Le Club Accorhotels - Can Accor/Sofitel charge the room (non-prepaid) prior to arrival?

Maybe I am a magnet for issues with Accor..

Had a great stay with Sofitel Phnom Penh over the weekend (will cover this in the property master thread) which was marred with a bad experience at checkout.

I got a non-prepaid reservation from the Accor website as I intended to use my A-Club vouchers to pay for the stay. It was a MAGNIFIQUE BREAKFAST rate for a weekend stay from Nov 5 to Nov 6, which came to USD253.29 after taxes.

The terms of the booking were

Superior Room 1 King Bed
Cancellation policy : No cancellation charge applies prior to 18:00(local time) on the day of arrival. Beyond that time, the first night will be charged.
Check in Policy : The room is available from 14:00.
Check out Policy : The room must be vacated by 12:00 at the latest.
Children policy : Accommodation is free for 1 child under 12 years sharing parents' room, extra charge for breakfast.
Package Inclusions : Offer including accommodation and breakfast at the restaurant over the week-end.
Guarantee Policy : All reservations must be guaranteed with a credit card valid at the date of the start of your stay, unless otherwise specified.
Official documents to provide : In order to comply with Government regulations, your ID card or Passport must be submitted upon check in at our hotels. The copies of the identification will then be submitted to the relevant government offices.
Taxes
Lodging tax : National taxes on accommodation by night, by room 17.81% from 14/09/2010
Catering tax : National taxes on F&B by night, by person 10.0% from 01/12/2010 to 19/06/2012 Service Charge on F&B by night, by room 5.0% from 20/03/2010

Everything was smooth from check-in and the Mrs. truly enjoyed the experience and the spa. However .... hit the fan when I tried to check out and pay with the vouchers as the front desk informed me that they had already charged the room to my card and was not eligible to use the vouchers to settle the bill.

After a tense moment, I took out my reservation and showed them the terms and conditions of the stay, and insisted they had no right to charge my card before I checked out. After some phone conversations with the back office a(I guess), the person in charge promptly took my vouchers and promised to refund the room charge on my card. I paid for the difference and left the hotel.

Once I got home, I checked with the bank and was shocked the hotel had charged my card on Nov 4! I had not yet arrive and it is certainly against the condition of the reservation I made. And I am now USD7 poorer thanks to the exchange rate movements & bank charges between the time the room was charged and subsequently refunded.

I hope the Accor Concierge can look into this and find out just where the breakdown in process happened!

Maybe I am a magnet for issues with Accor..

Had a great stay with Sofitel Phnom Penh over the weekend (will cover this in the property tmaste4r hread) which was marred with a bad experience at checkout.

I got a non-prepaid reservation from the Accor website as I intended to use my A-Club vouchers to pay for the stay. It was a MAGNIFIQUE BREAKFAST rate for a weekend stay from Nov 5 to Nov 6, which came to USD253.29 after taxes.

The terms of the booking were

Superior Room 1 King Bed
Cancellation policy : No cancellation charge applies prior to 18:00(local time) on the day of arrival. Beyond that time, the first night will be charged.
Check in Policy : The room is available from 14:00.
Check out Policy : The room must be vacated by 12:00 at the latest.
Children policy : Accommodation is free for 1 child under 12 years sharing parents' room, extra charge for breakfast.
Package Inclusions : Offer including accommodation and breakfast at the restaurant over the week-end.
Guarantee Policy : All reservations must be guaranteed with a credit card valid at the date of the start of your stay, unless otherwise specified.
Official documents to provide : In order to comply with Government regulations, your ID card or Passport must be submitted upon check in at our hotels. The copies of the identification will then be submitted to the relevant government offices.
Taxes
Lodging tax : National taxes on accommodation by night, by room 17.81% from 14/09/2010
Catering tax : National taxes on F&B by night, by person 10.0% from 01/12/2010 to 19/06/2012 Service Charge on F&B by night, by room 5.0% from 20/03/2010

Everything was smooth from check-in and the Mrs. truly enjoyed the experience and the spa. However .... hit the fan when I tried to check out and pay with the vouchers as the front desk informed me that they had already charged the room to my card and was not eligible to use the vouchers to settle the bill.

After a tense moment, I took out my reservation and showed them the terms and conditions of the stay, and insisted they had no right to charge my card before I checked out. After some phone conversations with the back office a(I guess), the person in charge promptly took my vouchers and promised to refund the room charge on my card. I paid for the difference and left the hotel.

Once I got home, I checked with the bank and was shocked the hotel had charged my card on Nov 4! I had not yet arrive and it is certainly against the condition of the reservation I made. And I am now USD7 poorer thanks to the exchange rate movements & bank charges between the time the room was charged and subsequently refunded.

I hope the Accor Concierge can look into this and find out just where the breakdown in process happened!

