How does Accor treat you as an Elite guest?

[jase05]

Property: Raffles Doha
Status: Accor Plus Diamond
Room booked: Crescent Suite
Room upgraded/type: Yes, Gulf Signature Suite
Rate: Advance Saver B&B $1003p/n
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: No, need to get B&B rate
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, 4 drinks vouchers for beer, wine, spirits or coughtails at any of the hotel restaurants or bars
Welcome gift: Plate of dates and Chocolates, bottle of Laurent-Perrier Champagne. Hand written note delivered to room by GM.

2 nights at one of our favourite properties and as repeat Diamond customers the staff absolutely fawned over us with some of them remembering us from our visit earlier this year. All rooms at the hotel are suites and we had booked a Crescent suite but received an upgrade to the magnificent Gulf Signature suite which is a fair bit bigger and offers views over the Gulf with a private balcony. Room itself is great and has everything we needed including 2 toilets plus a bar that comes with free unlimited soft drink, juices and water. Nice and spacious with great air conditioning that is easily adjustable and numerous TV’s located around the rooms. Welcome gift consisted of a plate of hand made chocolates accompanied by dates plus a bottle of Laurent-Perrier champagne. About 40 minutes after arriving the GM rang our doorbell and gave us a hand written letter and thanked us for our repeat custom and asked if we would like a guided tour of facilities that weren’t open on our last stay due to Ramadan. We accepted the offer and had a good chat along the way as he took us everywhere including the restaurants and kitchens to personally greet the staff (amazingly the staff all remember your names throughout the stay)
We used both of the hotel pools and had stints at the various bars but didn’t have dinner at any of the restaurants as we went into town with one of the QR Flight attendants the first night and then the Souk on the second night. Breakfast is in one of the main restaurants and consists of a decent enough buffet with various Arabic dishes plus fruit, pastries etc and then you also can pick anything and everything from the menu unlimited so you can easily have 5 or 6 different dishes and the staff will keep bringing out more and more for you to taste even if you don’t order it. The staff are simply superb there and go out of their way to make you feel at home. They are very proud of their hotel and were intrigued as to why have flown half way around the world to stay with them again. We will definitely be back next year and hopefully more than once. When checking out the Duty Manager mentioned that the GM has said that when we come back next time he will organise for the hotels Bentley to pick us up from the airport complimentary as a thank you so I’ll definitely take him up on the offer.
As a bonus we were only a couple hundred status points short of retaining Diamond so the stay easily pushed us over and with the rest of this trip plus future bookings this year we should easily get another stack of SNU’s

 

[jase05]

Property: Fairmont Ajman
Status: Accor Plus Diamond
Room booked: Deluxe Sea view King
Room upgraded/type: Yes, Junior Suite
Rate: Flex B&B $320p/n
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Included in rate
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, 4 drinks vouchers for beer, wine, spirits or coughtails at any of the hotel restaurants or bars
Welcome gift: Plate of dates and Chocolates and treats, Rose petals in room.

