Would you suggest the Fairmont or Mama Shelter?

I like how Grand Mercure has vanished, like they totally left it out......

It's in there. They rebranded them to Swissotel :D

So Accor is making a commitment to improve the quality and service standards of the average Sofitel and Sofitel So to exceed that currently offered by Fairmont properties?:p

(I won't post my alternative interpretations of this chart...)

I know I would certainly consider staying or dining at FRHI hotels if I received the benefits and discounts I'm entitled to with my Accor Plus subscription. I'm much less likely to as long as I don't.

So does it still appear that accor have no plans to integrate LCAH and the FRHI schemes? I registered for the FRHI schemes when they sent the offers through, but I think it was so long ago that all of the "perks" have expired!

There has been no further news on the loyalty question. For the time being they operate completely separately.

I share with you this article just read in Forbes, and one of the most important paragraph.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/douggol...hinking-small/

That is what Accor said last year. Time to make up minds what they want to do. I also take issue with the insinuation that Accor guests are not high spending and therefore can be ignored...

Well, that IS Cahill talking... Ex Snr Mgmt of FRHI so I'm sure he wants to keep his old "gang" happy.

More from Mr Cahill and his 3m FRHI lovers:

http://www.hoteliermagazine.com/chri...xury-division/

Sounds like the merger is happening next year. About time....
For those Fairmont members at least they want to keep most if not all the same features but add it to the Accor program for luxury properties..

As an aside current Accor brands and Accor joint ventures not participating in the Accor loyalty programme:

Raffles
Fairmont
Rixos
Banyan Tree
Swissotel
One Fine Stay
25hr hotels
Huazhu Hotels
Jo & Joe
Ibis Budget
HotelF1
Plus Select by Accor hotels (outside Le Club)

Nearly as many brands now outside the Accor Loyalty programme as in it. No wonder for some destinations it gets confusing as to what hotels listed earn points and which don't unless you apply the right booking filters.

Mamashelter

Mama participates in Le Club.

Yes Its becoming a joke if they don't get these to move over into the club program soon. Banyan is now listing on my APP but no availability yet.

Mindboogling and further proof that loyalty does not get enough attention within Accor. It does with some in the organisation but others stand on the brake.

Just stayed at the Fairmont Blue Mountains (Australia) which has been rebranded to a McGallery but the treatment of high-status guests is excellent. This must be a legacy of the Fairmont attitude, quite unlike the hit-and-miss benefits of Le Club status.

The property hands out a card at check-in listing all the guaranteed benefits for Le Club Platinum which include
- a personal labelled parking space outside the hotel
- a one-class room upgrade
- a welcome gift in the room: cheese platter and a bottle of wine
- Welcome drinks AND departure-drink vouchers
- Limitless bottles of water

Reckon Le Club should be absorbed into the Fairmont program instead

Haha, this will confuse some people.

The Fairmont Blue Mountains has absolutely no affiliated with Fairmont/FRHI afaik (I have no idea where the resort got its name from), so a non-Fairmont Fairmont affiliated with McGallery by Sofitel is great.:D

It's too bad I can't put starflyergold on my ignore list as he started some useful sticky threads. But I don't appreciate the polemic.

25h Hotels can soon be struck off the list, Accor announced they're almost complete with integrating it.

Then Jo & Joe, ibis budget and Hotel F1 don't make sense in a full-blown loyalty program (why grant loyalty benefits to customers who only care about the price?)

AFAIK, Accor's stake in Huazhu Hotels is only around 10%. It might not be up to them if Huazhu properties join LCAH or not. Furthermore, it seems the main aim of that strategic alliance is to strengthen the expansion of Accor brands such as ibis and mercure in China and Taiwan, not to fully integrate the two chains. Lastly, some economy brands are part of Huazhu for which LCAH doesn't make sense.

So that leaves a few brands which represent a small share of Accor's portfolio. We know Accor plans on integrating most of these and we also know why it's not happening quickly.

tl;dr nothing to see here; move along.

You are too kind.

If I stay in an Ibis or Ibis Budget hotel it isn't necessarily because I only care about price. It's more likely to be because all the hotels in a particular location are operating in that price category. In which case Accor might benefit from giving me a reason to choose their property over a Travelodge or Premier Inn.

Meanwhile, back in the world of things that happen more often, I'm still choosing non-Accor hotels over Fairmonts because of the lack of integration.

ibis is part of LCAH, ibis budget is not. They serve different market segments. ibis is frequently ~50% more expensive than a nearby ibis budget.

I disagree. If in a location you have only lowest-budget economy hotels, there's a reason for that. Usually, the reason is that all but a few customers only care about price (and a basic level of cleanliness). It doesn't make sense to expend the resources so that you can take care of the few and far between status customers. (And even if you did, those few status customers may be highly budget-concious as well. They may happily take the status benefits but don't show you any loyalty if the budget motel across the street is slightly cheaper.....)

So, I don't think your point changes my argument at all. To me, it seems unworldly to complain that Accor's lowest-cost brands don't participate in LCAH.

I personally don't stay at anything lower than a Mercure. Sometimes on the very odd occasion i might only be able to stay in an Ibis as its the only option for over 50kms. Maybe my standards are too high? One thing Accor needs in Asia especially is more spread of mid level hotels (grand mercure/novotel or mercure) in places like China to cover more cities which may have still over a million residents. And it would be lovely if they added a couple more options in places like Korea (less so), Japan (definitely lacking),Philippines (Only has 2 hotels in Manila for the whole country) and Taiwan (has only 1 hotel).

If ibis budget is the only Accor hotel within 20/30kms then they could offer 1 or 2 rooms (very limited number) with more facilities that could include status points but also would be 30-50% more expensive. The room you cannot upgrade to from lower rooms but it would allow welcome drinks (cans of soda or beer). Now it would depend if it would ruin the ibis budget model. But I could understand some small towns in Europe may only have an Ibis budget.

Change is coming
 

Word has it that tomorrow will see an announcement on some merger related loyalty programme changes. ;)

As we are moving to the next phase, the integration of the FPC and Circle programmes, I have moved integration related posts to a new thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/acco...corhotels.html