Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Hotels and Places to Stay > Accor | ALL (Accor Live Limitless)
Reload this Page >

Accor/ ALL: experiences with best price guarantee

Community
Wiki Posts
Search
Old Jul 18, 2023, 2:25 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: gdoubleu
Sections in this WikiPost
Last Revision Date: November 29th 2023

Updates
  • 202404 Update: Accor Customer Care seems to process BPG claims switfly, usually within 24 hours!
  • 20231129 Update: The BPG form now has a checklist for your to ensure you have cross checked information.
  • 20231110 Update:
    - Looks like Accor Customer Service has rolled out a more "hands off" posture to making sure BPG's (when approved) are reflected. The language is now like: "The BPG was approved, the follow up with the hotel, contact..."
    - Properties in Macau are not part of the BPG program anymore


Introduction
Welcome to Accor's Best Price Guarantee ("BPG") policy, one of the industry's most generous price matching and discount policies!

I have had dozens of Accor bookings price-matched successfully across many brands, and of course a few of them being denied. I wanted to write about my experience as it could be quite frustrating and time consuming to get it right, read on!


What is the Accor BPG?
The Accor BPG allows you:
- to have your Accor.com rate price matched after sighting of a cheaper rate on a third-party website
- AND to receive either a 10 or 25% discount on the third-party rate (see Discount Rate)
All of that under certain conditions.

You can read the full Accor BPG terms in English at: https://all.accor.com/information/be...tions.en.shtml


Brands Eligible for the BPG

Per Article 2 of the BPG:
"The hotels covered by “Best Price Guarantee” are as follows:

All hotels in the Accor Group (Fairmont, Raffles, Swissôtel, Sofitel, So Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, Pullman, MGallery, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, Novotel, Novotel Suites, Mercure, Adagio, Adagio Access, Jo&Joe, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Ibis budget, HotelF1, hôtels Orbis, 21C Museum Hotel, Orient Express), and hotels of certain partners (i.e. Mama Shelter, Hypark by Adagio)"

The following are not eligible for "Best Price Guarantee": 25Hours, Angsana, ArtSeries, BanyanTree, BreakFree, Cassia, Delano, Dhawa, Elan, Greet, Hanting, Hi inn, Hyde, Ji, Mantis, Mantra, Manxin, Mondrian, Onefinestay, PepperS, Rixos, Sbe, SLS, Starway, The House Of Originals, Tribe.

“Best Price Guarantee” does not apply to hotels in the Macao special administrative region."

Note that Banyan Tree maintains its own 20% price matching guarantee that's available at https://www.banyantree.com/best-price-guarantee
Learn more on the Banyan Tree Price matching at Banyan Tree Best Price Guarantee


Discount Rate
The discount rate is 25% for all properties included in the Brand Eligibible, except for Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel, which attract a 10% discount.


Data Points: third-Party Sites known to work for the BPG

I had claims approved for the following sites:

BPG 101

For your BPG claim to be accepted, the BPG Article 1.1 states that matched property on the third-party site needs to be "for the same hotel, for the same date(s), the same length of stay, at the same rate conditions (i.e. refundable or non-refundable, prepayment and deposit requirements, room only or with breakfast included, booking cancellation and change condition), the same type of room (identical category, size, beds, view or location) and the same number of people in the room"

Accor's Customer Service pays great attention to the conditions attached to your third-party booking, down the to the actual time (not just only the date) of the cancellation policy (e.g.: your claim may not be approved if the cancellation policy says September 28th, 18:00 on Accor.com and September 28th, 17:59 on the third-party website). Occupancy is also often overlooked. Even if for some region, the occupancy on your booking does not impact the room pricing, the occupancy needs to match, in writing, between your Accor.com booking and your third-party price.


BPG Process

To lodge a claim, you need to submit screenshots of a third-party booking site, that has the same room for the same dates (and other conditions, see BPG 101), at a lower price. These screenshots will need to who clearly the URL of the third-party site, as well as the time when they were taken. There is a 24-hour grace period between your Accor.com booking and the sighting of the cheaper rate on the third-party website.

