DK1968

- Name of the hotel: Mercure Hotel Berlin Tempelhof Airport

- What is your Le Club status? Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? This time, not really. 3rd stay here. Also beware that the hotel name is somewhat misleading.

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked standard room, received a large superior room after asking for an upgrade that was not given at check in.

- How are the rooms? Very clean, large, large bathroom, can be noisy depending on which side of the hotel the room is at.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good: Clean.
I like the neighborhood and the excellent food in this area.
Free parking on the street
U-bahn station 200 m away.
Wifi so-so - again depending on the room you get.

Bad: No VIP teatment.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? N/A

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Welcome drink for 1 proacively given at check in after asking for it - good for wine, beer or soft drinks.
VIP Treatment: This time nothing - other times some fruit

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Yes - often very cheap rate - excellent connection by U-bahn to the rest of Berlin. Nice area of Berlin.

DK1968

- Name of the hotel: Novotel Suites Berlin City Potsdamer Platz

- What is your Le Club status? Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Yes and no.

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked 2 superior suites - only one room category of rooms, so no upgrade possible.

- How are the rooms? Clean, seperate toilet and bathroom, show some wear, don't get a room close to elavator !

- What was good and what was bad?

Good: Friendly staff.
Quiet and Clean.
Free parking on the street in the area close to the hotel.
S-bahn station 100 m away.
Walking distance to Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz

Bad: Very very bad WIFI - premium WIFI should have been offered for free.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? N/A

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Welcome drink for 2 adults and 3 kids brought to the room after check in - good for one glas of a special white wine.
VIP Treatment: A 100 g chocolate bar for 1 room only.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Yes, very cheap as you can be 4 people in one room, close to S-bahn, Kids under 16 have free breakfast.

IMH

Mercure Edinburgh City Princes Street

Back in January, just after I booked our Edinburgh hotel, pumpkinstew posted this review. I stopped looking forward to my stay and started lowering Mrs IMH's expectations. I needn't have worried...

What is your Le Club status?
Platinum at the time of this stay (three nights in September 2016).

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes, very.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
We booked a "classic room with double bed" and got a "superior king castle view" room on the top (7th) floor.

How are the rooms?
Our room was not typical. It was one of just two or three larger rooms on the top floor. We were at the extreme eastern end of the hotel, very close to the Scott Monument and with decent views of the old town skyline. The room has obviously been renovated very recently and everything was in very good condition. Large bathroom with a separate (massive) shower. Balcony with two chairs and a table. Large TV with some HD channels. Nespresso machine.

What was good and what was bad?

Good:
Almost everything, especially getting upgraded (without having to ask) to a very nice room after having booked a very basic one.

Bad:
A rather minor annoyance was that housekeeping staff clearly hadn't been taught that there is a difference between decaf 'coffee' capsules (of which several were delivered each day) and real coffee capsules (which had to be hunted down at reception).
The presence of a portable fan in the wardrobe suggests that rooms on the south side probably get very hot on sunny days, especially on the top floor (right under the roof). It was cool enough during our visit to be able to create a pleasant breeze by opening the balcony door and a window at the other end of the room, but I wouldn't want to sleep here with the room much warmer than it was.

What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
We were given two vouchers which we exchanged for large bottles of beer.

Value for money? Would you return?
We booked a non-refundable "super advance saver" rate that averaged 105 GBP. That was good value for this location (we started our stay as Edinburgh was winding down after the crazy festival/fringe/tattoo period). We would stay here again.

SkyteamEP

Name of the hotel: Sofitel New York

What is your Le Club status? Gold

Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Yes

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked classic room between 3rd and 14th floor, got a classic room on an upper floor.

How are the rooms? Room was pretty small, and looked quite old. I've been told that they are working on a renovation.

What was good and what was bad?

Good: Location was very convenient. Restaurant was not the best, but was good enough.

Bad: Rooms are quite old.

Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? No lounge

What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Got a welcome drinks voucher, but I didn't tried to use it.

Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? I would return once the rooms are renovated.

cowism

Name of the hotel: Novotel Platinum Bangkok

What is your Le Club status? Gold

Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Yes

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked Deluxe. Upgraded to Executive

How are the rooms? Typical Novotel. Still good.

What was good and what was bad?

Good: Location and service, especially at the lounge.

Bad: nothing

Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? Yes. Perfect. Located on the 24th floor. Cocktail hours from 5-7 with lots of finger food

What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Drinks voucher for 2. VIP amenity was a fruit platter and cookies.

Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? Yes, certainly

gilbertaue

SkyteamEP, I wouldn't consider this a room upgrade.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked classic room between 3rd and 14th floor, got a classic room on an upper floor.

This is just a higher floor. But certainly nothing better in terms of room.

Goldorak

+1.

tris06

I completely agree with this, Worst still is they usually charge 400usd plus per night at best, I think when people dont make a fuss about it is telling the hotel that it is acceptable.

I would definately be complaining if they refused to budge.

Punish accor hotels that dont submit to the rules or maybe make a satisfaction ranking for all silvers, gold and plat members that gets headquaters knowing how each hotel is doing making members feel welcome when checking in.

SkyteamEP

I believe it was sold at a higher price than the lower floor ones. If I recall correctly, I went for the cheapest option at the time of booking.

IMH

Bringing back occasional post-stay surveys would be a start. For some time now I've only received invitations to submit reviews to TripAdvisor, which I'm not interested in doing. So only if a stay is extremely good or very bad is either Accor or the property likely to get any feedback.

Goldorak

Same for me. I receive less and less the satisfaction survey, but systematically the invitation to post a review on TA (and I have no time for that)

JTCz

Why would a review on TA be a problem? The surveys I got from Accor required to fill in pages and pages of meaningless 1-10 rankings of all and sundry, and all that mattered (and I got replies to) was the text box in the end.

TA requires much less confusing "grading" and still has the text box, plus this goes to the general public automatically and affects their score, so hotels do really have to care. In my experience, they do reply - both privately by email and in public using the general feature.

The only annoying thing is that when one wants to add photos, it has to be done via TA not with the original email-prompted survey.

IMH

Apart from some of us not wanting to support TA by providing them with free content? Because the aspects of a stay that interest a typical TA reader probably aren't the ones that concern us here (and which were the focus of tris06's comment): status benefits.

simonspear

- Name of the hotel: Novotel Citygate Hong Kong

- What is your Le Club status? Plat

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Yes, very happy.

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked 1 x standard queen, 1 x standard twin. Received 1 x Executive Queen, 1 x Executive twin.

- How are the rooms? On the smallish side, but comparable to other hotel rooms in Hong Kong

- What was good and what was bad?

Good: It makes such a difference when a property goes out of their way to welcome you and everything was prepared and ready for our arrival. Excellent access to the airport and the trains into Hong Kong. Also only two stops away from Disney if you are travelling with children. Overall I'd rate the hotel as excellent. European properties in particular should be sent here along with Manila and Clarke's Quay Singapore to show them what a Novotel should be!!

Bad: Hmmmm I'm stretching here, but the lounge was only ok and nothing special - see below.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? The lounge was ok, but nowhere near on a par with our recent stay at the Novotel Manila (is there a better Novotel lounge than that anywhere?). No selection of soft drinks during the day was a disappointment. The finger sandwiches were ok and available any time it seemed, but afternoon tea was a bit of a let down. Breakfast was in the main restaurant which was excellent.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Welcome drinks were ready in our arrival pack along with breakfast vouchers. Breakfast was in the main restaurant rather than the lounge and it was rather excellent with a wide choice of western/asian/continental/fruit/yogurts

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? Great value for money and would definitely stay here again next time I'm passing through HK.

FGunawan

- Name of the hotel:
Pullman Kuala Lumpur Bangsar

- What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked Deluxe Room, received Executive Room

- How are the rooms?
It's a very nice corner room offering plenty of space and sunlight from the window. 2 free pieces of daily laundry is part of the room's perks (perhaps because I was there during Eid holiday?)

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
* Nice and clean hotel, with friendly staff
* Very nice corner room, and laundry facility is very handy
* Nice and spacious executive lounge with very decent selection
* Access to sauna and steamroom was given at check in at the lounge
* Generally very nice treatments for platinum, unlike my next stay at Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Center

Bad:
* Location is not at all central. They do provide shuttles to KL Sentral station however, and LRT station is a doable 8-10 min walking distance passing through the TM tower.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
Very spacious lounge with plenty of sunlight coming from floor-to-ceiling windows, with good selection of drinks and food.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
* Evening cocktail hour when I was checking in so I helped myself to drinks. A drink coupon was also presented.
* Free access to sauna and steamroom was given (I suppose they're not usually free)

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
Value proposition is very good. Unfavorable location is a consideration, but I would like to return.