Le Club Accorhotels - Le Club vs HHonors, for Mercures and Hilton Garden Inns (trip report)

Hi All

Give some of the recent discussions on status recognition (or lack of it) at the lower end Accor brands, I thought it might be helpful to post my experiences of staying at a Mercure and a Hilton Garden Inn a few days apart.

Status wise, I have Accor Le Club Platinum (new, via Amex), and Hilton HHonors Gold (held for a little while). This trip was my first stay in an Accor property since signing up for Le Club (I have stayed in others before though).

For work, I needed a few nights in a hotel near Hitchin in the UK, in a fairly modest price bracket. About equidistent from the office are the Mercure Letchworth Hall, and the Hilton Garden Inn Luton North. Price wise, they're both about the same for a single night, no breakfast, advanced purchase rate. (The price at the Mercure looks fairly stable, the Hilton one varies night by night, but averages to about the same price). So, I stayed at both to see.

First up was the Mercure Letchworth Hall. Getting there without a car was a pain - the hotel is a 10 minute walk from the nearest bus stop. Hotel has a huge carpark, clearly this is what they expect everyone to do. Once there, checkin was slow as they wanted me to fill lots of forms in. They didn't have my Le Club details, despite having booked online when logged in, and much of the details on the forms should have come from online. So, no status recognition, and no le club details. (My Le Club card hasn't arrived yet) Room was quite nice, wifi was poor but just about usable in my room, failed to work in the bar/lounge area. Speaking to another guest, this wifi fail had been going on for days, and the hotel had failed to fix it despite repeated complaints! The pool/gym turned out to be an attached Nuffield Health centre to which you got access as a hotel guest, which was large and nice, even if the pool was largely taken over for classes so you couldn't swim. Food was quite nice. At checkout, they still didn't have my le club number, despite having promised to look it up by email. They didn't want to take the number from me, said they'd look it up later (they didn't). 10 minute walk in the rain back to the bus stop :( Points didn't post, had to do a Missing Points claim online a week later.

Second stay was at the Hilton Garden Inn Luton North. Getting there was much easier - bus stop basically outside of the entrance. Checkin was a breeze, hand over HHonors card and credit card, and had a room card very quickly. Welcomed as an HHonors guest, and given some vouchers for free bottles of water from the pantry. Room was nice, desk and wifi were better than the Mercure. The gym was smaller, but had all the usual stuff. The restaurant was a bit less formal than at the Mercure, but the food was as good, and slightly cheaper. Breakfast had a decent selection in the buffet (and was free as HHonors gold). They had a quick checkout, and the bill showed the numbers of HHonors points earnt on it. Points posted within 48 hours automatically. Oh, and the bus stop's outside, so no getting wet getting to the office!

Both hotels were about the same price, and yet the Hilton property managed to offer some status recognition despite this. It's not what you get at a very high end hotel (not that I was expecting that!), but I did get a nice welcome, a free breakfast, and some water (handy for the gym). The Accor property didn't.

So, when the prices are about the same for that night, I'll normally be returning to the Hilton property. The sports facilities aren't as good, but they seem to win on the rest, and especially they win on getting the FF experience right despite their low price point. Accor, take note!

Nick

For a mid-tier status (i.e Gold) , HHonors Gold beats all of them for the benefits given out to their members and that I find them most beneficial for my travel style (i.e. book the cheapest room and get upgraded with complementary breakfast and broadband internet) but sadly I find the Hilton network not that extensive in Asia where I mostly travel in.

The one thing I like about Accor (apart from their range of properties in Asia except maybe Japan and Taiwan) is that their point redemption is the most straightforward among the various loyalty programs.

Apart from the fact that one can't redeem it for prepaid rooms, which is my main beef with this program, you can literally treat the points as cash equivalent without jumping through the hoops with all that complicated hotel categories points redemption, regimented cash + points options, upgrade with points, capacity controls etc, you just pay the bill with the Accor vouchers as if they were cash when checking out. On top of that, the vouchers are good for all expenses incurred at the hotels, including taxes. You can't do that with other programs, can you?

And the program's occasional 2x and 3x points promotions are quite nice as well.

Apart from the fact that one can't redeem it for prepaid rooms, which is my main beef with this program, you can literally treat the points as cash equivalent without jumping through the hoops with all that complicated hotel categories points redemption, regimented cash + points options, upgrade with points etc, you just pay the bill with the Accor vouchers as if they were cash when checking out. On top of that, the vouchers are good for all expenses incurred at the hotels, including taxes. You can't do that with other programs, can you?


That's true but with experiences like the OP went through, it's kinda hard to pick Accor hotels over others (all things equal). And it doesn't help the fact that their conversion rate is probably one of the worst. I was in KL recently and it was cheaper for me to use MR points to stay at JW Marriott than using accor vouchers to stay at the Novotel nearby. :)

That's true but with experiences like the OP went through, it's kinda hard to pick Accor hotels over others (all things equal).
Not arguing that. A single property can make or break the loyalty with a program. And Hilton does have a much more consistent policy for recognizing the elite members across its brands.

And it doesn't help the fact that their conversion rate is probably one of the worst.
Accor's rate is pretty straightforward. For basic member, the yield is 4% then it increases from there to 8% for a Plat. It's slightly higher if redeemed in USD, based on the strength of USD (or should it be the weakness of Euros?). The occasional 2x and 3x points promotion make things a whole lot better. Not sure about MR Rewards.

So, when the prices are about the same for that night, I'll normally be returning to the Hilton property. The sports facilities aren't as good, but they seem to win on the rest, and especially they win on getting the FF experience right despite their low price point. Accor, take note!

Let's hope that with the recent management change at ACCOR, they will overhaul the program and address the lack of recognition throughout the various brands...fingers crossed.

I'm back in the same Accor property again, after a few months of just Hilton properties. Checkin was as painful as before, as they once again hadn't managed to get most of my details despite having booked online and when signed in. Wifi is even worse than last time, it's now virtually un-usable, and they're still claiming it'll be fixed in a few days. (After more than 2 months, the excuse is wearing a bit thin!)

However, one good thing - I explicitly asked if they offered any status recognition for Platinum Le Club members. The guy checking me in (who'd seen my card a number of times, while trying to write down my Le Club details that were missing from the booking) looked slightly blank. The woman also on the checkin desk said they did, and would help me in a minute. Once she'd finished checking someone else in, she then came over and gave me a Le Club branded voucher for a free drink in the bar :)

So, it is worth explicitly asking at checkin for benefits, as you never know! And the free drink did help dull the pain of the internet being broken... Luckily saved for me by mobile broadband!

That said, the Le Club experience is not as good as what you get at a Hilton Garden Inn. Don't even start me on the difference between here, and a few Hilton city centre properties on weekend breaks, often for less money per night than the Mercure is in the week...

However, one good thing - I explicitly asked if they offered any status recognition for Platinum Le Club members. The guy checking me in (who'd seen my card a number of times, while trying to write down my Le Club details that were missing from the booking) looked slightly blank. The woman also on the checkin desk said they did, and would help me in a minute. Once she'd finished checking someone else in, she then came over and gave me a Le Club branded voucher for a free drink in the bar :)

Very good comparison between the two hotels Gagravarr ^

One thing I would like to comment on, is that Mercure hotels don't offer anything (according to the A-Club status listing) special for their elites, BUT it's actually very nice that some do have a perk or two to give away.

I guess you were lucky this time...