Good to know.. and also good to know what vague / stupid reasons they gave u initially..

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread.

Is the BPG being attempted as it is best to book with the hotel directly for points accrual/ease? Do platinum and Gold member benefits still apply if you booked through a third party website i.e. Agoda/expedia?

Just about to book a stay at the Sofitel Melbourne for a week and wondering if I try and apply.

Thanks

Wondering what JANZFlyer asked above on earning points from 3rd parties.

Also wondering how Accor BPG treats claims where accorhotels.com has sold out room type X but it is readily available through 3rd parties?

Accor BRG
 

Does Accor have any kind of a BRG program? Would be useful, because I have OFTEN seen hotels at OTA sites priced much lower than at the Accor site.

Since their loyalty program is pretty useless, I have so far booked them at the OTA sites.

They do, but it is not well publicised

https://secure.accorhotels.com/gb/ga...nditions.shtml

I have heard in some countries you can ring Accor reservations, and just do the booking over the phone....

Best Price Not Guaranteed
 

I am a Le Club Gold member and I wanted to book a trip to the Pullman hotel in Munich from 13th-16th September and saw that rates on 2 other websites (Hipmunk and Getaroom) were less than half of the rates on Accor.com (with the same conditions). I don't want to risk claiming back the difference after booking, so emailed the hotel directly to match the rates (Accor hotels normally do for me).

The hotel told me it could not match the prices of those websites, as other websites should never charge rates below Accor.com. This is ridiculous, as it implies they only price match rates which are higher than on their own website. By that logic, every business in the world has a price match guarantee on every product all the time.

Pullman Munich advised me to book directly through the other website instead. I did. I saved more than 50% on Accor's cheapest rates. They could and would not guarantee a best price.

Is this logic used across Accor's hotels? In which case, is Accor misleading the customer with its "best price guarantee"?

Why didn't you use the official Accor "Best Price Guarantee" claim form instead?

I didn't use their official form because I didn't want to risk booking with them at a higher rate, then Accor using the same techniques to deny any partial refund, as the examples on this thread highlight. I alerted the hotel so they could match (I don't expect the extra 10%) the price. My point is, their best price guarantee counts for nothing. Don't promise if you can't deliver.

I see that Accor's BRG is for lower rates advertised elsewhere within 24 hours of your original booking on one of their websites, so this guarantee isn't that useful.

What about prepaid, non-cancellable bookings with a price drop after the prepayment? I suppose there is no recourse in this case, right?

I was looking at the price for a reservation at a Mercure in AKL about a year ago. Heard about the best price guarantee (and it's shortfalls) and decided to try and give it a go for myself and see what happens.

Found the rate on the Accor website (with Advantage Plus discount) which was more expensive than an equivalent rate on wotif.com and a local travel site (TravelBug) was cheaper.

Before making the booking I actually called Accor customer service on the phone and they advised that as the rate was cheaper on the other websites than the Advantage Plus rate direct from Accor, that I could make the booking at the Advantage Plus Members rate and claim for the best price guarantee.

I submitted a claim online with screenshot evidence and two days later received the following response:

The screenshot they provided was for a higher priced room (from memory the cheaper rate was for a non-refundable sale rate, but the same type of room as the more expensive one I booked direct via. Accor).

I have since decided that the BPG provided by Accor is a big waste of time - If you happen to find a better rate from somewhere else, best to just book it and not have to worry about the hassle of applying for (and being denied) the Accor BPG and just enjoy your stay in a cheaper room :)

Hi JANZFlyer, in my experience I have had some mixed results with points accrual with Accor. All my own travel bookings (if with Accor) are done directly through them and I typically have no problems with the points showing up a few days after the stay.

For business, occasionally I get put into an Accor Hotel, and although the booking is under my name, it goes through a third-party travel company. Upon presenting my card to the hotel, sometimes I have had points being accrued for the stay, others nothing shows up (it is as if I did not stay at the hotel at all).

Not sure the reasons for why this is, but this is what I have found.

Regardless of where the booking was made, I have found that my Platinum member benefits are honoured at check in if available.

Hope this helps.

I've had the same problem. 4 days ago placed a request. No email confirmation - no response. I submitted another claim 2 days ago asking them what was going on? Obviously no response from Accor then either. Does anyone have an email address to higher level customer service or the Accor best rate guarantee program? It's obvious their form is going to no one.

Well all, I finally received a response from Accor. 10 days after I submitted my inital request here is what they said: "The "Best Price Guarantee" only applies if you book an Accor hotel-online at any Accor website and within 24 hours and the 72 hours before the scheduled arrival at the hotel you find an equivalent offer on another website for the same hotel with the same room category being offered at a lower price (excluding local taxes but including booking fees), we will honor the lower rate and give you a further reduction of 10%.
If the applicables conditions are not met, the "Best Price Guarantee" cannot be applied.

After study, it appears that your request does not meet the Criteria as its already after 72 hours after bookiong conditions so the "Best Price Guarantee" cannot be applied."

Well there you have it - they take 10 days to respond and then tell me that I didn't make my request in the proper time. Which of course is incorrect. I made the request immediately after making the reservation on Accor's website (on Sept 13). Sadly, I have no confirmation email from them stating that they received my request - which is just another way they can falsely claim that I didn't submit it in time.

Accor - I suggest you simply remove your Best Rate Guarantee from your website. I was happy with your company prior to this incident. I will now do my best to steer clear of your properties.

Submitted my BPG on 21st September.. still waiting...
Messaged Le Club on FB.. was told to email customercare...
Emailed them last Friday and no reply.
Sent a message to the Accor Concierge here on FT and also no reply...

StarflyerGold... did you manage to talk to the Loyalty Manager in regards to their slow response on BPGs?

After my horrible experience with them I emailed the CEO directly. His email is [email protected]. I also emailed them directly on Facebook like you did. After these 2 steps, I received a response from this email: [email protected]. Weirdly - I wrote back, only to never hear again. I've never seen such poor customer service.

Surprised the PM to the Accor Concierge on Flyertalk didn't work. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...concierge.html. He/she actually wrote to me re my issue - although I wanted to deal directly with the CEO instead.

Accor has some of the worst customer service ever. And as for their best price guarantee, just forget it. More light comes out of a black hole.