The same happened to me a few times when I was traveling in Asia, e.g. China, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. All $60 vouchers were redeemed at a rather unfavorable rate provided CONVENIENTLY by the hotel. I had no luck having the staff work around that, yet only was told it was the company's policy other than the Dynamic Currency Conversion thing.
Originally Posted by
BigE
I lost about 8% when using my $60 USD certificate at a hotel in Japan. They treated it exactly as if I were exchanging a wad of crumpled up dollar bills. My arguments had no impact. It's a slimy trick they pull (since they probably get full value from the certs from Accor), but there's nothing constraining their choice of exchange rate that I know of.
Still, some hotels might actually give a reasonable exchange rate. I don't have much experience with Accor, but with SPG and Marriott about 1/3 are fair. I think it's rare you'll lose more than 10%.
(side note: the hotel in Japan ripped me off on the exchange, but then neglected to charge me any tax, also about 8%, which brought me back to even. I don't think it's replicable, though)