Le Club Accorhotels - Poor customer service

I stayed recently in the Sofitel Saigon Plaza. I have booked 4 nights for this stay and paid for these 4 nights fully. During the 4th night I checked out early at 19:15. After my return I checked the balance of credited nights and noted that just 3 nights have been credited.
I had similar “short nights” before and never had problems with crediting this kind of nights though those nights have never been credited automatically but without any problem via customer care). I think I have the right that the 4th night is credited as I have paid for 4 nights fully and with the check-out time being at 11:00 I physically stayed 8 hours of the 4th night in the hotel.
I have contacted the customer care asking to credit me the one missing night. What was following was an extremely poor and even ignorant customer care.
The answer to my first request asking to credit this night was short: just paid and realised nights have the right for being credited.
I have sent a second message explaining the above stated situation in more detail that I paid fully for this night and realised this night (due to the check-out 8h after the check-out limit it was not a fake night). But the answer was similar to previous one.
I have consulted Accor’s T&Cs under http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/leclub/pdf/terms-and-conditions.pdf and could not find any paragraph related the argumentation and in a third message I asked about the argumentation in relation with Accor’s T&Cs. The reply was saying that paragraph 7.4.4 state that a night has to be realised as requirement for being credited.
The quote to paragraph 7.4.4 was the next proof of incompetence or ignorance. Paragraph 7.4.4 neither state that nights have to be realised for crediting nor and more important there is no comment regarding early check-outs and their relation for crediting nights.
In order to assess my legal position, in a last attempt I asked to send me the T&Cs they were quoting as it seems they were quoting non-existing T&Cs. At this stage it seemed customer care was stumped completely as they replied without answering the T&C issue. On a further message pointing out my complete unsatisfactory regarding to previous answers, I even did not get a reply anymore.

Overall the entire process is extremely disappointing for me, especially under consideration that I obtain the Gold Level of Le Club. I have to question myself, what value I have for Accor being on Gold Level. In the last 3 years have stayed easily more than 70 nights in Accor hotels and contributed to several thousand Euros revenue. Not crediting the night is annoying, but more important I don’t have any sympathy how unprofessional, poor and ignorant Accor is communicating with its Gold Level customer which under normal corporate perspective should be threaded as valued customers.

I believe you are right : you are entitled to have this 4 night credited. You should contact AccorConcierge on this forum. I'm sure he'll be able to help you to sort this out.

Thanks for the hint regarding AccorConcierge. I appreciate it, Goldorak!

Welcome to FlyerTalk FlyingHigh00 ^

Thank you, starflyergold!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

On your question regarding the value of Le CLub Gold: I'd say it's close to nothing. I have never really felt appreciated. I have moved up to Plat now, but I don't have any high hopes on this getting better.

On your stay: it seems logical for you to get the night credit. But in reality, and based on experience, hotel chains don't seem to follow the same logic. I have almost always (and not only at Accor) had problems with night credits when I tried to do the right thing - booking the previous night for early check-ins or the following night for late check-outs.
I got so fed up with this, that now I don't care anymore. I don't book the extra nights anymore and I just try to talk my way into an early check-in or late check-out. Less money for the hotels, but it's their own fault. :td:

Thanks for your welcome and reply, Koby. Unfortunately you are right, it seems be to a fight against windmills. If not avoidable, I will follow your example not booking extra nights anymore.
Less money for the hotels, but it's their own fault. :p

My experience with Le Club is if they can get away without giving you points, they will. I have issues with most of my stays - it's rare that I get the proper amount of points / nights. I'm sure they get annoyed at me following them up - 2 or 3 times!!

The other thing that annoys me is the when you do a points claim on the website it says you will get a response within 48 hours! More like 48 days if you are lucky.

I think the philosophy is if they wait long enough, the customer will give up and forget about it.

Such bad customer service.

My experience with Le Club is if they can get away without giving you points, they will. I have issues with most of my stays - it's rare that I get the proper amount of points / nights. I'm sure they get annoyed at me following them up - 2 or 3 times!!

The other thing that annoys me is the when you do a points claim on the website it says you will get a response within 48 hours! More like 48 days if you are lucky.

I think the philosophy is if they wait long enough, the customer will give up and forget about it.

Such bad customer service.

When my points don't get posted, I usually email the hotel to enquire. Each time, they answered with an apology email and assurance that my points had been posted (and they did).

