delanotre

I am in the same situation as Goldorak and never pay at booking. So what do you mean by booking with points?

pb9997

Booking with points already converted points to Euros and then to the country currency; Thus booking with points would devalue points in more than 10% than booking with USD vouchers.

yorkboy24

I don't book with points or vouchers because quite often the rate is not eligible for such a redemption. I usually use them againt dining expenses. I only usually travel in Asia so USD is the best currency. Given their expansion in Asia i'm surprised they are doing this. How can we collectively object? Who to contact?

AccorHotels Concierge

Hello everyone,

I understand your concern about the USD vouchers and have some information for you.
First of all, all members will be notified by email of this change soon (the emailing calendar varies from one country to another, as the communication is adapted to each market), and it will also be stated on our website very soon.
Second of all, if you wish to, you will be able to order USD vouchers up until March 25th, 2014 on the website. These will be usable for 6 months after print for the Le Club Accorhotels vouchers and for up to 1 year for the Le Club Accorhotels partners' vouchers (maximum use until March 25th, 2015). Please know that the EURO vouchers are usable around the world.

In addition, Le Club Accorhotels' aim is to constantly enhance the services and benefits to members. Thus, since March 2013 we have launched Booking with Points to ease and create a better booking experience for members as they may use their points from their first booking on. Le Club Accorhotels also designed Dream Stays that allow members to reserve our most beautiful destinations solely with their points and thanks to exceptional conditions. Le Club Accorhotels has also diversified its burn offers with punctual operations. These offers are more bountiful and beneficial for the members who have enough points for these stays, and who have accepted to receive the promotional offers by email.

I hope this helps clarify the situation.
Please let me know if you have any question, and I'll make sure to get back to you with an answer.

Cheers,
Nathan

Re-Offender

Dear Accor Concierge,

What does it mean, if the hotel is marked with "Book with your points" sign, but actually when trying to book a room using some points any available rate has a note "Le Club Accorhotels points cannot be redeemed against this rate"?
Can I use a 2000 pts voucher on site in this case (or hotel just opted out)?

In my example the hotel is Novotel Phuket Kamala Beach.

starflyergold

Some rates cannot be booked with points, eg semi-flexible rates.

Re-Offender

starflyergold
I understand, but in this particular case all rates (including full flex) are containing a special note.

Brendan

I guess we should thank Accor for offering US$ vouchers at a bonus exchange rate all along. As stated above, 40 euros = US$54--55, so the 10% bonus is disappearing. BTW, when booking with points for a non-Eurozone hotel, does accor.com use the mid-market rate? Or the individual hotel's lousy forex rate for physical currency at the reception? Or. . .?

lifebuoy

Hi

Just a heads up. I've just used 280 euro vouchers at Sofitel New York...prior to the withdrawal Of USD vouchers I would have had $420 but I was expecting a credit against my bill of around $385 as per the interbank rate when converting my euro vouchers. What I actually got was a credit of $323. When I queried this with the hotel I was told their buying rate for that day was 1.156823.

So what would have been $420 of vouchers was reduced by $100 due to the withdrawal of USD vouchers-effectively a 25% devaluation

Poor

yorkboy24

I agree. This seems to be another decision taken in Paris without considering the impact on their biggest growth markets - Asia being one of them where USD reigns supreme while the Euro is irrelevant in some countries (take Vietnam, Cambodia etc). We recently heard that half a million Accor members (out of 12 million) are in Indonesia! Paris needs to start thinking outside of L'hexagone. A-Club was a perfect name for a hotel programme which portrayed something special or elite (something which many in Asia would love to belong to for that reason alone!) while Le Club Accorhotels is franophone-centred and difficult to pronounce for those who don't speak French and has no va va voom about it. Getting back to the vouchers, I suppose what you're saying it that due to this devaluation in the programme, you only get back 3% in points rather than 4% (at classical level).

Goldorak

I agree. No more vouchers in USD was a terrible and hardly understandable decision (from the customer perspective).

NickB

This does not make sense to me. Admittedly, some countries price their rooms in USD * but most price in local currency. If that is so, whether you use a USD-denominated voucher of an EUR-denominated one, you will still be hit by the same currency conversion costs.


*: moreover, even when rooms are priced in dollars, the rate is normally converted to local currency at check-out time, requiring you therefore to pay in that currency rather than USD.

Brendan

NickB, in some countries banks & large bureaux de change offer much lower profit %ages (bid-ask spreads &or commissions) on USD exchange due to large turnover! Euros should be close, but exchanging Swedish kronor or New Zealand dollars in South America or Africa can be brutal!

NickB

But that makes no difference, since it is not a local bureaux de change that will make the calculations but the hotel and Accor IT systems, using the same exchange source as in lifebuoy's case.

Brendan

The lousy exchange rate gotten by Lifebuoy can't have come from Accor's system. "When I queried this with the hotel I was told their buying rate for that day was 1.156823." This is that hotel's rate, probably based on their bank's poor rate for physical cash transactions, compounded by the hotel's desire to make a profit on the transaction!
What I find amusing is that I often ask if a hotel has an foreign currency to get rid of at the same rate at which they took it in 'to save them the trouble of hauling it to the bank.' I am told 'No, we only take it. We don't sell it,' about 98% of the time !
So I guess Lifebuoy & all of us should henceforth use our points online to get Accor's better rate, which does not involve physical cash transactions.