Once submitted, your claim has a claim number (which is just a Customer Service ticket number), which you receive by email. Accor Customer Service then follows up to let you know of the status of your claim. There is no guaranteed time as to when Customer Service is due to get back to you.

If your claim is approved, Customer Service generally lets you know. They inform you they have requested the price-matched property to update your booking rate. Once the property does that, you receive an email with the subject: "Modification of your reservation <Name of Property> <Booking ID>" with the details of the new rate.

The application of the new rate usually follows the following rules:
  • The discount (either 10 or 25%, see Discount Rate) is applied on the "naked room rate", that is the rate free of government taxes, resort fee, "taxe de sejour", etc... Taxes are then applied on the discounted rate per the tax requirements in each country/region/location.
  • After applying the discount on your booking rate, the Property usually linearize the rate over the days on your booking so that the same rate will apply to all the nights in your stay even if the rate fluctuated in your original booking.


Q&A
  • Can I use the BPG if I have an Accor traveler card (e.g.: ALL PLUS Voyageur)? The BPG applies to ALL PLUS Voyageur Card holders, provided the third-party rate complies with the BPG requirements (See BPG 101). Given the discounts you may already benefit from with ALL PLUS, the chance of finding a third-party rate is slimmer, but not nonexistent. It may make economic sense to submit a BPG claim using "just" the Accor member rate.
  • Until when can I submit a BPG Claim? Per Article 4.2, "requests must be submitted within 24 hours following confirmation of the Eligible Booking [Accor.com booking] and no later than 48 hours before the planned arrival at the hotel.". "48 hours" here means that you can lodge a claim until 23:59 two days before your check-in date.
  • What happens if my BPG Claim is not processed prior to my stay starting? Should you have lodged on time and your BPG came to be approved after your stay has started, Customer Service will be in touch to organize a refund via the Property where you stayed (and paid full price)
  • What can I do if my claim is not answered within 2 weeks? You can:
    • Resubmit the same claim mentioning the Claim # of the original claim with the original documents
    • Send an email to [email protected] or [email protected] – they will sometimes create a new claim on your behalf or influence the original one
    • Send an email to [email protected] – Since 2023, these are the folks that Customer Service escalates claims to
  • I can't lodge a BPG Claim, my browser show a red banner when I submit one, what should I do? Lodge your BPG again in an Incognito or private browser window, that will fix it.
  • What if my claim isn't responded to by the time I check out? This is last resort, but I advise you lodge a chargeback with your credit card company. I had success doing that.


Beware: Accor Customer Service
I encountered countless time when Customer Service was negligent when process BPG claims:
- Rates from the third-party website are misread ("naked room rate" vs total amount, currency...)
- Customer Service tends to apply a blanket 10% discount on bookings (ignoring that most brands attract a 25% discount)

Some other times, the property would play some tactics:
- I had one property tell me that I could have booked a cheaper rate on Accor.com (but that was still higher than the third-party rate), effectively reneging the application of the BPG Claim (I did not push further).
- I had one property crediting a rate difference post-checkout via Accor points.



Tips & Tricks
  • If a claim has not been answered promptly (within 7 days), Accor Customer Service sometimes issues 2,000 Reward points. I keep asking every time this happens, and this is not always granted, but you can try.
  • If you have an Accor Traveler Card (e.g.: ALL PLUS Voyageur), to increase your chances of finding a lower rate, you can book the regular Accor member rate on Accor.com by signing out from your Accor account on the room selection page. The booking will still be attached to your Accor.com account (same email) AND you will receive the benefits attached to your status.
  • For your screenshots, make sure that a time shows. I always make sure that time shows in the menu bar of my OS, along with the timezone.
  • Using Skyscanner.com has greatly reduced the time for me to do searches.
  • I was able to get a BPG claim approved for a rate showing as "Complimentary Breakfast on Weekends" which is provided by the Accor status, but could be ground for rejection.


