How does Accor treat you as an Elite guest?

[Assassin]

Property : Swissôtel Stamford Singapore
Status : Accor + Platinum
Room booked : PREMIER ROOM, 1 King Plus, balcony, city view
Room upgraded/type: Yes Club room, high floor, but no Marina Bay view
Rate: Accor+ stay longer for less rate
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes in restaurants and Club lounge
Early check in/late out: Early check-in not required, requested 4pm check out and given
Welcome drink: Yes - via app
Welcome gift: Yes, bowl of fruit

 

[austgap]

Property: Raffles Makati
Status: Diamond.
Room booked: Artists Suite King
Room upgraded/type: Legacy Suite (120m2)
Rate: ~$500/night
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes
Early check in/late out: Didn't use either option.
Welcome drink: Yes
Welcome gift: Chocolates and sparkling water + fruit - day one. Chocolate cake and bottle of red - day two.

Detour via MNL to tick another Raffles off the list! Upgrade to a lovely suite, great breakfast and the evening drinks had some great coughtails (however limited one plate of small snacks). Certainly confused a few staff why anyone was going to MNL for the weekend. Pool area very quiet and looked far nicer then the fairmont next door.

 

[austgap]

Property: Hotel des Arts Saigon
Status: Diamond.
Room booked: Deluxe Room
Room upgraded/type: Executive Studio Suite (via SNU)
Rate: ~$240
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes
Early check in/late out: N/A
Welcome drink: Yes
Welcome gift: Wine, fruit bowl and macaron's

Second visit to the hotel, great Suite (particularly good shower), canapes/coughtails at the executive lounge were great - full of Australians naturally. Staff seemed far more interested in the AccorPlus (or lack of membership in my case vs status) which while fine at the start became a bit tedious when trying to check-in.
Pool and rooftop bar both great - pool is dead in the mornings and then packed in the afternoon and then becomes this weird hybrid as they combine the bar into the pool area so you've got wet feet walking through a trendy bar.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Property: Novotel Rotorua
Status: A+Plat
Room booked: 2xQueen city view
Room upgraded/type: No.*
Rate: ~Adv Purchase*
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes
Early check in/late out: Not required.
Welcome drink: Eventually*
Welcome gift: Yes. Bottle of Roaring Meg Pinot Noir (better than the $6 quarters offered in AU

Explanation of the asterisks:
*Room type was the same as booked, just on the other side of the corridor with lake glimpses. The hotel claimed it to be an upgrade, but the room received was identical to the pictures of the room booked, so not an upgrade in my books.

*About a month before travel I received an Amex offer for Novotel so cancelled my four night flex booking and replaced it with 2x two night advance purchase bookings.

Fineprint of the Amex offer was only for in-person payments and so instead of saving 2x$50, I was slugged with a $40 idiot fee (current conversion).

*No welcome drink vouchers in App. Given paper vouchers by front desk when I asked.

The rest in brief:
Pros:
- Free parking for Plat and above
- Onsite thermal pools in the pool area.
- Great location
- Breakfast buffet includes a small number of items made to order including a delicious breakfast burrito.
- No breakfast coffee tax for Plats.
- unlimited sparking water refills 24/7 (take jug to restaurant)
- Welcome drink included basic spirits
- Onsite washer/driers are free of charge.
- Accor Plus dining benefits honoured for bar menu.
- Allowed us to keep same room despite my two-booking shambles.

Cons:
- Dinner and breakfast buffets are done on the cheap. For instance, seafood chowder was mostly seafood extender and at breakfast rather than grilled tomato it appeared to be tinned tomato warmed up.
- Napkins in the restaurant were always damp. They were elegantly folded on the tables and I suspect they may have been sprayed with the water to keep their shape. Whatever the case, it felt like you had a wet lap for every meal.
- Rooms are beginning to show their age, especially the bathrooms.
- Housekeeping staff seemed fond of shouting at each other up and down the corridors from very early.

 

[samh004]

Property: Novotel Rotorua

Just wondering, other than the Novotel Amex offer that might've sweetened the deal, did you consider the Pullman. Random dates I look at the Pullman is the same price as the Novotel.

I've stayed at the Novotel before as a Plat, the free parking was useful but have been stung by coughpy room upgrades there too.

 

[sudoer]

He offered to refund the unused credit as cash, which I thought was excellent service recovery. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'll post again in a few weeks if it doesn't turn up.

A quick update - after some back and forth (they initially credited 165 ALL points / ~500 yen due to a calculation error) I have now received 1875 ALL points, roughly 6000 yen worth. Happy with that result.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Just wondering, other than the Novotel Amex offer that might've sweetened the deal, did you consider the Pullman. Random dates I look at the Pullman is the same price as the Novotel.

I've stayed at the Novotel before as a Plat, the free parking was useful but have been stung by coughpy room upgrades there too.

Yes. Initially I held flex bookings at both.

Traveling with Miss H meant the on-site thermal pools at Novotel were of appeal.

Additionally, the Pullman didn’t have the bedding config we wanted and would have required a rollaway.

About a month before travel, an Accor sale that applied to the Novotel but not Pullman appeared making Novotel $200 cheaper.

I had an Amex offer for Pullman also, but even without those Novotel was a narrow winner.

TL;DR:
Hot pools + no rollaway + $200 cheaper + free parking = win for Novotel.

 

[sudoer]

Property: Sofitel Melbourne on Collins
Status : Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked : 2 x SUPERIOR ROOM, 1 King Bed
Room upgraded/type: No
Rate: $284 per room per night (FAMILY OFFER - Inspired by Le Petit Prince - 50% off the 2nd room)
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Yes, but at No35 only for 2nd room
Early check in/late out: Checked in at 11am, checked out at 12pm.
Welcome drink: Yes 6x via app (vouchers provided for both adults and children)
Welcome gift: Yes*

A bit to unpack with this booking. We (4 adults 2 kids) stayed over the long weekend on this very sharp rate - even better when stacked with $500 spend $100 back on two Amex cards - which brought the rate down to $234 per room per night. Reception was happy to split the stay costs across two cards at check-in.

I hadn't realised at the time of booking but it seems the rate is intended for families who want a separate room for their kids - but it came up in the ALL engine when searching for 4 adults 2 kids...

The property emailed a few times before arrival asking for a rooming list and advised EL benefits would be restricted to one room.

Info sheet below.



Over the long weekend the EL was running bookable sessions of 4:30pm-6:30pm and 6:30pm-8:30pm. Hot plate, cheese selection and drink pictured below. Not pictured was a cured meats selection.



Both rooms were on the list for breakfast at No35 (was fine, maybe a little underwhelming for a Sofitel buffet) and 6 x drink vouchers which we redeemed at the Atrium bar. Each visit to the Atrium bar also came with a small serving of bar snacks - possible an alcohol licensing requirement?



Very early check-in offered. No upgrade but not going to challenge that with the early check-in.

The welcome gift was very nice (bottle of bubbles, fruit plate, etc) however the card was signed off by an Accor contact who my wife had told about our trip - so I think this gift was unrelated to the Platinum status.