Another excellent stay here, this time 4 nights. Great to see a lot of familiar faces from last visit and staff here are all great. Received an upgrade to a Corner Junior Suite which is worth in excess of $600p/n and when we got up to the room we had found that staff had left us a welcome note in rose petals to go with our chocolates and treats. Room was great and had a nice sized living area, 2 toilets and 2 balconies. The main balcony was spacious and spent a couple of hours each day out there, there was a smaller balcony located off the bedroom which also had good views. The pool and swim up bar are relaxing and plenty of lounges around both the pool and on the beach to relax with a drink. The property has its own private beach and the sand is clean and soft whilst the ocean itself was as warm as a bath and calm in the morning but a few small waves in the arvo when the sea breeze kicks in. Great beach for swimming and spent a fair bit of time in there. Ajman itself hasn’t got a lot to offer in the immediate area around the hotel but we did go for walk each morning just to check things out for interest sake. As a result the hotel has a high percentage of guests who purchase food and beverage packages. The hotel has 3 restaurants, the main restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a Italian restaurant and a Turkish restaurant. The pool bar also does good pizzas, burgers and snacks. There are various packages available and we chose the upgrade to all inclusive. As we had breakfast already in our room rate the price was cheaper to upgrade to all inclusive but cost us approximately $150pp per day. It does sound a bit pricey but considering most alcoholic drinks are in the region of $15-20 each you can see why it’s so popular. The all inclusive gives you the 3 main meals in the restaurant which is a buffet but the food is pretty good and they have different theme nights and there are several areas set up for different food regions. House wine, beer, spirits, tea, coffee and soft drinks are included from 11am to 11pm at all bars and restaurants If you don’t want the buffet dinner every meal you can eat at the other restaurants and they give you a small credit of around $20pp per meal service. We ate at the Italian restaurant one night and the Turkish restaurant one night and I think the bill was about $90 at each one so only $50 out of pocket which was fine as with the alcohol we had with our meals plus at the pool bar we were well infront. The resort is packed with Russians and I reckon we were one of about half a dozen non Russian couples in the resort but most were well behaved and polite even though I don’t think they have any concept of how a buffet works. Most normal people would just go up multiple times but the Russians all pile their plates so high they can’t see over it and then smuggle food out in their bags
We have previously t flown into DXB and taken a taxi to the resort which takes about 1hr but this time we flew into SHJ which was only about 30 minutes by taxi and then we flew out of DXB instead. Another really good stay and well treated there once again. Will definitely be back and we don’t mind just heading to the ME from Australia for a week or so to relax so no doubt will get over there again soon.

 

[MELso]

Property: Hanoi Metropole (Sofitel Legend)
Status: newly minted Accor Plus Gold
Room booked: Luxury room in the Heritage Wing with queen bed
Room 'upgraded'/type: Yes - Grand Premium Room in the Opera Wing (without, no, with, no actually without club lounge access); Grand Luxury Room in the Heritage Wing (definitely no club lounge access)
Rate: Red hot rooms plus breakfast $US324 plus $US36 per night plus VAT (so about $A600 per night)
Free internet: Yes
Free breakfast: No
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, choice of select drinks at the bar. I went for a Charlie Chaplin martini on my third night.
Welcome gift: Fruit, ganaches, candied fruit

My three night stay here was quite a saga.

At the urging of my dad who'd stayed at the Metropole many years ago, I cancelled a booking I had for the Movenpick Hanoi and splurged on the Metropole.

Checked into the Metropole and was informed I was upgraded to a Grand Premium Room, but was also told I wasn't going to be given club lounge access (my first upgrade thanks to status). No biggie as I hadn't paid for lounge access and wasn't expecting it. I was quickly disappointed when I realised the 'upgraded' room I'd been assigned was in the newer Opera wing rather than the newly refurbished, much storied Heritage wing that I'd paid a premium for. I was also confused why my room didn't come with club floor access given this was usual for the type of room I was in, so went to query this at the club lounge itself (as I thought it a reasonable trade-off if I got lounge access for not being in the Heritage wing and the noisy air con), vowing to ask to be moved to the Heritage wing if not.

I was informed my room did have club lounge access so I settled into for a splendid high tea followed by coughtails, champagne and canapes over about four hours. A wonderful time was had, before I retreated to my room.

I went to the main buffet for a (splendid, if pricy) breakfast each morning (which featured both freshly made pho and Vietnamese iced coffee; yum!).

The problems started the next night when I went to have a cleansing ale or two before dinner in the lounge. I had a couple of beers and on the way out, was asked for my room number and was told I didn't have club access asked to sign for $25 worth of beer (being two bottles of Ha Noi beer). At this point, I stated 'huh? your colleague told me I had access yesterday!'

After grizzling to the lounge manager further about this, I eventually signed the chit, but indicated I would be complaining the next day (given the inconsistency about lounge access)

The hotel's majordomo approached me at dinner that night (I went to Le Beaulieu which was very nice as you'd expect for ~$A290 for four courses although you only get a 10% discount with Accor Plus). He agreed to wipe the charge for the beer and to move me to the Heritage Wing. One exchange: 'Why didn't you raise this at check-in?' 'Well, because while not happy with the Opera Wing, I would have been happy with club lounge access like I thought I had as a compromise.'

