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

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Accor announced initial details on Thursday morning of a plan to scrap Le Club AccorHotels and replace it with a new loyalty programme from 2020.

The new programme will be called ‘Accor Live Limitless’ (oh dear) although that does have the catchy acronym of ALL.  Here is the logo:

Accor Live Limitless announced

This is what we know so far from the Accor press release this morning and the relatively word-less website which is here:

A new elite tier will be introduced above the current Platinum level – but we don’t know what the benefits will be

Elite benefits will be improved at all levels

There will be a strong focus on ‘experiences’ redemptions – Accor has signed partnerships with entertainment organiser giants AEG and IMG to get access to their concerts and events.  Over 60,000 tickets (per year?) will be available, some in private boxes, across Europe, Asia and Latin America. 

Accor has signed a shirt sponsorship deal for Accor Live Limitless with Paris St Germain football club, replacing Emirates.

As part of the deal, Accor Live Limitless will sponsor the Taste of London food festival in 2020 as well as the versions in Paris, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Toronto

The programme will include 30 brands including recent acquisitions such as Orient Express, Banyan Tree, Raffles, Delano, Angsana, SLS, OneFineStay, Mondrian, Movenpick, Fairmont and Swissotel as well as legacy brands such as Ibis, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman

The full press release isn’t hugely helpful, containing lines such as:

“Accor announces today a disruptive and dramatic shift of its loyalty program into a fully integrated global platform integrating rewards, services, and experiences across our entire ecosystem to bring value everyday life whether you work, live or play.”

Accor is investing €225m into Accor Live Limitless so it will be interesting to see what they get for their money.  That said, Emirates was paying €25m-€30m per year for the Paris St Germain shirt sponsorship and reportedly walked when asked for €80m per season to renew.

There is also a new corporate logo, which looks like this:

But will Accor Live Limitless solve Accor’s fundamental problem?

The problem with Le Club AccorHotels today isn’t the lack of access to restaurant festivals or pop concerts.

It is the fact that the loyalty programme has revenue-based redemptions.  

1 Accor point gets you 2 Eurocents off your next Accor hotel booking.  You can transfer them to airline miles, but with a few exceptions (luckily Iberia Avios is one of them) the conversion rate is 2:1 so you are ‘paying’ a ludicrous 4 Eurocents per airline mile.

There is no incentive to build up your Accor points by doing more stays.  Whether you have 2,000 or 2 million, they are only worth 2 Eurocents each.

There are no high profile redemption opportunities.  If a room is €500 on a peak night, you will need a 25,000 points to book it (2 Eurocents per point) whilst when the same hotel is €100 you pay just 5,000 points.  You never get that feeling you get with other programmes when you realise that you can make a huge saving on a peak night stay with just a handful of points.

For the new programme to be a success, Accor needs to:

offer aspirational redemptions at sensible points prices

give members a reason to build up their balance, since at present there is no logic to keeping more than the minimum 2,000 points in your account that is needed for a €40 hotel voucher

improve their elite benefits and make them GUARANTEED, not at the discretion of the hotel

If Accor does move away from fixed value redemptions, it would also open the door to offering transfers from American Express Membership Rewards or similar programmes.

You can find out more on the new ALL website here.

Accor Live Limitless update – April 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

Accor Live Limitless

Comments (90)

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  • IanMac says:
    22 Feb22 February 08:37

    Let’s hope that they sort out the website etc at the same time !!
    (Is it a coincidence that both the Accor and Air France websites are only semi-functional ?)

    I have platinum status and approx. 42,000 reward points.
    I’m wondering if I should cash in now or wait and see if the redemption scheme changes (for the better ?!).

    In reality platinum status is only really beneficial to me for the higher rate of earning rewards points earned – the lounge access for Sofitels would only be beneficial if I could afford to stay at a Sofitel !!

    • Lady London says:
      22 Feb22 February 10:45

      Always cash out Accor points as soon as you earn them. There’s no reason not to. As the scheme is revenue based all you will ever get is the strict cash value of the points. There’s no outsize or motivational or gaming “flip” to this. As points can devalue and conditions for use of them change, get rid of these ones as soon as possible.

      the only time NOT to use Accor points towards payment for a booking is if you’re using the booking for any promotion with Accor. The reason is, it’s usually in their terms and conditions that any booking paid all or partly with points, will not quality. And even if Accor might forget one time to put this in the terms and conditions, believe me they’ll tell you it applies and they will refuse to give you the points that you earned, anyway.