Just avoid using accor hotels they offer nothing of benefit and the vouchers are devalued so why bother?
Accor moderator you have a hard task convincing people that there is any benefit booking an accor hotel

Just to update, the GM send me an email based on my feedback and offer 2k points. The points is a bonus but I sincerely hope they get to the root issue as it marred an otherwise perfect stay.

Just to update, the GM send me an email based on my feedback and offer 2k points. The points is a bonus but I sincerely hope they get to the root issue as it marred an otherwise perfect stay.

Dear EngOnAPlane,

I'm glad the GM has quickly resolved the issue. Indeed, it is not normal that your room is charged before the date of your arrival.

Thank you very much for the feedbacks. I will transfer it to the concerned department. Once again, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience!

Best wishes,
Dieu Anh

I have a similar experience with hotel Vie, for a stay I have booked in January.

I originally made a tentative booking for the 16 - 19 January on the Flexible Business Package including Breakfast & Free Internet which also has the "No cancellation charge applies prior to 18:00 (local time), up to 3 days prior to arrival. Beyond that time, the first night will be charged" clause, which I also confirmed with the accor/ aclub booking hotline. I then cancelled this booking, to change the dates to the 14 - 16 January on the same package. I then changed to the prepaid Aclub member sale fare and added an extra day more recently (yes, I know two changes is a lot - but that is why I had made a flexible reservation).

A few days after each of the cancellations my card was charged for the entire amount, and I now also have the prepaid reservation's charge 'reserved' on my card (though annoyingly not taken out by the hotel).

I also had a similar problem with Novotel Canberra on a recent stay. I was charged twice - though it was partially my own fault... then it took about a week to get most of the money back whilst I was stuck in Canberra due to the Qantas grounding with limited funds (I had flown up for a bucks night).

Ah well, I am remaining positive about Accor, and am staying with them at all times possible/ sensible on my upcoming Thailand and Vietnam trip (three different Accor hotels booked so far, and another three planned including Sofitel Metropole Legend Hanoi). I do hope that they offer me a couple of thousand extra Aclub points though - as due to trying to figure out why my holiday account was short a couple of hundred dollars, I missed out on booking Hotel de l'Opera Hanoi for my return from Hoi An/ DaNang during the 50% off sale.

Oh, and I will update on how Hotel Vie resolves this once I hear back from them.

And a couple of positives from the Novotel Canberra: I found out (too late) that they do upgrade Aclub Platinum members that ask (I didn't, but I heard aanother guest do it on my checkout); also there is a new computer system that streamlines the points being credited - mine went through about a day after staying (though there were a lot fewer than I had expected, though that is possibly the topic of another thread).

Oh, and I will update on how Hotel Vie resolves this once I hear back from them.


Hello,

Please do not hesitate to send me a PM (with full details: your A|Club member & your reservation code) if you don't hear from them until next week.

Best regards,
Dieu Anh

Thanks Dieu Anh, fortunately they have refunded the charge, and sent this email:

Dear Mr. XXXX,



We do aplogize to respond you so lately. Regarding to your email, please be informed that we are now holding 1 of your boolong under Super Sales promotion 1x-1x December ,2011 that is prepaid booking. The total amount must be collected in advance.



Any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.





Check In Procedure: Check-in is not guarantee before 2 p.m. Luggage can be stored if the guest arrives before his/her room is ready.



Check Out Procedure: Check out time is 12 o'clock midday. Room used from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the day of departure will be charged 50% of the room rate. Room occupied beyond 6 p.m. will be charged at the full rate, unless specified by hotel in writing.





Sincerely,

Thanks Dieu Anh, fortunately they have refunded the charge, and sent this email:

Thanks for keeping us informed -- but you may wish to consider editing out your real name and the precise dates of your forthcoming stay.

Sounds as though this is a chain with poor management systems & controls, but which tries to rectify things when they don't work. Obviously, for business travel, it's a bad deal to use ACCOR because you have to spend time fixing simple things after the fact and standing around front desks.

Lots of hotel options out there and best way to get things fixed is to vote with your feet and stay elsewhere.

One slip by one hotel does not make a bad chain.

Having spent over 50 nights this year in Accor hotels around the world I would seriously dispute this. One look across to the other hotel fora will quickly show they all have their own problems.

One slip by one hotel does not make a bad chain.

Having spent over 50 nights this year in Accor hotels around the world I would seriously dispute this. One look across to the other hotel fora will quickly show they all have their own problems.

+1

Yep, I am not going to judge them until after the trip - and am hopeful that my stays as a platimun member will be very positive.

I had, more or less, the same experience (in my case, getting charged weeks before the actual arrival) with Mercure An Der Charite in Berlin: I was actually quite furious (perhaps I did overreact), however I had a swift response from the hotel and got the amount refunded in a couple of days. No apologies whatsoever on the email, though, which I thought was quite poor.