Anyway, the room I ended up in, the Grand Deluxe, was very nice indeed (with whisper quiet air con I might add), and I'm pleased I ended up here.

The following night, I popped across the street to the MGallery Hotel d l'Opera for dinner (as I was zonked but couldn't face the astronomical prices for meals in the Metropole). They had 2 for 1 drinks at the bar (sadly only Carlsberg on tap rather than anything local) and gave the full 25% Accor Plus discount on my plate of Bun Cha Ha Noi. Came to about $32 all up for two beers, a main and a dessert. Far more reasonable.

Will I stay here again? No probably not, as the Movenpick will probably be almost as nice for one-third the price for a club room (the need for a club room will be rendered moot by looming platinum status).



(EDIT - clarifying new and old)

 

[aaronm]

A bit of an odd one tonight, no welcome drink vouchers showing in the app. Front desk agreed I should be eligible because gold but couldn’t do anything apart from suggest I’d somehow booked a rate that didn’t entitle me to the benefit? It’s a “members app offer” rate and the voucher worked at this same hotel last week… Ibis Melbourne in case anyone has had similar.

 

[ksthommo]

A bit of an odd one tonight, no welcome drink vouchers showing in the app.

Same last month at Phoenix Hotel Yogyakarta, all other bookings, drink vouchers were in the app.
Staff couldn't work out why the vouchers weren't showing also, comp drinks were arranged when I visited the bar.

 

[RealtimeY]

Out of curiosity, did you have multiple consecutive or overlapping bookings when you initially made the reservation?

The system actually assigns the vouchers to your booking at the time that you make it. If you are not eligible for it at that point in time (due to consecutive or multiple bookings), it apparently fails to provide it afterwards.

 

[aaronm]

The system actually assigns the vouchers to your booking at the time that you make it. If you are not eligible for it at that point in time (due to consecutive or multiple bookings), it apparently fails to provide it afterwards.

This may be my problem - I replaced an existing booking with this one. Will remember to cancel the old booking first in future.

 

[RooFlyer]

Property: Rockford Adelaide on Hindley St, 3 nights
Status: newly minted Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked: Standard superior room; quiet requested
Room 'upgraded'/type: Next-level up room, very quiet
Rate: Forget, prob standard - booked before I got Accor+ and Plat
Free internet: Yes
Free breakfast: Yes
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, Voucher in the app. Limited selection
Welcome gift:4 nice choccies in the room

Was recognised as plat on check-in and upgraded room noted.

Overall, this hotel only just. I had dinner one night in because I was really tired and I'd give it no more than 5/10. Accor+ dining discount applied.

Aircon in room really struggling (its been warm to hot in Adelaide).

Handy to various restaurants etc in Hindley St. 'Stem' a few steps away is excellent.

 

[RooFlyer]

Property: Sebel Brisbane
Status: Platinum. Edit: Accor Plus Plat
Room booked: One bedroom standard apartment
Room upgraded/type: No
Rate: Advance saver, with some points
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes, but see below
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, one, voucher on app
Welcome gift: No (as also noted by someone else staying here)

Recommended? No. Inconsistent status recognition, tiny bathrooms and tiny restaurant, impractical for house guests.

The Sebel is well located downtown Brisbane and around the corner from an Avis depot, open 7 days.

The one bedroom appt is comfortable enough and very spacious, however the bathroom is tiny! Shub, with very slippery bath and nothing to hang onto getting in/out except edge of glass panelling. I asked for a non slip mat the next morning & this delivered promptly.

coughtails/drinks in restaurant on Friday evening and GM was there for a chat (I hadn't experienced either the shower or breakfast situation by then )

However the thing that will make me not stay here again is the tiny restaurant, which is open to the public on a convenient ground floor corner. For breakfast (a la carte only) you line up with the hoi poloi who have come in either for coffee or a meal, order, then hope there is a table available. This morning (Sunday) the line was about 8 deep, very slow moving and no tables at all. I resorted to room service, which I loath doing.