Thanks for your reply.
@ PabloM: Totally agree with you. I have to admit, I had similar issues before with crediting nights with early check-outs but I never had an issue get them credited via the customer service. But it seems Accor has changed its policy to being ignorant and not willing to listen. It seems they don't get annoyed, I have been in touch with them about 8 times but their answers get more and more redicolous, even not matching my questions and case :D
Every unhappy customer should keep mailing them every 48h until the case is closed, this will result in 10 times the work they would have when they would do a proper customer service.

@ Richelieu: Many thanks for this advice, I will give it a try!

Happy days, this problem has been solved today. After 2 weeks of mailing, I contacted AccorConcierge and the hotel directly!
Many thanks for everybody for the feedback!

Hi FlyingHigh00,

I regret to hear you faced such a problem. I have taken note of your issue, will contact accorhotels customer service department and get back to you with a response as soon as I can.

In meantime, thank you for your patience.

Best wishes,

Chris


I stayed recently in the Sofitel Saigon Plaza. I have booked 4 nights for this stay and paid for these 4 nights fully. During the 4th night I checked out early at 19:15. After my return I checked the balance of credited nights and noted that just 3 nights have been credited.
I had similar “short nights” before and never had problems with crediting this kind of nights though those nights have never been credited automatically but without any problem via customer care). I think I have the right that the 4th night is credited as I have paid for 4 nights fully and with the check-out time being at 11:00 I physically stayed 8 hours of the 4th night in the hotel.
I have contacted the customer care asking to credit me the one missing night. What was following was an extremely poor and even ignorant customer care.
The answer to my first request asking to credit this night was short: just paid and realised nights have the right for being credited.
I have sent a second message explaining the above stated situation in more detail that I paid fully for this night and realised this night (due to the check-out 8h after the check-out limit it was not a fake night). But the answer was similar to previous one.
I have consulted Accor’s T&Cs under http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/leclub/pdf/terms-and-conditions.pdf and could not find any paragraph related the argumentation and in a third message I asked about the argumentation in relation with Accor’s T&Cs. The reply was saying that paragraph 7.4.4 state that a night has to be realised as requirement for being credited.
The quote to paragraph 7.4.4 was the next proof of incompetence or ignorance. Paragraph 7.4.4 neither state that nights have to be realised for crediting nor and more important there is no comment regarding early check-outs and their relation for crediting nights.
In order to assess my legal position, in a last attempt I asked to send me the T&Cs they were quoting as it seems they were quoting non-existing T&Cs. At this stage it seemed customer care was stumped completely as they replied without answering the T&C issue. On a further message pointing out my complete unsatisfactory regarding to previous answers, I even did not get a reply anymore.

Overall the entire process is extremely disappointing for me, especially under consideration that I obtain the Gold Level of Le Club. I have to question myself, what value I have for Accor being on Gold Level. In the last 3 years have stayed easily more than 70 nights in Accor hotels and contributed to several thousand Euros revenue. Not crediting the night is annoying, but more important I don’t have any sympathy how unprofessional, poor and ignorant Accor is communicating with its Gold Level customer which under normal corporate perspective should be threaded as valued customers.

Hello Chris
Many thanks for your post. I have written in the post above your post - the problem is solved. After 2 weeks of mailing and arguing I got credited my missing night, but I am disappointed about the entire process.

FlyingHigh00

When my points don't get posted, I usually email the hotel to enquire. Each time, they answered with an apology email and assurance that my points had been posted (and they did).

Thank you for this advice, since January I am staying at the same Pullman once a month and had point issues every time.

I will stay there next weekend again and hopefully benefit from the triple point weekend promotion.

I will travel to France next month and still am not convinced I should give Accor hotels priority over other places to spend the nights. I need 3 more nights for silver, but wonder if I should bother :rolleyes:

Hello Chris
Many thanks for your post. I have written in the post above your post - the problem is solved. After 2 weeks of mailing and arguing I got credited my missing night, but I am disappointed about the entire process.

FlyingHigh00

Good to hear your problem finally resolved.

My brother was just on the phone yesterday ranting about some uncredited nights for recent stays in Pullman Bangkok . After to and fro emails to Accor and numerous confusing 'account regularizations' to the points, he was still unhappy. I had a peek into his account and was totally confused with the 'account regularizations' too. Some points were deducted, then added back; the process was repeated a few times and in the end, his points were less than before he started the missing stay retroclaiming process. Go figure! The customer service managed to make a simple task very complex and bewildering.

He had given up on chasing the missing points as he does not want to go through the hassle of asking one by one the 'account regularizations' items, as it was really confusing. Also given up on LeAccor and Accor Advantage Plus itself. Both of us and his wife will not be renewing AA Plus when expire.