patrickw

Name of the hotel: Mercure Budapest Korona Hotel

- 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 Standard Room with single bed, got a Privilege Double Room

- How are the rooms? it feels newer and more spacious than the other mercure hotel I stayed in Budapest

- What was good and what was bad?

Good: location, and the room is actually one of the better in the Mercure hotels I have stayed

Bad: Nothing really

two things not exactly either good or bad:
- when I first arrived there was a staff in my room and told me he was doing some inspection. Not long after he left, the housekeeper knocked on my door holding a small note with him and start cleaning according to his note (presumably what the previous staff found earlier). It is good to see they take this quite seriously, but it's kinda weird to watch him come and re-clean some of the items without saying anything (to me, but he seems to be muttering or saying something in Hungarian the whole time)

- I was asked to show my membership card during check-in, was never asked in any Accor hotels before

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

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? 1 welcome voucher (as I stay alone), and some snacks were in the room when I arrived

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? I really like the location so yes

patrickw

well, I do think that was mainly because they were really busy for the holiday period. At least I was quite impressed to see them having staff to actively identify Le Club members in the queue even before reaching the counter (never come across this, although my experience at Sofitel is very limited)

Was really a little disappointed that neither rooms was ready after the time they promised though

gilbertaue

Welcome to the forum Patrick.
Agree the the information from the hotel was wrong and doesn't leave a good impression.

Moving forward, this is where our cosy Accor forum can be a poison. So there are two trainn of thoughts here:

1) React how you did - not be pleased about it, maybe showing the check-in staff your displeasure, but otherwise letting it be.

2) Then there is the other "bunch" - which I subscribe to. What I have found in my travels is that it becomes a good point of contact to get the know the hotel management. Some I get to know through management cocktails which they organize for hotel guests (Sofitel Bali and Pullman CP Jakarta come to mind here). Others I get to know as I ask for them when there are some unpleasant (typically glaring LCAH) issues.
They would then typically offer some service recovery. In your case it may have been comping of breakfast or offering you a meal there (or similar).

We're also a good group for contacts for such hotel managers - which helps if you want to drop a short note prior to arrival (in many cases this can help a lot).

Goldorak

I am glad you had a good stay there. This hotel is on my no-stay-list following to a catastrophic stay 2 years ago.

stimpy

- 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 privilege, received privilege

- How are the rooms? Kind of small. I wouldn't want to be in a normal room. The mini-bar was free and the bathroom was all nice and new.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
Great location right in the middle of medieval history.

Bad:
Careful with your GPS if driving there. There is no place to park in front of the hotel, but rather you should park underneath the Papal Palace. There is a drop off area for the Mercure at the entrance to the parking. Plus the GPS will take you on some small winding medieval streets that you may get stuck in.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Drink voucher given automatically

- Value for € or Vouchers? Would you return?
Sure.

FGunawan

- Name of the hotel:
Pullman Jakarta Indonesia (formerly Pullman Jakarta Thamrin CBD)

- What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

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

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

- How are the rooms?
The deluxe room we received was a corner room in the main building. It's been renovated and is clean and cozy, providing nice space (39 m2) for the two of us.

- What was good and what was bad?

From what I remember, this hotel has been getting a number of negative responses from platinums after the GM change. It is very strict about its rules (no more than 1 level room upgrade, no upgrade to Club Room or Suites etc), but I still always find it very nice. Our stay this time is much better than last year, they're generally nicer than before. Platinum treatment is still better at Pullman Central Park, but I'm not choosing a hotel solely based on platinum treatment. Overall experience, I still prefer this Pullman Thamrin (major advantages vs Central Park: location, location, location and lounge offerings).

Good:
* Very central location suitable for most purposes - work, sightseeing, staycation, ...
* Nice swimming pool, extensive gym facilities, nice jacuzzi, sauna and steamroom
* Very nice lounge with good offerings for breakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktail. See more below
* As always, Sana-Sini restaurant makes breakfast (or any other meal) fun

Bad:
Nothing

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
Yes, and I'd say it's the best Pullman lounge of all I've ever been. It feels nice and cozy. Love their breakfast menu, especially the lobster benedict. "Afternoon tea" stretches from 12pm til 5pm if I remember correctly. Another lovely spread for evening cocktail, with nice selection of wines and extensive cocktail list.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
* Welcome drinks were served to us while checking in at the lounge. Further welcome drink coupon was presented, good for (almost?) any item on hotel bar's menu.
* An interesting presentation of almond chocolates was set up in our room.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
It's always one of my favorites in Accor portfolio, certainly their best in my hometown in my opinion (I also like Pullman Central Park very much by the way). Would love future staycations from time to time.