BPG Claim Sweet Spots
There are several brand sweet spots for BPG claim should you want to optimize, they all receive a 25% discount over your third-party sighting:
  • Sofitel
  • So Sofitel
  • Pullman


Common Pitfalls
I am able to reach a 95% success rate with my BPG, and this is my checklist:
  • Room type: are the room types strictly equivalent? Beware of the small variation in room type names (like street view, vs park view). Twin beds room or King bed room are two different types in the eyes of the BPG
  • Room rate: the room rate, that is the price of your booking exclusive of any government/local/resort taxes needs is what gets compared for the claim. Accor sometimes calculates taxes differently from third-parties (go figure!) and third-parties are also sometimes not including some taxes into the displayed price.
  • Occupancy: when you make a booking on Accor.com, you specify an occupancy (i.e.: the number of people who will stay in the room). That occupancy needs to show the same amount of adults on the third-party sighting.
  • Booking currency: make sure you are comparing stays with the same currencies. I submitted USD vs AUD (Australia Dollar) claims by mistake, leading to rejection.
  • Cancellation Policy Penalty: for when you compare cancellable bookings, the Accor BPG will apply all the way to the penalty. If Accor.com says the penalty for cancelling after a certain day/time is 1 night, the 3rd-party needs to have the same penalty.


Things I have not tried
  • Submitting a BPG for a Suite Night ("SN") booking


Banyan Tree Best Price Guarantee
Banyan Tree properties is not included into Accor's Best Price Guarantee, that means you cannot submit a claim for a BPG from Accor.com, following you booking a Banyan Tree property on accor.com. That being said, Banyan Tree has its own BPG for when you book on banyantree.com. There are few caveats though:
  • Banyan Tree BPG policy starts as soon as you find a lower rate (same room, same cancellation policy...). That means findings a rate that's lower by just $1 (or the local currency equivalent) will trigger the policy
  • Banyan Tree, when applying the policy, will shave off 20% off your rate, but will wave all Accor benefits should you be in an Accor tier. They may or may not let you know. You will also not be allows to earn/burn points from when the policy is applied.
Print Wikipost

Accor/ ALL: experiences with best price guarantee

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old May 5, 2014, 2:07 am
  #106  
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Asia
Programs: Krisflyer, Enrich, Marco Polo, Accor, HHonors, IHG
Posts: 610
Originally Posted by docbert
My first attempt at a Best Price Guarantee ended with a nice deal.

Novotel Beijing Xin Qiao. hotels.com had rate that was 30% lower than the Novotel website, by virtue of a 30% discount that the hotel itself wasn't offering. Otherwise both rates were exactly the same - same room, same conditions (cancel until 1 day before), both including all taxes, and both rates shown in local currency (CNY) to be paid at the hotel.

Booked the rate on novotel.com and put in a claim, along with screenshots from hotels.com.

A few days later got an email from the hotel claiming that hotels.com should not have been offering that rate, but offering me a deal - basically for a price slightly less than the hotels.com rate (but not the full 10% less) they upgraded me from a standard room to an Executive room, including lounge access, breakfast, free laundry, early check-in/late checkout, etc.

All up, a good result - still a few dollars more than it should have been, but I'll happily give that up for the better room/breakfast/etc.
This is probably the first positive report I've read.
RJ77 is offline  
Old May 31, 2014, 2:34 am
  #107  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Hamburg
Programs: Accor Plat, Carlson Silver, AF Plat, DLH Silver
Posts: 24
BRG at Accor? -> a Joke with current rules!

Hi,
I have also some terrible experiences with the BRG from Accor. Each time I'm sure that I'm becoming closer to get it, but now with my experience of yesterday, I do not believe anymore in it.

