How does Accor treat you as an Elite guest?

[oz_mark]

I’ve had similar issues on two recent stays:

1. Personal booking, made direct with Accor. In this case I wasn’t on the breakfast list but my status was correctly recorded in the system as confirmed by front desk.

2. Wo
It was sorted eventually, but after some back-and-forth with Accor, it turns out that as you progress through the status tiers your Accor member number changes. Just the last digit.

Actually, the status indicator is the middle digit. So when you look at a card, there is 7 digits (that tell you your membership type), then a single digit, which indicates your status. Then another 7 digits, which is your membership number, and the final digit is a check digit.

 

[Daver6]

How do people know when they've been upgraded from a classic to a superior room? I don't know the differences.

You probably don't. Hotels make up this "category" differences when the room is identical but maybe on a higher floor or a different view but the actual room is the same.

 

[sudoer]

It was sorted eventually, but after some back-and-forth with Accor, it turns out that as you progress through the status tiers your Accor member number changes. Just the last digit.

Yeah, no idea why Accor makes it this difficult, but the number I emailed to the front desk was definitely my Plat number.

How do people know when they've been upgraded from a classic to a superior room? I don't know the differences.

At the Movenpick, the Classic room is tiny (20sqm) and has a different room config. There are also just 10 of them, whereas there are 100+ Superior rooms (25sqm), so the likelihood of an upgrade is quite high.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Actually, the status indicator is the middle digit. So when you look at a card, there is 7 digits (that tell you your membership type), then a single digit, which indicates your status. Then another 7 digits, which is your membership number, and the final digit is a check digit.

Ah, makes sense.

So perhaps when I went from gold to platinum the eighth digit changed with my status(and I didn't notice), but that also triggered a change to the check digit (which I did notice).

Either way, it seems far more complex than it needs to be!

 

[bullerdude]

Usually you’re told something at checkin? But you often see the new room details in the relevant hotel app (or website). I think I’ve seen an upgrade in the Accor app. Hilton will show your upgrade before arriving. I hadn’t noticed before, but a recent IHG stay showed up in the app that my room had change from Standard to Superior.

Another thing I often do is look at the fire escape floor plan on the back of the door. You’ll get an idea of how your room compares (at least to the rest of floor).

I find Accor rarely mentions upgrades unless they weren’t able to upgrade me as a Platinum. The positive is that I’ve almost alway received an upgrade at properties that have rooms available, with a couple of exceptions generally at the Mantra/Peppers properties. I’ve never seen the upgrade appear in the online booking or App.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Property: MGallery St Moritz Queenstown
Status: Silver
Room booked: Alpine Suite, 1 King Size Bed, Lake View with Balcony
Room upgraded: No, I don't believe there are any higher category rooms
Rate: Corporate
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Yes, 1 voucher received for hour wine, beer or spirits. Redeemed at the Lombardi bar.
Early Check in/out: N/A

I booked this trip a couple of months ago before it got a little easier to travel to NZ. The rate at the time was a steal, around $180 AUD for the suite which was too good to pass up. The hotel is set just outside of town, up a small hill. This shouldn't be a big deterrent though, its only a few minute walk into town.

The room was huge, with a wet-bar at the entrance, living area and master bedroom/ensuite. The view from the balcony was exquisite, particularly at sunrise and sunset. I was a little disappointed with the bathroom amenities - they were the locked pump bottles instead of the replenished minis. The hotel did seem to place a big focus on sustainability though, so I guess it us understandable.

Unfortunately, the service received was fairly poor. Daily housekeeping was still running, but on one day, I was out from 10AM-3PM, but came back to an unserviced room. I understand this is probably owing to lack of staffing, which was a fairly widespread problem in Queenstown. On another occasion though, I waited at a table in the bar for 25 minutes for a drinks menu. There were only 5 occupied tables at the bar, and 4 or 5 bar/wait staff floating around not doing much, so I don't think this one could be put down to short-staffing. Anyway.

The final thing to note is that the hotel is currently undergoing fairly significant renovations to the lobby/lift area. This started at around 8AM each morning, including on the weekend, which was not communicated prior to check-in. There was also a fairly irritating pipe/running water noise, and I doubt this was related to the renovations.

 

[Captain Halliday]

TL;DR: Another disaster, avoid.

Property: Novotel Sydney Central
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked : Executive King
Room upgraded: No
Rate: Corporate rate
Free internet: No
Welcome drink: No
Welcome gift: No

Second visit in three weeks. No improvement.

The staff member who was being trained on my visit three weeks ago was working solo and took around ten mins to check in the guest ahead of me. Meantime other staff were scurrying around dealing with what seemed to be an IT issue. “Reset the server” was the clue.