The menu says "The Croft House Town Kitchen & Bar is an urban hangout that city dwellers can call their local". Indeed. Pity about house guests.

 

[Captain Halliday]

@RooFlyer typo mate… you’ve put Sofitel rather than Sebel.

 

[RooFlyer]

@RooFlyer typo mate… you’ve put Sofitel rather than Sebel.

Thanks. Fixed. Hunger pangs distraction, still waiting for brekky.

 

[Captain Halliday]

I have a free breakfast voucher to use before December.

Sofitel don’t accept walk-ins on the weekend, so I’d appreciate advice on the next best option in BNE.

Hoping some of those attending the BNE get together might comment on Accor breakfasts please.

 

[markis10]

Property: Swissôtel Foshan China
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked: Standard room
Room 'upgraded'/type: Executive club room
Rate: $75
Free internet: Yes
Free breakfast: Yes in lounge, I had a stay a week previous when Gold and in China Gold get breakie included in the restaurant.
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, Voucher in the app.
Welcome gift:Nice selection of cakes etc

This hotel is well located, a bit over 90 minutes from CAN and 40 minutes from Guanzhou South railway station by Metro. Hotel starts on the 36 floor with offices etc below that, you need to take the express lift to 36 then change, no big deal. Rooms are very nice, aircon works well and they are very quiet, anyone who has been to China knows the traffic is not afraid to use their horns at any time day or night.




I made the mistake of catching a taxi from Guanzhou South Railway station and arrived at 1830, so only had an hour in the lounge, which was sufficient since I had the lounge to myself!




I had a 10AM CX flight so didn’t avail myself of the lounge in the morning, I suspect I should have given the lounge food at the airport, cest la vie.
I really like this hotel, it’s a short stroll to shops and food options if the 7-11 downstairs doesn’t have what you need. I will be back.

 

[markis10]

I have a free breakfast voucher to use before December.

Sofitel don’t accept walk-ins on the weekend, so I’d appreciate advice on the next best option in BNE.

Hoping some of those attending the BNE get together might comment on Accor breakfasts please.

The Pullman used to do a good spread, as did the Sebel

 

[ellen10]

Property: Mantra Mooloolaba Beach
Status: Gold
Room booked: One bedroom standard apartment with ocean view
Room upgraded/type: Yes same apartment on a higher floor
Rate: Accor Plus -stay longer and save
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: No
Early check in/late out: Late checkout given
Welcome drink: No (no bar)
Welcome gift: Yes bottle of wine in room. Bag of salted Macadamia nuts and bag of caramel popcorn and greeting card

Free secure parking underneath. We stayed 6 nights. Very friendly reception staff. Excellent location to the beach ( right across the road). There is a Coles and Liquor shop 50 meters away.

Lots of cafes, restaurants, shops along the esplanade. Great walking path along the foreshore, for as long as you like. Mooloolaba Beach is a beautiful beach and the water temp was a lovely 22 degrees. Great whale watching every day from our balcony.

First few days of our stay was the end of the QLD school holidays so lots of families out and about.

It also has two pools and indoor and an outdoor. We only tried the outdoor one once, nice and big and the spa. ( we much prefer the beach)

Great 1 bedroom apartment with separate bedroom, plenty of wardrobe space, good kitchen with everything you need, although we didn't cook dinner, too many good choices. Nice lounge area and balcony. Bathroom good size although shower is in the spa bath, but good hand rails to get in and out. Also has a washing machine.

We would definitely stay here again.
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Sorry not sure why they posted twice.