My Experiences:
In Dec 13, for the Sofitel Budapest, with a 50% better price: I filled the BRG form, got in response 5 "CRM"numbers via 5 automatically generated emails, but no answer 1 month later. I cancelled the booking

In Apr 14, for the Sofitel Brussel Europe, I booked a rate with breakfast and found a better rate with breakfast at getaroom.com. Answer from BRG (after 3 days and 1 call from my side - 2 days before the travel): the rate at getaroom.com doesn't include the breakfast. Name of the room at getaroom.com "Double Room Classic – Bed and Buffet Breakfast". I doubt the BRG agents understand English. After some exchanges, I gave up as it was few hours before the travel.

Last try, yesterday: for the Mc Gallery Naples. I booked a room with breakfast with some flexibility (fully flexible up to 3 days before) at 518€. And find for the same date, same number of people, same room (with breakfast) and even better flexibility (fully flexible up to 2 days before) a rate at 299€ at getaroom.com->40% cheaper!.
1st answer from the BRG-team (after same calls to make sure they received the form!): the competitive rate is prepaid and not flexible. I come back to them and ask them to read again the screenshot from getaroom.com where it is said "Cancellations until xxx are fully refundable".
2nd answer from the BRG-team: all the conditions of the BRG are met but your competitive rate is prepaid, and with Accor you pay after the stay. Therefore BRG-application refused!

The conclusion of this point is for me that all the Accor rates with some flexibility (where the payment is done at the hotel) are not comparable and therefore not open for BRG. Indeed, all the hotel booking platforms, including the serious ones (orbitz, expedia, booking) request the prepayment even for flexible rates.
For the non-flexible rates, it seems whatsoever that Accor finds other reasons not to grant the BRG, according to this forum (and validated my owned experience).

I kindly ask the Accor representative/concierge to inform the marketing department about this major issue. I can't believe that SPG, Radisson, Marriot and others have reasonable BRG-rules that make them realistic when they speak about "Best rate Guarantee" and that Accor has simply a logo on the website to make as if.
In addition, I would like to inform some German consumer groups about it, as for me this is wrong advertisement.

BR from cloudy Hamburg,
Abajibe
abajibe is offline  
Old May 31, 2014, 11:46 am
  #108  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,156
Originally Posted by abajibe
Indeed, all the hotel booking platforms, including the serious ones (orbitz, expedia, booking) request the prepayment even for flexible rates.
Hotels.com and booking.com both allow for "pay at hotel" bookings.

My successful BRG claim (see back a few posts) was based on a comparison against a hotels.com "pay at hotel" rate.
docbert is offline  
Old Jun 1, 2014, 4:07 am
  #109  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Hamburg
Programs: Accor Plat, Carlson Silver, AF Plat, DLH Silver
Posts: 24
After checking, some (few) rates allow the pay at the hotel.
However, wenn I look at this picture:
, I can see that there are at least 20 rates cheaper than the accor rate, and none of them can be used for the BRG...
For me, this makes the BRG policy not fair.
abajibe is offline  
Old Oct 3, 2014, 3:51 am
  #110  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 10
Same rooms, same policies, flexible rates, pay at the hotel, no deposit.

Guangzhou Sofitel Sunrich

Price on booking.com 1220 CNY / 2 nights
Price on accorhotels 2520 CNY / 2 nights.

Answer from the hotel:

We can check the room rate on the booking.com with the same sales conditions. We will be going to negotiate with booking.com about this rate. This time we could amend the rate to allow for the additional 10% discount for you.

My english is not so good, I can't understand what does it mean "to amend the rate to allow for the additional 10%".

Does it mean that they will match price + additional 10%, or they will not match price, just 10% discount?
shevelevee is offline  
Old Oct 4, 2014, 1:13 am
  #111  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Programs: UA, DL, A3
Posts: 123
Originally Posted by shevelevee
My english is not so good, I can't understand what does it mean "to amend the rate to allow for the additional 10%".

Does it mean that they will match price + additional 10%, or they will not match price, just 10% discount?
They will match the price and give you 10% discount, which means
1220 - (10%*1220) CNY
sakura is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2014, 6:50 am
  #112  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
I've fallen into this trap.
Two BPG claims put in about a week ago - no response.
I've emailed them - but not sure I am emailing the correct dept - as the only response I received, on 4th Oct, was:

We also would like to inform you that we received your claim for best price guarantee and we currently reviewing your case.