When my turn came the excuse was “room still being cleaned”, please come back later.

A colleague who checked in around 30mins later was told about the IT issue and pointed to the bar where there was no charge for the duration of the outage.

When I returned two hours later there was an underwhelming check-in experience with unnecessary paperwork and no status recognition. Same issue as three weeks ago. This was despite checking my Accor status was attached to the booking, and showing in the app before the stay, it had still dropped off thr reservation.

The clue was the sales pitch around buffet breakfast. At this point I enquired and while the staff member added my Accor number to the booking, there was no attempt at service recovery.

In the room there was no water, specifically no running water from the taps. This wasn’t mentioned at check in and continued until around 6pm. Too bad if you were thirsty.

Foolishly I assumed adding my Accor number to the booking would resolve the issue, but at breakfast on the first morning I was offered the room charge slip. Accor plus platinum card saw this waived promptly.

Same staff member was working breakfast on day two and there were no issues… until checkout where I was told I had breakfast charges to pay for. <sigh>

Just my luck it was the same staff member who checked me in and really wasn’t up to speed. Even my Accor Plus Plat card wouldn’t convince her and so had to direct her to the restaurant supervisor.

I have cancelled my forward bookings at this hotel and will shift to a nearby Mercure.

Edit: The folio has just hit my email and the breakfast has been charged to my credit card. Not happy.

 

[Mort]

Property: Ibis Christchurch
Status: Accor Plus Silver
Room booked: Standard Room, 2 Double Beds (because I like a choice )
Room upgraded: No
Rate: Mothers Day Offer?
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Yes, 1 voucher to use at bar.
Amenity: Chocolates, Lollies, 2 bottles of water replaced daily. Hand written welcome card.
Early Check in/out: N/A

Pretty happy with this stay for what I consider a budget hotel, I did not need anything special just a place to rest my head, as I was out all day and evenings. The room was small, but clean and the beds comfortable and serviced daily. All staff I encountered went above and beyond to make me feel welcome and provide anything required or just have a bit of a chat.

I'd probably stay again if I make it to Christchurch in the future.

 

[jase05]

Property: Novotel Barossa Valley Resort
Status: Accor Plus Diamond
Room booked : Standard Studio 1 King
Room upgraded: Yes, Superior 1 King
Rate: Accor Plus Red Hot Room ($184.50)
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: 2x drinks vouchers to value of $12 each but they are very liberal and allowed us a glass of pretty much anything on the drinks menu no matter the price

Been a while since our last stay here as it’s only about 10 minutes from home but had a Birthday lunch yesterday and thought after a few wines I wouldn’t risk drink driving. Rates floated between $270-380 for the lowest room when I was looking over the last couple of weeks but then suddenly on Thursday they came up on the Red Hot rooms for $184.50 so I jumped on it.
As for the stay, the room was great with beautiful views but I felt the service was pretty hit and miss and I’m not sure if they had a heap of new staff but didn’t seem very coordinated or polished IMO. Check in was a bit of a mess as they fiddled around on the computer and couldn’t see my Diamond status so no welcome drink cards, upgrade etc. Manager came over and could see that something was up and duly found a room upgrade and produced 2 drink vouchers to the value of $12 each. She then invited us to have another 2 drinks on the house if we didn’t mind having a drink in the bar whilst they readied our room. I didn’t mind as we were already in the bar area for birthday drinks. Went to our room about a hour later and greeted by welcome card, platter and a bottle of red (albeit a cheap one )
Excellent views from room balcony and enjoyed a couple of drinks before the sun went down.
Had dinner booked in the restaurant. Service was attentive to start and both wine and mains delivered promptly. We had the 2 course meal and ordered mains and dessert at same time. Mains were cleared and for the next hour we didn’t receive any further attention. Bottle of wine sat empty for just under a hour with no sign of dessert, staff running around cleaning but not attending to patrons. Eventually I grabbed the attention of the manager and he apologised profusely and said desert would be on the house as they had “misplaced” our order. Food was excellent and with the 50% off Accor Plus discount it came in under $200.
Breakfast was a absolute shambles this morning, we had pre booked a table but nothing was known about it when we arrived. Waited 10 minutes for a spare table and massive line up at buffet. Food was good though and not a bad selection. Standard fare of bacon, eggs, cereal, fruits etc with coffee machine and juices. Asked for barrister coffee and told we need to go to bar and order. Was a bit of a odd system where you filled out a slip of paper with table number, drink menu etc and handed it to barrister but was a seriously good coffee.
On checkout we were charged $5.50 per coffee which is no biggie but never seen that at Accor.
Overall not a bad stay but seemed most of the issues were with the restaurant and just seemed quite messy and unpolished.
Will go back next time we have a function up there and it’s set in a beautiful location and the staff were genuinely friendly

 

[Captain Halliday]

On checkout we were charged $5.50 per coffee which is no biggie but never seen that at Accor.

