Accor is scrapping Le Club AccorHotels – a new loyalty scheme with new benefits is coming soon

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• the_real_a says:

  21 Feb21 February 13:10

  I mean the fact that there are less than 10 comments on this article says it all… Its a totally boring uninspiring scheme that few people care about (even the ultra points geeks!).

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    21 Feb21 February 13:20

    Well that and it wasn’t emailed…

    But having fallen from Plat to whatever the entry level is in however many years that takes, making no more than half a dozen stays in that time, I am with the who cares crowd.

    Lost plat when it became super hard to maintain, and as top tier on IHG and HH why would I seek out mediocre Mercure properties only to fall.short of requalification?

    • Rob says:

      21 Feb21 February 13:29

      Add 13,100 emails tomorrow and things may change. No doubt, however, that articles on Accor and Hyatt are generally ignored.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        21 Feb21 February 18:05

        And yet they’re at the opposite ends of the hotel group spectrum in terms of size so it clearly isn’t accors size letting it down

        But the fact my lcah points expire tomorrow through inactivity says it all – 80 odd stays last year and not one in accor.

        Ironically two nights next week in an ibis but only because it’s the only option in town

      • Dwadda says:

        22 Feb22 February 09:29

        Hmm, Hyatt and Accor are my favorite brands, it’s hard to earn status in them though from the UK (impossible). That is true.

        To support a comment below: with Hyatt you earn at cheap hotels (that are still good) and redeem at grand hyatts. With Accor you earn at nice hotels and redeem at cheap ones. That is how it seems to work best.

  • Peter K says:

    21 Feb21 February 17:03

    You forgot to mention the support team that revel in being unhelpful and the promotions that exclude previous bookings.

    • Lady London says:

      21 Feb21 February 21:11

      +2, at the moment. I contacted them about 2 issues with one hotel in October. After describing the issues I was told I would have to write in. The customer service person was not empowered to raise a ticket based on the 2 issues I precisely described.

      Three months after I sent the email Accor finally contacted me. They wanted me to call them. When I called them I had to repeat the whole thing. They keep sending an email every two weeks asking me to call them. I’ve called twice now in answer to these emails from someone in their call centre. Those I speak to understand the issue with the hotel and agree it’s unacceptable but it never gets anywhere. They really do a good job to represent Accor……..not

      • Nori says:

        22 Feb22 February 15:36

        Similar blunder with Accor CS. Received no points for one of my stays. Contacted CS. They dragged it for over six month. After which they said it’s over six month and points can no longer be credited. And after which I moved my further custom to other chains and kept it that way since.

• Ed says:

  21 Feb21 February 14:09

  T5 Sofitel is almost my only interest in LCAH, even then lastminute.com top secret deals reduce it further

  • TGLoyalty says:

    21 Feb21 February 19:12

    I just stick with hotels.com if I’m booking an Accor hotel.

    • Rob says:

      21 Feb21 February 20:17

      I booked the Pullman Berlin last Friday via hotels.com – I was arriving late, leaving early, I needed 2 credits to unlock my free night (and we needed 2 rooms) and wasn’t going to benefit from the free drink voucher I gave up.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        22 Feb22 February 00:59

        I just don’t see the value in collecting points for €0.02 off my next stay, or in reality them going to Iberia before they expire because 12 months is a joke. Let alone the hassle of getting too tier status.

        Considering it’s a massive hotel group it shows how poor the loyalty scheme actually is.

• Relaxo says:

  21 Feb21 February 14:32

  I’ve got about 20K points carried over from the good ol Happy Monday stacking days. Cant ever bring myself to spend them on leisure trips due to competing chain offers/redemptions. Can anyone recommend Accor properties in Singapore or HK? Might have to force myself to spend these points on next trip before Accor’s dramatic disruption…..

  • TokyoFan says:

    21 Feb21 February 16:25

    I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the Pullman Park Lane Hotel in Hong Kong. Great exec lounge on the top floor, fab harbour views from many of the rooms, and well situated in Causeway Bay.

    • Mingus says:

      22 Feb22 February 09:23

      Agree. Also Sofitel macau is special.

  • Jon says:

    21 Feb21 February 19:18

    Just stayed in Ibis Bencoolen (Singapore) – they treated me fantastically along with a 7pm checkout

  • Rabbit says:

    21 Feb21 February 20:31

    So sofitel in Singapore was very nice. Standard rooms are very small though so if planning to spend time in room you may want to go for a bigger room. Hotel is right opposite the famous lau pa sat food market. I liked the location,could walk to lots of places

  • axel says:

    21 Feb21 February 20:58

    Novotels in Wan Chai and Clarke Quay have pretty reasonable lounges,. Wan Chai has complimentary bus to/from Airport Station

  • Lottie says:

    22 Feb22 February 09:27

    We recently stayed at the swissotel Stamford rooms are refurbished and they all have balconies with great views. It’s a huge hotel though so breakfast is pretty crowded and the pool is freezing!

• Brian says:

  21 Feb21 February 16:01

  Somebody complained in the other article about not being able to use IHG points for Club access etc – at least Accor points CAN be used to book higher categories.

  • marcw says:

    21 Feb21 February 16:07

    +1

• Sussex Bantam says:

  21 Feb21 February 16:17

  I have to say I quite like LeClub.

  With a young family I’m often trying to book something different to “standard room” which makes redemption opportunities difficult or expensive. With LeClub I can at least always use the points for something meaningful.

  Plus – I always get a free drink which is definitely appreciated!

  • Scallder says:

    21 Feb21 February 17:12

    SB – Whilst I haven’t done this since my daughter was born, I have used points to book a standard room somewhere and then paid cash to upgrade the room – this was at the Westin Whistler three years ago to go from a studio to a 1 bed suite. So you might be able to take this approach moving forward – I’ll certainly be doing that moving forward (assuming hotel allows it obviously!)