      They sent me a promotion a few years back for 2,000 points 1 stay. I did the stay. When I followed it as to why it had not been credited they said it was a promotion intended for Belgium only. Not for bookings in Belgium, as any hotel in the world would have qualified, that was in the terms of the promotion. No, it was a marketing campaign for Belgium members apparently, as I accept emails in multiple languages I received it, they said by their error, but they said as the promoition was only for Belgian members they flatly refused to credit the points. There was no sign of that in the promotion terms.

      so beware the Accor wolf may change it’;s clothing… but it’;s still gonna be a wolf.
      I have a lot of hotel nights to book again this year (I;m a contractor, so it’s feast or famine with regard to hotel nights for me) and I’m just about done with Accor. They only get a booking from me when there’s a really good reason now.

      • Lady London says:
        22 Feb22 February 10:51

        And right now if you read Rob’s very recent article on here about Accor, there’s 6000 good reasons to book a hotel a few times with Accor.

        That has to be acted on within the next 5 days or so.

    • Bob says:
      23 Feb23 February 01:33

      “Is it a coincidence that both the Accor and Air France websites are only semi-functional ?”

      No because I believe Blue Link (aka Flying blue) manages the Le Club IT and website for Accor.

  • Tim W says:
    22 Feb22 February 09:12

    Actually I think the main problem with Le Club AccorHotels today is the absolutely appalling customer service, and I can’t see that improving with a change of name.

    • IanMac says:
      22 Feb22 February 09:33

      Agreed, customer service of the Le Club programme is appalling
      That is an organisational issue that needs to be fixed.

      I actually find the customer service at the properties to be pretty good – not quite on a par with Hyatt but if you are known at the property as a regular visitor then very good.

      • Lady London says:
        22 Feb22 February 10:47

        I would agree with that. Lots of chains are made up of properties which are not owned by the hotel chain and I always make sure to say how pleased I am to be back again if I send any note to the hotel or when I check in. It’s always very helpful.

        Getting a relationship with an individual property will often pay off. Not always, there can be some nasty surprises, but well worth trying to do if you are in a position to choose the same property over and over again.

  • IanMac says:
    22 Feb22 February 09:48

    Elite tier above platinum – perhaps an ‘Ambassador’ type benefit for 80 or 100+ nights per year
    (Going by feedback on the existing ‘Ambassador’ programme and Accor’s dysfunctionality and poor customer service this would be a negative and pointless to target).

  • Lady London says:
    22 Feb22 February 10:48

    I would agree with that. Lots of chains are made up of properties which are not owned by the hotel chain and I always make sure to say how pleased I am to be back again if I send any note to the hotel or when I check in. It’s always very helpful.

    Getting a relationship with an individual property will often pay off. Not always, there can be some nasty surprises, but well worth trying to do if you are in a position to choose the same property over and over again.

  • Lady London says:
    22 Feb22 February 10:55

    PPPS (sorry for download) @IanMac I would agree with you keeping the Accor points only if you’;re saving for a redemption in Asia Pacific where Accor hotels have some very high quality properties. Useful if you’re a Platinum at the time of stay.

    • IanMac says:
      22 Feb22 February 12:42

      Sofitel Metropole Hanoi fits that bill.
      Stayed there 3/4 years ago – brilliant in every way !!

    • Cat says:
      22 Feb22 February 13:59

      I’ve been stockpiling Accor points for flexibility, for when I finally have enough Hilton or IHG points to make a trip to the Maldives or Bora Bora / Moorea realistic (I wouldn’t be able to afford to stay there otherwise). Obviously redemptions aren’t always available when you want them for other hotel loyalty programmes. If there are no rooms available at the Intercontinental Bora Bora, nor the Conrad for a couple of nights, I can use my Accor points to stay at the Sofitel as long as a room is available for cash. It seems like a sensible back up plan, albeit one that doesn’t give a free breakfast like I’d get at the Conrad!
      Ill be gutted if I have to use them or lose them by a certain date!

  • ft_overthehorizon says:
    22 Feb22 February 11:51

    LCAH achieved a memorable first with me – it’s the only loyalty programme whose behaviour actually drove me away from spending any money with them !!!

    * Almost 100% hit rate on failing to credit promo points
    * Customer “services” who seemingly never read what I actually wrote and gave the distinct impression of finding actual customers just TOO much to deal with

    Awful programme, glad to see it closing. I have very little confidence that its replacement will be any better…

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Feb22 February 12:50

      I once had my account suspended and they cited the reason being I had no stays. The thing was I had stayed and the stay couldn’t be credited as they had suspended my account.

      Frustratingly took about 3 months to sort that out, admittedly it was just emails as it wasn’t worth any real time investment.

  • Andi says:
    22 Feb22 February 14:30

    So sounds to me like we’re all agreed that this is a positive move for what is already one of the best loyalty programmes out there? 🙂

  • Lady London says:
    22 Feb22 February 17:02

    Last shot :-
    I can see this being called “Accor Limited”.

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