We will get back to you the soonest possible
.


Not really sure I am dealing with the right people - is there a quicker route to chase something up?

Given this amount of time, I think the lower rates on the 3rd party sites will be long gone!
barafear799 is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2014, 7:05 am
  #113  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: Amex Plat, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold, Carlson Gold, CM Presidential / *A Gold, Hertz 5*
Posts: 1,648
^^

take screenshots of the rate you found elsewhere, also if you list the property name I can get you an email contact for that specific hotel
pmarrsouth is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2014, 12:39 pm
  #114  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Originally Posted by pmarrsouth
^^

take screenshots of the rate you found elsewhere, also if you list the property name I can get you an email contact for that specific hotel
So does one need to contact the hotel directly to query BRG? I would have thought that would have been a central Head Office sort of thing?

My two hotels which I have BRG claims outstanding are:

Ibis Irving Street Birmingham (UK)
Ibis Manchester Portland Street (UK)

thanks
barafear799 is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2014, 2:13 pm
  #115  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: Amex Plat, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold, Carlson Gold, CM Presidential / *A Gold, Hertz 5*
Posts: 1,648
Originally Posted by barafear799
So does one need to contact the hotel directly to query BRG? I would have thought that would have been a central Head Office sort of thing?
nope. correct, but they are sf slow and seem to deny deny deny

Originally Posted by barafear799
Ibis Irving Street Birmingham (UK)
[email protected]

Originally Posted by barafear799
Ibis Manchester Portland Street (UK)
[email protected]

gl
pmarrsouth is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2014, 6:43 am
  #116  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Originally Posted by pmarrsouth
nope. correct, but they are sf slow and seem to deny deny deny



[email protected]



[email protected]

gl
Thank you. So is it just a case of emailing the hotels direct and asking for an update on my BRG claim?
barafear799 is offline  
Old Oct 10, 2014, 6:19 am
  #117  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: Etihad Guest Silver, Le Club Accor Gold
Posts: 25
If you have a problem you need to tweet not email. They don't like it when anyone can see how bad they treat customer loyalty. When I have a problem I tweet my disgust on their page.

I have to agree Accor need to offer more competitive pricing especially for loyal members with Silver status and higher. If they don't it is just a lot cheaper to book random hotels through booking.com. and alike.
christoates is offline  
Old Oct 13, 2014, 3:16 am
  #118  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 10
I think problems are mainly with Ibis? Finally got BRG from Sofitel in Guangzhou, confirmation email recieved from hotel's clerk. Price matched +10% discount.
shevelevee is offline  
Old Oct 13, 2014, 6:41 am
  #119  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Just a quick update - I didn't want to rock the boat too much - so have not as yet emailed the hotels direct.
I telephoned their customer service helpline - and they told me I needed to email to chase up a BRG claim. They gave me a different email address than I had used for previous queries.
So I emailed that on Friday.
Not had a reply.
So might go down the route of direct to hotels.
It is disappointing really. Hey ho.
PS: Thanks for the twitter option - but I am not a tweeter - so no go on that.
barafear799 is offline  
Old Oct 15, 2014, 11:43 am
  #120  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Another update - although not exactly positive.
I am starting to see why this thread is not exactly active - I don't think anyone even bothers with Accor's BRG anymore.

I have had a further email response - and it states:

I refer to your concern regarding our Best Price Guarantee with the case numbers XXXXXX & YYYYYYY (obviously removed for anonymity).
We are currently working on this and we have escalated your case to the appropriate department who are currently reviewing your claim for the Best Price Guarantee.

Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that has been caused which does not reflect the quality of service we wish to offer you.

We appreciate your patience during this time.

It is now 2 weeks since I put the claims in.

Ho hum.
barafear799 is offline  


Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.