  • Alan says:

    22 Feb22 February 07:41

    I have stayed in a few Accor hotels and enjoyed most of them. The problem I tend to find is that there is rarely availability for a family room when you have a teenager in tow so we end up booking with a different chain.

• sunguy says:

  21 Feb21 February 16:36

  Hmmm…yet another points scheme from Accor (the rebrand to leclub from A|Club which itself only began in 2008!).

• BJ says:

  21 Feb21 February 19:14

  @Rob, you tend to home in on aspirational redemptions across loyalty schemes in general on a regular basis. While there is no doubt these are appealling to many of those who can rack up substantial miles and points balances such as HFP readers, is there any real evidence to suggest that they are important within the bigger picture of running a successful loyalty schene? With millions of members isn’t it the case that the success of a schene owes much more to the predominance of lower to middle earning members who redeem potentially valuable miles and points for low value awards because they lack the know-how or capacity to reach the levels required for aspirational redemptions? While the schemes will clearly prefer not to alienate and drive off their most successful members (particularly those who reap success through paying cash), there does seem to be evidence that they try to limit aspirational redemptions, e.g. access to LH First or to suites at hotels. You also mention from time to time the reluctance of some in the industry to engage with HFP and other blogs. Don’t these factors suggest that the schenes prefer to actively limit and discourage aspirational opportunities, and that going forward we msy find them increasingly difficult to come by?

  • Rob says:

    21 Feb21 February 20:15

    Fair point, but human nature means that aspirational works. Talk to the Etihad marketing team about the TV ads for the Residence. You think that is selling any Residence seats? No chance. Does it sell loads of Economy seats? Yes.

    The other point is that empty hotel rooms and airline seats are worth diddly squat if not sold, irrespective of flight class or hotel star level. The fact that the value collapses to £0 across the scale means that filling those seats through the redemption of large chunks of miles and points is commercially sensible.

    Oddly Emirates First is a outlier because the marginal costs of me flying are huge. The cognac they serve is £790 per bottle. Their recommended red wine is £250 a bottle. (These are shop prices, not restaurant prices.) Having someone on who makes them crack open a couple of bottles gets expensive ….!

    • marcw says:

      21 Feb21 February 20:39

      If you believe that Emirates (or any airline) gets charged that much for those bottles… … anyway,,, i don´t drink something because it´s expensive. I drink it because I like it.

      And your example about the Residence ad. That´s total bollocks, that´s called marketing and nothing to do with FFP. Anyway, we know how that story ends as well.

      • Rob says:

        21 Feb21 February 20:47

        The Etihad example is about positioning. I spent 2 days with Hilton in Washington last year and their key concern with Hilton Honors is that they lack aspirational redemptions which offer exceptional value. People don’t book them but they like the option.

        To some extent this is also why Nectar is a dog. And Nectar is basically the same model as Le Club.

        By the way, in my experience people overestimate what others pay for things, even with volume. Haut-Brion can sell its production many times over. If Emirates wanted 10% of it they are more likely to refuse – due to the distortion of their existing distribution chain – than offer a massive discount.

    • BJ says:

      21 Feb21 February 21:19

      More a case of seeking insights than making points. I find the way these loyalty schemes work is very interesting, in many respects they are not quite what they seem or not quite what we would expect.

      Fully appreciate your views on Nectar but in light of what has went on at Clubcard I think that view needs to be reassed and a little more generous. IME at least, it has been so much easier to earn loads of points with Nectar than Clubcard, and it has felt effortless. Got value out of LNER, eBay, Nero and even double up so personally I cannot complain. True to form though they are now a lazy dog, missing a great opportunity to go after Clubcard.

      • marcw says:

        22 Feb22 February 11:14

        I can GURANTEE you that people flying economy don’t fly economy because the potential Residence redemption. They fly economy because it’s cheap/cheapest/affordable fare available. With your theory, no one would fly Ryanair/easyjet or the likes. Anyway, the hotel programs are not really comparable to airlines FFP – since the product offered is similar across airlines. In contrast, hotel chains are quite different – there’s no point comparing the cheapest Ibis room with the cheapest Sofitel room for instance. Ryanair vs BA on short haul, little differences unless you have status – that’s why FFP are so successful. There’s actual value in them.

        Honors has a a problem since they moved from a fixed price redemption to a revenue based redemption. And it only makes sense to redeem points on extreme luxury hotels, where all associated costs make the stay expensive regardless. Without the Amex Platinum *free* Gold status (or equivalent in other countries), I tell you, no one would really give a sit about this program.

        My point about the price of the bottles was not related to discounts, but to taxes/duties.

        Anyway, Le Club AccorHotels is the biggest hotel scheme in Europe for a reason, even though “points guru” don’t like it.

      • marcw says:

        22 Feb22 February 11:15

        Sorry BJ, this was meant a reply to Rob above.

      • Cat says:

        22 Feb22 February 21:04

        Marcw – if I’m paying, I rarely fly anything but economy. I avoid Ryanair and Easyjet, because its just an unpleasant way to spend a few hours of my time. I avoid the dry airlines, because that’s a dull way to spend a few hours of my time. When I search for prices to my chosen destination, I consider a plethora of variables – price is definitely high on the list, as is FFS, whether I can use those miles realistically before they expire, and whether there are exciting, aspirational redemptions. I’m not aiming for the Residence, but that’s probably because I’m a realist and I can do the Maths (sadly there are plenty of people out there who aren’t and can’t), so I’ll just aim for business and first.

        There are others like me.

• Trickster says:

  21 Feb21 February 21:25

  Am I alone in thinking this was something to do with Marriott when I saw that logo?

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