Accor runs a lot of promos and offers which always specify:
4. To benefit from this offer, your booking must be made on Accorhotels.com or our participating brands web sites, via the accorhotels.com application or via Accor call centers. All other reservation channels will not be eligible to this offer.
There is a massive gotcha in this generic sounding statement. They do not consider direct hotel bookings to be valid. So booking with Hotel reservations is NOT eligible. Walking up to front desk is also NOT eligible.
Basically some *direct* Accor channels are considered ineligible even though they did not come from a third party, travel agent or OTA.
The absurdity of this can be gleaned from the fact that you can fall foul of this clause depending on what time of day you call the hotel. If you call after the reservations team has gone home for the day or on a holiday and you get (transparently) transferred to central reservations call center, you are eligible. However if you speak to hotel reservations team, you are ineligible.
To most consumers, they cannot really tell where the person they are speaking to is located.
I really thought any direct booking would infact be considered a direct booking. Infact the overall LeClub T&C state that direct hotel bookings are eligible for points and indeed points for such bookings are credited but offer bonuses are not.
Is it reasonable to claim that an Accor hotel reservation call center is not a valid Accor call center?