 

[jase05]

Property: Sofitel Mumbai BKC
Status: Accor Plus Diamond
Room booked: Luxury Room
Room upgraded/type: Yes, Junior Suite
Rate: Accor Plus Saver $209/night
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, 4 drinks vouchers for beer, wine, spirits or coughtails at any of the hotel restaurants or bars
Welcome gift: Small box of freshly baked sweets, 4x beers

Absolutely superb stay. Staff were unbelievable and their treatment of us was amazing. Booked the luxury room as it was only a quick 2 day stop over and about 10 days out from the stay I was notified by email that we would be receiving an upgrade to a Junior suite and then a couple of days after that a follow up email advising that as we had a suite we would get complimentary 2 way airport transfer and to advise them of flight details On arrival at BOM we were through in no time and it’s a pretty nice airport IMO. Our driver was waiting out the front and it was a Toyota wagon that was spotless inside and he had cool soft drinks and water awaiting us in the car. Very good driver and had a good chat to him as the traffic was chaos and probably took about 40:minutes to the hotel. The hotel is in the heart of the finance and banking centre and is a very nice property, I was taken aback at how now it looked inside. Room was great, comfortable bed, twin toilets and a great shower. Views weren’t the best but not a lot around the area. Club Millesime crew were all great and a pretty decent lounge offering of cakes and desserts for high tea and then a good spread of local dishes and pastries etc for coughtail hour. Staff went out of their way to provide service and refills and were very happy to converse with us. On the last morning the GM came and paid us a visit at breakfast time and asked if he could get a photo with us and he commented on how happy he was for Diamonds to visit his hotel. Several restaurants and bars at the hotel and couldn’t fault any of the service.
All up it was a fantastic stay and their status recognition as amazing and we will definitely return. On a side note when we dropped back at BOM I noticed the impressive building next to the terminal and the driver told me it was the new 650 room Fairmont opening soon. Looked very impressive and will have try that out too one day.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Property: Mantra Mooloolaba Beach
Status: Gold
Room booked: One bedroom standard apartment with ocean view
Room upgraded/type: Yes same apartment on a higher floor
Rate: Accor Plus -stay longer and save
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: No
Early check in/late out: Late checkout given
Welcome drink: No (no bar)
Welcome gift: Yes bottle of wine in room. Bag of salted Macadamia nuts and bag of caramel popcorn and greeting card

Free secure parking underneath. We stayed 6 nights. Very friendly reception staff. Excellent location to the beach ( right across the road). There is a Coles and Liquor shop 50 meters away.

Lots of cafes, restaurants, shops along the esplanade. Great walking path along the foreshore, for as long as you like. Mooloolaba Beach is a beautiful beach and the water temp was a lovely 22 degrees. Great whale watching every day from our balcony.

First few days of our stay was the end of the QLD school holidays so lots of families out and about.

It also has two pools and indoor and an outdoor. We only tried the outdoor one once, nice and big and the spa. ( we much prefer the beach)

Great 1 bedroom apartment with separate bedroom, plenty of wardrobe space, good kitchen with everything you need, although we didn't cook dinner, too many good choices. Nice lounge area and balcony. Bathroom good size although shower is in the spa bath, but good hand rails to get in and out. Also has a washing machine.

We would definitely stay here again.
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Sorry not sure why they posted twice.

Glad you enjoyed your stay @ellen10
We find it ticks the boxes when we visit family on the Sunny Coast.

 

[Daver6]

Property: Sofitel Mumbai BKC
Status: Accor Plus Diamond
Room booked: Luxury Room
Room upgraded/type: Yes, Junior Suite
Rate: Accor Plus Saver $209/night
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, 4 drinks vouchers for beer, wine, spirits or coughtails at any of the hotel restaurants or bars
Welcome gift: Small box of freshly baked sweets, 4x beers