This happened to my in SYD last week, but was waived after some back-and-forth.

I hope Accor isn’t going down the Hilton path..,

 

[Daver6]

This happened to my in SYD last week, but was waived after some back-and-forth.

I hope Accor isn’t going down the Hilton path..,

Pullman Bunker Bay had a barista coffee tax a couple of months ago.

 

[oz_mark]

Pullman Bunker Bay had a barista coffee tax a couple of months ago.

They've had it for a couple of years. There was also a supplement on some ( but not all ) the cooked to order eggs.

 

[bullerdude]

Pullman Bunker Bay had a barista coffee tax a couple of months ago.

Pullman Sea Temple Port Douglas also charges for barista coffee despite status

 

[Captain Halliday]

TL;DR: Another disaster, avoid.

Property: Novotel Sydney Central
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked : Executive King
Room upgraded: No
Rate: Corporate rate
Free internet: No
Welcome drink: No
Welcome gift: No

Second visit in three weeks. No improvement.

The staff member who was being trained on my visit three weeks ago was working solo and took around ten mins to check in the guest ahead of me. Meantime other staff were scurrying around dealing with what seemed to be an IT issue. “Reset the server” was the clue.

When my turn came the excuse was “room still being cleaned”, please come back later.

A colleague who checked in around 30mins later was told about the IT issue and pointed to the bar where there was no charge for the duration of the outage.

When I returned two hours later there was an underwhelming check-in experience with unnecessary paperwork and no status recognition. Same issue as three weeks ago. This was despite checking my Accor status was attached to the booking, and showing in the app before the stay, it had still dropped off thr reservation.

The clue was the sales pitch around buffet breakfast. At this point I enquired and while the staff member added my Accor number to the booking, there was no attempt at service recovery.

In the room there was no water, specifically no running water from the taps. This wasn’t mentioned at check in and continued until around 6pm. Too bad if you were thirsty.

Foolishly I assumed adding my Accor number to the booking would resolve the issue, but at breakfast on the first morning I was offered the room charge slip. Accor plus platinum card saw this waived promptly.

Same staff member was working breakfast on day two and there were no issues… until checkout where I was told I had breakfast charges to pay for. <sigh>

Just my luck it was the same staff member who checked me in and really wasn’t up to speed. Even my Accor Plus Plat card wouldn’t convince her and so had to direct her to the restaurant supervisor.

I have cancelled my forward bookings at this hotel and will shift to a nearby Mercure.

Edit: The folio has just hit my email and the breakfast has been charged to my credit card. Not happy.

An update:

I was invited to provide feedback after this stay via a survey link or email to the GM of Accor APAC.

I selected the email option.

Today I received a call from the Hotel GM offering apologies and an explanation about what had happened to my profile and Accor number. I won’t bore you with the details.

He also said he’d email me his details and asked me to contact him when I next make a booking and he will confirm the error has been resolved.

As it happens I needed to book some travel today, so I have book Novotel again and emailed the GM as requested. The front office manager replied confirming details were correct.

I’ll find out for sure in a fortnight when I check-in.

 

[aaronm]

Pullman Sea Temple Port Douglas also charges for barista coffee despite status

On a stay last month I managed to have the Accor Plus discount applied to our coffee charges at checkout, not free but better than nothing.

 

[jakeseven7]

An update:

I was invited to provide feedback after this stay via a survey link or email to the GM of Accor APAC.

I selected the email option.

Today I received a call from the Hotel GM offering apologies and an explanation about what had happened to my profile and Accor number. I won’t bore you with the details.

He also said he’d email me his details and asked me to contact him when I next make a booking and he will confirm the error has been resolved.

As it happens I needed to book some travel today, so I have book Novotel again and emailed the GM as requested. The front office manager replied confirming details were correct.

I’ll find out for sure in a fortnight when I check-in.

Accor reservation / IT systems are third world, I have never ending problems with them and if we didn't have them on our work roster I would avoid them at all costs.... but sadly because of their cheaper brand positioning compared to the other chains we use them quite a bit...

 

[Muppet501st]

Property: Mercure Launceston
Status: Accor Plus Diamond
Room booked : Standard Queen room
Room upgraded: Yes, Superior 1 King
Rate: Accor Plus $115
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: 2 vouchers, 2 box of chocolates and water.

