Accor’s new ‘Secret Deals’ is a lot worse than ‘Happy Mondays’

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• Brighton Belle says:

  13 May13 May 10:44

  It’s thanks to HFP’s here that I have worked my way around almost all of the Happy Monday Accor properties in London. It revealed the benefits of getting status in hotel programmes and the madness of mattress runs. The demise of Happy Monday will be a loss. Secret Deals looks very dull and the win of accounts and spreadsheets over marketing pizzazz. Accor seems to be settling for low occupancy high pricing.

• Rob says:

  13 May13 May 10:51

  I used Happy Mondays & the bonus points promotions to achieve platinum status with Accor. As they have removed the promotion (and started ‘bonus points), I have used the status match with Hilton and will complete my 8 stays to retain Diamond until 31 March 2019. So Accor will lose the majority of my business, until I’ve used up the remaining Accor points.
  Perhaps they should have been more sensible about refining the programme.

  • Barry cutters says:

    13 May13 May 11:01

    to be fair if you gained status from mostly the Happy Mondays & the bonus points promotions , then they havent lost a great deal have they. I dont mean that to sound harsh, but if you put the costings and profit down from all those stays…

    • Genghis says:

      14 May14 May 04:42

      🙂 “DYKWIA? I’m a Le Club Platinum member”

• Tim says:

  13 May13 May 11:05

  I have used Accor places when absolutely necessary, but their points customer service is possibly the worst in the world. I always choose another brand when available.

  • Peter K says:

    13 May13 May 14:15

    I’ve found Accor customer service to be awful overall on the few occasions I have had to deal with them.

    As for their hotels, I gained platinum from Amex last year but still have not found a hotel of theirs I want to stay in despite needed a hotel in various parts of the country. The ones from their competitors always seem more desirable (and better trip advisor reviews).

• Ian says:

  13 May13 May 11:17

  Not sure if you’re being serious or not about Chesterfield (the town where I grew up) being a “delightful” weekend destination but it is. A nice old market town on the edge of the beautiful countryside of the Peak District National Park.

  • Rob says:

    13 May13 May 11:24

    I know, I spent 19 years living down the road. I am rarely troubled by overcrowding on Sat AM trains north though …..

    • Sussex bantam says:

      13 May13 May 18:23

      Well I come from Bradford – and robs right about that city!!

  • the_real_a says:

    13 May13 May 20:39

    I went back home to hull this week. Flabbergasted how nice it is.

• Discount Mike says:

  13 May13 May 11:19

  It’s a bit silly they removed the whole thing. Why not increase it to £30/45 and or make the rate not eligible for points promotions – fools.

  • Brian says:

    13 May13 May 11:46

    For some reason, loyalty schemes don’t like doing things in increments. They prefer a big devaluation. I’m sure there is some rationale for it, but I agree that it seems foolish. Even if they had London Novotels/Mercures for a fixed rate of £80 or even £100, I’m pretty sure there would be plenty of takers, since that’s still a decent price for a Central London hotel.

• Brian says:

  13 May13 May 13:01

  Accor are offering bonus points on UK stays, I think until the end of the year. You get 500 for the first stay, 1000 for the second, so that represents 30 euros worth – not a bad return. The T&Cs say that it can’t be combined with other offers, so it may not work with the bonus promotion for 2-night stays. But it would work well for any 1-night stays planned. Not sure if Rob is planning to do an article – probably not, so here is a link with the information: http://loyaltylobby.com/2017/05/05/le-club-accorhotels-uk-ireland-up-to-1500-bonus-points-april-19-december-31-2017-book-april-19-july-19/

  • Rob says:

    13 May13 May 14:46

    It’s on the list to cover!

• Anon says:

  13 May13 May 13:43

  OT, but has anyone had problems trying to use the “Refer a Friend” link from the Amex website? I keep getting an error message.

  • Ro says:

    13 May13 May 20:10

    That has happened to me a lot
    Not exactly the moat helpful advice…. i just kept teying and eventually it worked

    • Ro says:

      13 May13 May 20:11

      *most
      *trying

      Sorry

  • Genghis says:

    14 May14 May 04:45

    Just send them your link by another means

• C77 says:

  13 May13 May 15:35

  Managed to get up to Gold status with Accor last year (when bonuses counted towards tier status) mainly via Happy Mondays. Being an occasional London commuter, I used to make Monday my office day, travel down on Sunday afternoon in cheap day fare territory and the saving vs full fare tended to cover most of the hotel rate. My favourite pick was the Mercure London South Bank where for £60 a night, I invariably got upgraded to their roof terrace rooms on the top floor (a smokers haven!) with great views towards The Shard. On top of the free drink voucher they used to place additional welcome amenities for status members which were locally sourced. So for this hotel that tended to be from Borough Market: micro brewery ale, artisan chocolate and the likes. And the 7x bonuses given at Mercure vs Ibis which of available was only £10 less made this property a non brainer and a hidden gem in the Accor portfolio. Plus it bolstered up my IB Avios account. A real shame the offer has ended. Back to early Monday starts for me…. not so happy.

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