Absolutely superb stay. Staff were unbelievable and their treatment of us was amazing. Booked the luxury room as it was only a quick 2 day stop over and about 10 days out from the stay I was notified by email that we would be receiving an upgrade to a Junior suite and then a couple of days after that a follow up email advising that as we had a suite we would get complimentary 2 way airport transfer and to advise them of flight details On arrival at BOM we were through in no time and it’s a pretty nice airport IMO. Our driver was waiting out the front and it was a Toyota wagon that was spotless inside and he had cool soft drinks and water awaiting us in the car. Very good driver and had a good chat to him as the traffic was chaos and probably took about 40:minutes to the hotel. The hotel is in the heart of the finance and banking centre and is a very nice property, I was taken aback at how now it looked inside. Room was great, comfortable bed, twin toilets and a great shower. Views weren’t the best but not a lot around the area. Club Millesime crew were all great and a pretty decent lounge offering of cakes and desserts for high tea and then a good spread of local dishes and pastries etc for coughtail hour. Staff went out of their way to provide service and refills and were very happy to converse with us. On the last morning the GM came and paid us a visit at breakfast time and asked if he could get a photo with us and he commented on how happy he was for Diamonds to visit his hotel. Several restaurants and bars at the hotel and couldn’t fault any of the service.
All up it was a fantastic stay and their status recognition as amazing and we will definitely return. On a side note when we dropped back at BOM I noticed the impressive building next to the terminal and the driver told me it was the new 650 room Fairmont opening soon. Looked very impressive and will have try that out too one day.
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Great timing with this review. I have a potential work trip to Mumbai later this year and had a quick look at this hotel and wondered what it would be like.

 

[ellen10]

Glad you enjoyed your stay @ellen10
We find it ticks the boxes when we visit family on the Sunny Coast.

@Flyfrequently, I think I read a review you wrote about staying there, which helped my decision to stay there.
Yes, also visited some relatives on the sunny coast.

Also did a day trip drive to Maleny.

 

[DejaBrew]

Property: Sebel Brisbane
Status: Platinum. Edit: Accor Plus Plat
Room booked: One bedroom standard apartment
Room upgraded/type: No
Rate: Advance saver, with some points
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes, but see below
Early check in/late out: Not required
Welcome drink: Yes, one, voucher on app
Welcome gift: No (as also noted by someone else staying here)

Recommended? No. Inconsistent status recognition, tiny bathrooms and tiny restaurant, impractical for house guests.

The Sebel is well located downtown Brisbane and around the corner from an Avis depot, open 7 days.

The one bedroom appt is comfortable enough and very spacious, however the bathroom is tiny! Shub, with very slippery bath and nothing to hang onto getting in/out except edge of glass panelling. I asked for a non slip mat the next morning & this delivered promptly.

coughtails/drinks in restaurant on Friday evening and GM was there for a chat (I hadn't experienced either the shower or breakfast situation by then )

However the thing that will make me not stay here again is the tiny restaurant, which is open to the public on a convenient ground floor corner. For breakfast (a la carte only) you line up with the hoi poloi who have come in either for coffee or a meal, order, then hope there is a table available. This morning (Sunday) the line was about 8 deep, very slow moving and no tables at all. I resorted to room service, which I loath doing.

The menu says "The Croft House Town Kitchen & Bar is an urban hangout that city dwellers can call their local". Indeed. Pity about house guests.

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Property: Sebel Brisbane
Status: Accor+ Gold
Room booked: One bedroom standard apartment
Room upgraded/type: No
Rate: Advance saver
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: No
Early check in/late out: Requested - granted 12pm.
Welcome drink: Yes, 2, vouchers on app
Welcome gift: Yes, bottle of water in room and 2 pastries (more on that below)

Pics already shared by @RooFlyer are largely representative of my room so I won't share any additional.

No recognition on arrival (which doesn't bother me), but request for late checkout granted without fuss. As I discovered later, I was offered a later checkout than others with identical status. Also heard from other guests that there was zero instruction provided about hotel facilities/locations etc (which is the opposite to what I experienced) so definitely inconsistent service offerings here.

Welcome note and bottle of water were on the dining table when we arrived, as were 2 pastries (potentially from the local Woolies) that had been placed on a wooden platter. We decided to skip the pastries given they were just sitting uncovered, out in the open for who knows how long?

Agree with earlier comments that bathroom was on the smaller side given the size of the apartment. I didn't have breakfast at the hotel, but certainly witnessed the challenges posed by having the restaurant readily accessible to passers by.

Would likely stay again if the price was right.