Other Hotel Programs - A-club points when booked through travel agent?

The current a-club 2000 points promotion states that you can book through your travel agent and get points. Is this new? I was always under the impression that you would have to book through the website or Accor phone reservations. Any idea if this includes online travel agents and websites?:confused:

Earn 2,000 A|Club points if you stay twice for at least 2 nights at Accor hotels!
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The Offer in detail

Whether your vacation is coming up soon or later on, go ahead and make the plans of your dreams now at Accor hotels around the world!

A mellow time in Bali, sun by the Mediterranean, an urban getaway in New York or Paris, an exotic trip to Cairo… whatever your desires, there’s a Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, ibis, all seasons or Accor Thalassa to greet you when you get there.

You can take advantage of your vacation even more because A|Club has reserved an exceptional offer for you, an authentic invitation to travel around the world or close to home…

An easy way to earn an A|Club rewards gift voucher for 40 € or $60 (USD)!

Just stay two times for at least two nights each at any of the 2,000 participating hotels around the world.
A|Club will give you 2,000 A|Club points, the equivalent of an A|Club rewards gift voucher worth 40 € or $60 (USD).

To benefit from this offer, book your stays conveniently on-line, with your favorite travel agency or via our reservation desk.

And to top it off, the great news is that if you BOON ON-LINE, you’ll get an EXTRA BONUS OF 500 A|CLUB POINTS!
A|Club membership conditions

Classic, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Favorite Guest, Club des Actionnaires
Participating locations

All the 2,000 participating Accor hotels worldwide

Offer Validity

Offer starts : 11/06/2009
Offer ends : 31/08/2009

I have booked a few Novotel nights through an online booking service and points were not credited to my account. I was told at the ExCel in London that points would only be honored if booked directly through any accor web-site (i.e. A-Club, Mercure, Novotel, Ibis etc), but NOT though anything else. Lost a few nights on that, but not too worried, as points leads you no where...

This is an example of how unprofessional Accor can be. After my stay at Mercure Phuket which I booked via Expedia, I was waiting for my bonus points as promised by Accor promotion. Now they are trying to tell me that:

Following A|Club's terms and conditions, only reservations made through
travel agency with complete payment of the hotel are eligible for
points. You can find under terms and conditions section 7.4.1 and 7.4.4
for more details.

We apologise for the misunderstanding and we have escalated this issue
to our headquarter for further rectification.
When asked again what do they mean by "reservations made through
travel agency with complete payment of the hotel" (in my case it was prepaid booking via Expedia), they told me the following:
In this case, under the terms and conditions for the promotion:


12. This offer is subject to availability. General sales terms and
conditions for reserved public rates apply.


Which would imply that for this promotion, the booking can be made
through a travel agency if it was reserved under your name, not the
agency's, and it was paid with an eligible fair.

Sounds like nonsense...Shame on you ACCOR!!

Last week i had a stay at Sofitel Heathrow, booked this through expedia and added a comment with my a-club membership number, next day after my 1 night stay points we're added to my account including the 2x acceleration promo that is running this month.:D

yyz1505: Don't know if I'd say it was nonsense. Most travel agencies (including expedia) have pre booked (and pre paid) a certain number of rooms at a much lower price than what Accot sell them at to the public, so I can understand that Accor won't give the points and/or nights for such rooms.

I also booked my one London Novotel stay through Expedia as it was much cheaper than directly with Accor so in a way you have to choose one of two scenarios:

1. Pay full rate through Accor and get your points / nights OR
2. Pay lower rate through an agency and get no points / nights posted to your account.

RonaldJ - Great tip ^ Will defo give it a try next time IF I book though an agency. Wonder if this is fault in the system...

One thing to remember is that Accor operates a price guarantee (http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/garantie/descriptif.shtml) for the same room/offering. Find it cheaper elsewhere they will match the price minus 10%

Cupart- I was talking about the misleading information in this promotion -
"To benefit from this offer, book your stays conveniently on-line, with your favorite travel agency or via our reservation desk." - nothing said about full rates/rack rates etc...

Cupart- I was talking about the misleading information in this promotion -
"To benefit from this offer, book your stays conveniently on-line, with your favorite travel agency or via our reservation desk." - nothing said about full rates/rack rates etc...

Hi yyz1505,

Sorry, didn't read your post properly I guess :(

I actually asked for a receipt when checking out at the Excel Novotel in London but they couldn't give me one because (as said earlier) it had been sorted between Expedia and Accor earlier. I gave the receptionist my A-Club card, she typed in the number and obviously could give me any points. The system just wouldn't allow it.

When was the promotion running from (and to)? Can't recall having seen any such; did it come as a mail or was it on one of the many Accor web-sites? Was it area specific?

it is still active, until the end of this month...try to google, but actually each time i go to accorhotels website, i see the banner...

One thing to remember is that Accor operates a price guarantee (http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/garantie/descriptif.shtml) for the same room/offering. Find it cheaper elsewhere they will match the price minus 10%

The one time I tried to take advantage of their price guarantee, they shot me down (in Franco-fractured English) even though the reservation terms were exactly the same. Nothing I said could get them to budge.

I booked the Washington DC Sofitel through Quikbook in the beginning of the year. Although they never found the reservation, they honored the rate, gave me my Platinum upgrade, and I got A-Club points for my stay.

This is truly dismal scheme...

As I posted elsewhere earlier, I've just had to send a 9 page fax to them covering stays which were a) booked through the A-Club website and b) noted with the hotel at the time.

They just don't care or bother - don't seem to understand that no scheme is better than a bad scheme!

My view, based on many years living on and off in France, is that large French organisations are generally domestic monopolies and just don't understand the idea that potential customers have a choice - and surely it's influencing that choice that drives any company to the cost of operating a loyalty scheme, from supermarkets through airlines to hotels.

It's a cultural thing and I don't think Accor would be capabable of running an effective loyalty programme.