in a small rural town in France. It's a town that I have visited previously, but which I would normally be unlikely to want to visit again in the future. According to their very clearly stated policy, Accor will offer me only a credit voucher, and the voucher will be valid only at this particular hotel.

The Expedia involvement will probably not provide a chance for you to get some more useful type of deferral. At least you will have a voucher for a hotel in Paris. I'm going to have to revisit my rural town. I knew at the time of booking that it was was non-refundable, so I will have to be grateful for what I'm going to get. I won't try a credit card charge back because I have an otherwise good relationship with Accor, which I don't want to prejudice.

 

[Battymum]

I have the same situation for a hotel in Singapore.
I am in the process of considering whether to make a travel insurance claim through my Qantas premier card insurance, they are underwritten by Chubb - one of the only insurers I might have a chance with.

Regretting splurging on that club room with a view to celebrate my birthday and 30 year wedding anniversary.
Honestly thought I had booked a flexible option.

Anyway I don’t think a “charge back” will work - as the hotel didn’t cancel the booking.

Although,let me know if you have any luck.

 

[rginoz]

I have the same situation for a hotel in Singapore.
I am in the process of considering whether to make a travel insurance claim through my Qantas premier card insurance, they are underwritten by Chubb - one of the only insurers I might have a chance with.

Regretting splurging on that club room with a view to celebrate my birthday and 30 year wedding anniversary.
Honestly thought I had booked a flexible option.

Anyway I don’t think a “charge back” will work - as the hotel didn’t cancel the booking.

Although,let me know if you have any luck.

Hello Battymum. I also had a non-refundable Accor reservation in Singapore, for a few days, in May, Recently the hotel emailed me to advise that my reservation had been cancelled, as they were turning the hotel over to the government of Singapore to use for quarantining purposes, and that I would receive a full refund. I've not seen the refund yet, but I'm patient, and quite pleased with this outcome. Maybe your reservation will meet the same fate?

 

[Battymum]

Ooh - that would be good.

I booked directly with Peninsular Excelsior

I have been in touch with them and they are adamant that my booking is non refundable (although as a gesture of goodwill will allow a change of date)

 

[rginoz]

Ooh - that would be good.

I booked directly with Peninsular Excelsior

I have been in touch with them and they are adamant that my booking is non refundable (although as a gesture of goodwill will allow a change of date)

The Peninsula Excelsior is probably a lot more upmarket than my Mercure (for quarantine use). A change of dates is better than the basic position of no refund. Good luck.

 

[KarenD]

Hello KarenD. I sympathise with your plight, because I am in a somewhat similar situation myself. I've got a booking for multiple nights at an Accor hotel, booked direct with the hotel, in a small rural town in France. It's a town that I have visited previously, but which I would normally be unlikely to want to visit again in the future. According to their very clearly stated policy, Accor will offer me only a credit voucher, and the voucher will be valid only at this particular hotel.

The Expedia involvement will probably not provide a chance for you to get some more useful type of deferral. At least you will have a voucher for a hotel in Paris. I'm going to have to revisit my rural town. I knew at the time of booking that it was was non-refundable, so I will have to be grateful for what I'm going to get. I won't try a credit card charge back because I have an otherwise good relationship with Accor, which I don't want to prejudice.

I find it odd that in some regions of Europe people can get a refund but in others only a credit note. Must be some sort of consumer law loophole in some European countries.

I guess we will wait until our booking gets closer and see what the options are. Plan B is probably to try claim on travel insurance, especially if international travel is still banned.

I wonder how long the credit note is valid. I thought I read it was 18 months from date of issue but can't find it written anywhere now...

Post automatically merged: Apr 29, 2020

I have the same situation for a hotel in Singapore.
I am in the process of considering whether to make a travel insurance claim through my Qantas premier card insurance, they are underwritten by Chubb - one of the only insurers I might have a chance with.

Regretting splurging on that club room with a view to celebrate my birthday and 30 year wedding anniversary.
Honestly thought I had booked a flexible option.

Anyway I don’t think a “charge back” will work - as the hotel didn’t cancel the booking.

Although,let me know if you have any luck.

Is it an Accor hotel in Singapore? The Accor policy states:

For hotels in Singapore:
• For a reservation ( including Group Bookings) made before March 25, 2020, with the stay between February 1, 2020 and October 19, 2020 (inclusive)., guests may cancel their reservation and be refunded without penalty. To cancel your reservation and process the refund, please contact the hotel directly.

If it's not an Accor hotel, I wonder if there's some reason that Singapore is allowing refunds, perhaps it's a local law that you could try and mention to the hotel you have booked to motivate them to refund you

 

[rginoz]

I've read elsewhere that Accor is allegedly making the toughest response to the situation, compared to other comparable hotel chains. The Accor response also appears to be evolving very slowly, every couple of days.

 

[KarenD]

I've read elsewhere that Accor is allegedly making the toughest response to the situation, compared to other comparable hotel chains. The Accor response also appears to be evolving very slowly, every couple of days.

YEP I have read that too, their policy is not generous at all and contains a lot of conditions. Contacting a hotel directly for a credit note for that specific hotel seems pretty inflexible, you'd think an Accor credit note would make more sense, although I guess they are hoping people aren't able to use them so they just get to keep our money.

We don't normally book with Accor, we have Hilton status so try and use that when we can, but this was the best hotel for us in Paris. Was actually quite looking forward to trying it out but will probably not be able to use the credit note (if we even get one) before it expires

 

[rginoz]

I'm generally happy with Accor hotels. I'm a Platinum, and I find they usually treat me quite well. Their hotels can be found pretty much everywhere, which is good when I travel beyond the main tourist places. Luckily, I have the time etc to ensure that I can get back to places where I might have a voucher.

 

[KarenD]

The Novotel we had booked for Paris did look nice, and the hotel staff have been very responsive but unfortunately can't do anything since our booking is through Expedia.

It will depend on the validity of the credit note as to whether we can use it or not. We'll have to wait and see. Hopefully we can get back there, even if it's in 2022

 

[VZ1_60]

hi Karen

I had a similar situation with a Pullman Hotel (Accor) for a booking also in France. You need to be persistant !!

Firstly, I called hotels.com/expedia who called the hotel, and said the hotel stated it was "policy" not to refund any non-cancellable bookings. I then emailed Accor who replied that the booking was through a "different channel" and they could not help. After some too and fro, I got an email address for the hotel itself. I then emailed the hotel and asked, given the circumstances, if they would allow a refund which they did. They also said that they had not been paid and that is was expedia's policy not to issue a refund. I sent the email from the hotel to hotels.com/expedia, they confirmd with the hotel, and I managed to get a refund.

cheers, John

 

[KarenD]

hi Karen

I had a similar situation with a Pullman Hotel (Accor) for a booking also in France. You need to be persistant !!

Firstly, I called hotels.com/expedia who called the hotel, and said the hotel stated it was "policy" not to refund any non-cancellable bookings. I then emailed Accor who replied that the booking was through a "different channel" and they could not help. After some too and fro, I got an email address for the hotel itself. I then emailed the hotel and asked, given the circumstances, if they would allow a refund which they did. They also said that they had not been paid and that is was expedia's policy not to issue a refund. I sent the email from the hotel to hotels.com/expedia, they confirmd with the hotel, and I managed to get a refund.

cheers, John

Thanks for the message John, this is interesting indeed.

At this stage I still have no way on contacting expedia, either on the phone or via email (they don't list any email address for contacting them).

I'll follow up with the hotel again and see if I can push them to resolve it at their end.