This was in a recent Sofitel email...not sure of it's value.
4th best brand hotel for Travellers’ choice 2009
Acclaimed by travellers on Tripadvisor.com, Sofitel has been voted 4th best luxury hotel brand with 6 hotel in top of hotels: Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade, Sofitel New-York, Sofitel Fidji Resort&Spa, Sofitel Montréal Golden Mile, Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, Sofitel Impérial Mauritius Resort & Spa.
And
4 Sofitel in Top hotel for travel experts
4 of our hotels were also rewarded by travel experts and designed among top 500 best hotels for Travel&Leisure: Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, Sofitel Metropole Hanoi, Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, Sofitel Philadelphia.
I agree with your previous comment stimpy - the hotels are actually very good in general - which is why I keep returning to them. However the overall brand is let down by a poorly thought out and feebly implemented loyalty scheme which appears to exist merely as a "tick box" item so that they don't get marked down in comparison with Hilton, Starwood etc. for not having a scheme at all.
Good - about time their lame programme was exposed.
I stay regularly at the Mercure Southgate Hotel in Exeter, UK. Never had a single upgrade yet, and the staff do not seem aware of club promos even though the lobby is littered with brochures for them. I also tried exchanging some points for vouchers for my last stay at the above property, only to find when they arrived that said vouchers could only be used in France. When I complained, they told me to send the vouchers back to them so that they could "investigate" and then return the vouchers to me. When I tried again, asking what use that was since I wanted to use the vouchers in the UK, they repeated the same answer. To be fair, the hotel concierge tried to reason with them on my behalf, and seemed to reach an understanding with them that they would re-issue replacement vouchers which could be used in the UK. However, that was 3 weeks ago and I have not even had an acknowledgement that they have received the vouchers.
Update to that, I received an email from AClub asking me to confirm that I wanted said vouchers replaced with ones I could use anywhere in the world. Of course, the email came from "noreply@aclub...." so I duly filled in the form again (I like to keep things with written records) quoting the reference number and saying yes please.
What do I get in return?
Quote:
Y/R : 00103102
O/R : 0903061815722320
Dear Sir,
We remind you that A|Club rewards vouchers cannot be either extended, replaced or refunded if lost, stolen, damaged, destroyed or expired.
Like any financial instrument, A|Club rewards vouchers cannot under any circumstances be extended or recredited.
As these vouchers are not named and remain valid up to the 24th Of June 2009, we suggest you offer them to a third party.
Consequently, we are unable to process your request.
Best regards,
I'd give up if I wasn't so annoying with them. B**dy timewasters
However the overall brand is let down by a poorly thought out and feebly implemented loyalty scheme which appears to exist merely as a "tick box" item so that they don't get marked down in comparison with Hilton, Starwood etc. for not having a scheme at all.
Yeah. The program is awful. I've mostly avoided Mercures for years because of the lack of a real loyalty program (I might as well Priceline it ...), but I thought I'd give A Club a chance. It's really not much better than it was pre-AClub.
Quote:
Like any financial instrument, A|Club rewards vouchers cannot under any circumstances be extended or recredited.
Uh...last I checked, financial instruments could be deposited/cashed.
Good points: none at the moment.
Silver only increases your earning speed but nothing special.
Even with FB cards or similars I never got an upgrade and this is still the rule (at least for silver...).
Bad points:
At general 66% times points are not credited automatically but I have to send scanned copy of my receipt-->this is painful and likely I will restart soon to convert my points in miles!
Weekend Voucher?I hope they will not be valid only in Francebut also for weekend outside France ....otherwise is even insulting.
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Experiencing flights with AZ, OK, AF, TK, LH, LX, SU, MA, KL. Enjoying few ones only with AZ, OK, AF, LX and TK.
Programs: AC Tangerine/BA Silver/SPG Gold/Priority Club Platinum
Posts: 1,533
Grade: Incomplete
Good: Absolutely no idea
Bad: Not one single stay has posted my points
I really like the properties so I keep coming back but although reception always says my account number is on the reservation I've never got my points to post. Judging by the benefits on offer I can't justify the time to chase them down either.
Pros:
- comped to Platinum from Sofitel Privilege with some 15 nights
Cons:
- have not received my Plat status since accepting the offer last September, despite many e-mails, two phonecalls with agents promising a fix and a request through their website for a new PLATINUM card a week ago.
What do I get in reply?
"Dear Mr Toli,
We would like to thank you for your interest in the A|Club program.
You should receive your A|Club Classic card at the following address: ...";
- no benefits at properties other than Sofitel and MGallery.
I stay at the Sofitel in NYC every week. It took a few weeks of "discussions" with the hotel manager to resolve some issues, but now that it's done, I love staying there.
