My First experience with Accor was not overwhelming positive. I will compare the benefits I thought I would get with those actually received. My first stay was at the Fairmont Empress, July 5, I booked a Signature Harbor view suite, rate including tax +$1k. I was only staying one night, as a stopover on my way to Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino. For back ground, my wife and I were married at the Palliser, 20 years ago, and have been Platinum Members, for as long as I can remember, likely from inception of the program. Over the past 20 years, we have stayed over 100 nights at the Banff Springs, and multiple nights at approximately 30 other Fairmont Hotels.

Benefit:
Members Rate up to 10% off / I received 5% off, not a bad start.

Free Internet / My Accor number was not recognized In the room, when I attempted to login. Internet charges were removed when I mentioned this at checkout.

Priority Check in / I told the hotel I would arrive at 3pm, I arrived a little after 3 pm, I received a text that my room was ready at 4:32 pm.

Welcome drink / No welcome drink offered.

Early check in / nope, see priority check in above.

Welcome amenitiy / No, and a bit surprising I can’t remember a time when I received nothing, not even a card. Never from any hotel where the rate was +$1k, or from any other Fairmont as a platinum member at any rate.

Room subject to Upgrade / None offered. To be fair, if you look at the fine print certain rooms are excluded from this benefit, and my room was probably one of them. Still would have been nice,

Access to executive lounge / No. Again, now that I have read the fine print, I do see that Fairmon Gold lounges are excluded.

Le Club Accor customer care / I called this line prior to booking, my Accor account was showing as Gold, and none of my Certs had been loaded. It took about 30 mins to get through to them, (I had called shortly after the transition and they were busy dealing with other members with similar problems). I wanted to make sure my account would show as platinum, to get my benefits.

Fast check out / Nope, had to wait inline to get my internet charges removed. Incidentally phones were not working in some of the rooms, otherwise might have called to get resolved. Also, wanted to use some certificates, I went to the front desk when it was not busy, in the evening before checkout, they told me to come back in the morning, which I did. There was a pretty long line when I same back in the morning. At first the front desk thought the certs were in CAD, I told them to check as these are actually USD.

I wasn’t really happy with my stay, but I recognize that I am at least partly to blame for this, when I booked, I could have booked a prepaid rate which was 15% off and included breakfast, but I thought when I read the benefits I would have access to the lounge and an upgrade chance, so I didn’t bother.

When paying full fare, I almost always book with FHR, or Virtuoso, I looked at FHR online , and didn’t see the room I wanted, and was too lazy to send an email to Virtuoso! Also was booking this kind of last minute, so didn’t want to wait for response.

I had planned to enquire about using a free stay and a suite upgrade cert, but after 20 mins on hold with the customer care line, I just gave up. Again this is on me. Had I had a “free” stay, I might have been a bit happier with the new program. Even though I earned the free stay with the old program.

To top it off, I checked my account today, while it does say that my dining e cert has been used, no points for the stay have been posted to my account?

I guess i do I do not care, I will use my remaining certificates up, and then move on to a new program.

For those that are sticking with Accor, I wish you good luck! I understand that Accor Plat members with $5 can get a latte at Starbucks.

I am am hoping that Accor or Fairmont will send me a survey so I can respond to them directly, If not I will respond via other travel review sites.

There were a few things that I liked about my stay...my treatment at the spa was excellent., and the food/service in the restaurants was as pretty good..