Flew in at night, so didn’t want ( like ) driving at night down here, so just booked something cheap.
Room is nice and welcomed the extra space. Nice shower with plenty of flow and heat.
But the street noise is pretty bad. They even supply earbuds.
Buffet breakfast had a good selection of hot and cold dishes. But there’s a coffee tax if you wanted a barista made coffee.

 

[Lemon_Party]

TL;DR: Another disaster, avoid.

Property: Novotel Sydney Central
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked : Executive King
Room upgraded: No
Rate: Corporate rate
Free internet: No
Welcome drink: No
Welcome gift: No

Second visit in three weeks. No improvement.

The staff member who was being trained on my visit three weeks ago was working solo and took around ten mins to check in the guest ahead of me. Meantime other staff were scurrying around dealing with what seemed to be an IT issue. “Reset the server” was the clue.

When my turn came the excuse was “room still being cleaned”, please come back later.

A colleague who checked in around 30mins later was told about the IT issue and pointed to the bar where there was no charge for the duration of the outage.

When I returned two hours later there was an underwhelming check-in experience with unnecessary paperwork and no status recognition. Same issue as three weeks ago. This was despite checking my Accor status was attached to the booking, and showing in the app before the stay, it had still dropped off thr reservation.

The clue was the sales pitch around buffet breakfast. At this point I enquired and while the staff member added my Accor number to the booking, there was no attempt at service recovery.

In the room there was no water, specifically no running water from the taps. This wasn’t mentioned at check in and continued until around 6pm. Too bad if you were thirsty.

Foolishly I assumed adding my Accor number to the booking would resolve the issue, but at breakfast on the first morning I was offered the room charge slip. Accor plus platinum card saw this waived promptly.

Same staff member was working breakfast on day two and there were no issues… until checkout where I was told I had breakfast charges to pay for. <sigh>

Just my luck it was the same staff member who checked me in and really wasn’t up to speed. Even my Accor Plus Plat card wouldn’t convince her and so had to direct her to the restaurant supervisor.

I have cancelled my forward bookings at this hotel and will shift to a nearby Mercure.

Edit: The folio has just hit my email and the breakfast has been charged to my credit card. Not happy.

That’s unlucky - I’ve stayed there a few times now and have always been looked after even as a lowly silver. I’ve had several pre arrival phone calls to see if I need anything for my stay (a room?), always had drink vouchers and last time arriving late had a cheese and fruit plate in the room and a welcome back thanks for staying with us again chat from the front desk on arrival.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Property: Mercure Sydney
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked : Standard Queen
Room upgraded: No
Rate: Corporate rate
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Eventually
Welcome gift: No

You may recall my post from two weeks ago where my Accor Plus Platinum number was somehow not attached to my booking.

Before this stay I confirmed the booking was showing in the ALL app. And as an extra backup emailed the hotel direct to provide my membership number and asking for confirmation that it was linked to the booking.

I received no response to my email.

On arrival, it turned out my Accor number wasn’t on the booking, so no upgrade.

I asked for the number to be added and the staff member, who said he was new, sought help from a colleague. Fair enough.

The colleague told me I had at least three profiles in the system which he suspected was the cause:

Mr Firstname Surname
Firstname Surname
Mr Surname , Firstname

Aparently each of these had a different member number. One silver, one gold and the correct one platinum.

He checked me in, wrote out two drink vouchers and assured me he would fix it.

Next morning I arrived at breakfast and was told it would be charged to my room. After I showed my platinum card and explained the profile issue the staff member told me breakfast was only included for Diamond guests.

He wrote down my room number but waved me through anyway.

I shot off a second polite, but firm email to the Accor GM asking for this to be resolved.

No response for three days then a call (voicemail as I was in a meeting) and follow up email from the hotel’s “Guest Experience Executive”. In it she confirmed the incorrect profiles had been deleted and that breakfast is included.

For breakfast I’ll find out for sure when I check out tomorrow.

As for my profile, the next test is early next week back at the Novotel where it al began.

 

[SYD]

The colleague told me I had at least three profiles in the system which he suspected was the cause:

Mr Firstname Surname
Firstname Surname
Mr Surname , Firstname

Aparently each of these had a different member number. One silver, one gold and the correct one platinum.

There might be a few of us here with “Evil Dead“ Accor ALL accounts in the system. There was a time where they were doing instant “Platinum” and “Gold” signup offers. I may have signed up once or twice using different eMail addresses .

I managed to kill off one or two accounts, but I think I still have one orphan besides the newest and current Primary account. Rarely, but once or twice a stay has incorrectly been linked to my old account - usually only at properties where I’d stayed previously.