I think you're right, and mainly because it's only applying to Diamond level and doesn't include Platinum, but it might depend on the hotel. It would be interesting to see if different properties have a different proportion of guests who are Diamond.

I was initially concerned for some of my regular spots, especially because they have nightly room rates that start over $1,500 for basic rooms in high season, and go up from there. My first thought was that a fairly high proportion of guests there would be Diamond members. Anybody staying in a Junior Suite for 7 nights will basically be there, and that's if they never spent another night at an Accor hotel the rest of the year. Higher category suites, and they would be there in half that time, and the hotel is often sold out. My worry was that Diamond members would be coming out of the woodwork in the lounge.

Then I was reassured, that on any given day, they have no more than 3 or 4 Diamond guests in the hotel (out of approximately 550 rooms), and some of them may already be staying on Fairmont Gold anyway (though, that may now change and we may see many more will book off of Gold). That statistic didn't quite compute for me, initially. I was expecting they had dozens of members. But, then I considered that the hotel, not the brand, is what is well known, and it attracts a lot of guests who probably don't care or know about ALL. There may be a lot of Fairmont properties in this situation. A quick scan of the lobby, where the ALL member line is usually empty, and the regular check-in line is long (which is accessible to any ALL member who bothers to sign up, even with no status), tells me the hotel might bring in people to Accor, but not as much the other way around. I'm thinking now that they may have a lot of guests who arrive without being a Diamond member, and probably will spend enough to get there during their stay, but not actually be there using the benefits. I'm therefore cautiously optimistic.

Only time will tell.