In terms of the program:
PROS:
-Points rack up very quickly if you stay at the Sofitel
CONS:
-Rewards program for certificates only available in France? Would like to use them at the Sofitel in the US!
-The staff very inconsistently offers drink coupons and upgrades.....and I feel stupid asking for a drink coupon. I shouldn't feel like I have to *ask* for the benefits you advertise.
-As everyone else has stated, the points NEVER appear when they should.
-The hotel asks for my number EACH AND EVERY WEEK because it doesn't "stay" in their reservation system.
-As you upgrade through the levels, you never get a new card. Normally I wouldn't care about a card but since they can't seem to remember my number, it's important.
-The rewards redemptions take for-freaking-ever.
It seems highly manual, disorganized, and much like an afterthought.... It certainly takes away from the otherwise great customer experience!
I never depend on them posting, I send the invoice via their website, takes 1 minute, and I get a confirmatory email within 20 minutes saying they are posted.
Much easier than keeping track of my Hyatt points which can take a fortnight, and then post incorrectly...
Location: Seat 1A, Juice pretty much everywhere, Mucci des Coins Exotiques
Posts: 14,924
I always ask to make sure they credited the points whenever I check out of a Sofitel (or M Gallery or Pullman). It's been about two years since I didn't get points credited.
Programs: QFF WP, EK, EY Silver, SQ Gold, SPG Gold, A¦Club Platinum, Tufty Club Titanium
Posts: 163
I'd rate them a B- overall.
Pros:
As an a|club gold member I've consistently had every stay except one upgraded (and that was due to lack of availability), including an upgrade to a suite at a Novotel that I wasn't expecting.
I work for a French company, and there are a lot of Accor hotels on our approved hotel list, for which we have some pretty good rates.
Points have posted every time for me. No follow up required.
Only a couple of times have the freebies (free drink at the bar, other bits and pieces to be had in the room) not been provided.
Cons:
Attempts to transfer to QFF so far have failed miserably. 6 months on and several chasers and still no sign of it happening.
So overall, I like the benefits, but presumably the system side of their operation is failing them.
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Jeez, if I fly much more my arms are going to drop off...But are you flying with me?
I am A-Club Platinum. My critique is that Accor needs to go back to the basics on designing its web site. A-Club is the only major hotel program I know about where I cannot sign in to my account and actually see a list of the upcoming hotel reservations that I booked through the web site.
When I want to make a reservation, I log on through A-Club, that takes me to the Accor reservations site, once I make a Sofitel reservation, it provides a confirmation, but does not even provide any recognition of my Platinum status. Rather, along with reservation confirmation, it asks whether I would like to sign up for an A-Club membership?!?! This places me in the position of having to call up to make sure that my Platinum account registered with my web reservation. And don't think that calling them is easy either... I quickly realized that the U.S./Canada A-Club phone number only services the A-Club account but that one needs to call another Accor telephone number for reservation issues.
Does this make sense? A-Club's customer service for its most frequent travelers cannot assist with reservations but simply refers them to a general phone number? And why do I have to keep track of my own online-reservations once I have made them? Anyone with a no-status Hilton or Starwood guest account can pull up a list of upcoming reservations made over the internet. Why cannot A-Club provide this basic service to its most frequent customers?
The A-Club is Accor's botched attempt to bring together a range of unimpressive brand-specific loyalty programs into something that rivals multi-brand schemes like PC, SPG and even Hhonors. However, my Platinum card brings almost no discernable benefits whatsoever; no complimentary Internet or breakfasts and no upgrades except in Sofitels. If that is Platinum status how bad can the lower tiers be?
and they now have the distinct brands of Pullman and M-Gallery.
Distinct they may be, quality they are not. I recently stayed in the M-Gallery Prague and it was the worst hotel experience in years. No recognition of A-Club Platinum status despite promo material for A-club plastered all over the lobby. Hideously plain rooms and points not properly credited. Having said that I got an immediate response from the manager after emailing my complaint via the A-club website.
The other M-Gallery hotel I stayed in was Geneva and again this had seen better days. M-Gallery appears to be a collection of worn out hotels that they can't pass on as Sofitels or Mercure. I think the M in M-Gallery stands for mediocre
On the plus side: I only once had problems with points being credited, usually they appear the same or next day.
The issue with French only vouchers has now been resolved by withdrawing them all together.
A-club certainly needs a better website for all my bookings to be visible and PDF generated vouchers. More Platinum perks would be very desirable, a tiny upgrade and two chocolates don't cut it. As there are so many comps at the moment from the old Sofitel system it might be that they are waiting until Platinum levels out to earned status.
Last edited by starflyergold; Apr 26, 09 at 8:20 am.