FGunawan

By the way, continuing on about Pullman Thamrin, if timing works out for you, check out the new-ish offer Sky Lunch Express at Kahyangan Japanese restaurant at the office building next door (Kahyangan is still considered part of the hotel albeit located in the office building). For Rp 120.000,-++ p.p. (total less than Rp 150.000,- - not even US$ 12), you'll get a plate of appetizer, entree, green tea/chocolate ice cream for dessert and tea or coffee to wash off dessert.

My office is not far from the hotel, so I've taken advantage of this offer a few times. It's an amazing value - almost hard to believe. For further information, Kahyangan used to be (still is to a certain extent) one of the most revered Japanese restaurants in town, and certainly one of the most expensive. I suppose they're putting out this offer after another Japanese restaurant opened up earlier this year in the hotel building. The new restaurant is only open for dinner and has a set menu of several course meal - at the price tag of around 4 million rupiahs p.p. (around US$ 130). Despite that price tag, I still saw many Japanese in business suit coming out of that new restaurant in the evening.

FGunawan

- Name of the hotel:
Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi

- What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

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

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked Opera Wing Premium Room, received Historical Wing Grand Luxury Room

- How are the rooms?
Ample size with historic charm. Lovely big round bathtub.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
* Great location to experience what Hanoi has to offer. Nice neighborhood, walking distance to Hoan Kiem lake.
* The front desk manager had been waiting for us when our taxi pulled up at the door. He accompanied us to reception and stayed with us during the whole check in process, chatting with me and my friend, answering some questions we had about Hanoi and giving us his name card. I never received this kind of treatment before or after, not quite sure what prompted it. But it sure felt very nice.
* Terrific lounge, cozy and elegant. Delicious spreads for breakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktail.
* Interesting artifacts and photographs detailing the hotel history and what dignitaries, writers and celebrities have stayed there.
* Too many other lovely things, best to just check it out for yourself. This hotel certainly stands out as one of the most prized in Accor portfolio.

Bad:
* Troublesome, even frustrating wifi. Very slow, and we got even disconnected and reconnected time and time again in the evening and morning when most guests are at the hotel. See my review below of Sofitel Macau too. In comparison, during my stay at the Hilton across the street wifi was much faster and very dependable.
* I just put it out here, but it was pertinent for our stay last December that some staff had bad attitudes, let's say snooty, although they would still help. For our most recent stay however I felt everybody was nice and/or polite.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
Yes, and it's just terrific. Elegantly decorated, cozy atmosphere with a piano in the corner (a pianist provides background music during evening cocktail). Excellent quality of food and drinks.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
* Welcome drink voucher good for 2 at the restaurant by the pool, redeemable for coffee, tea, house wine or standard cocktail
* Nice choices of macarons and dried fruit for us in the room

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
The Metropole Hanoi is a standout, worth every penny of its very high (for Southeast Asia) price tag. I would sure love to revisit this hotel, maybe I could use my Accor Plus certificate the next time.

FGunawan

- Name of the hotel:
Sofitel Macau Ponte 16

- What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

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

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked Superior Room, received Luxury Room Club Sofitel

- How are the rooms?
It's a decent sized room with characteristic Sofitel decor and outfit. A Handy device (with local SIM card) is provided in the room that guest can take out with them while in town, to surf or check map on the go - or make calls (free locally, to HK and to Australia). Bathtub is equipped with tv (seems typical in Macau - my comped room at Wynn Resort also has this) and a bath pillow (this one is new to me, but I enjoyed it!). Toiletries are Hermes - very nice.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
* Generally a very nice hotel with all around nice staff
* Lovely room with unique features such as the Handy device, bathtub tv and bath pillow
* Lovely swimming pool
* Nice lounge with nice evening cocktail spread

Bad:
* I've come to notice that in most Sofitels and MGalleries (including Sofitel Macau) wifi is problematic in the evenings and mornings, when most guests are in the house. It becomes excruciatingly slow or even one gets disconnected/reconnected. I was very lucky to be comped a huge suite (!) at Wynn Resorts while playing 10c slot machines - difference in wifi performance at the two hotels is just stunning. To ease wifi problem, the Handy device can be used for general web surfing (it uses local mobile provider).

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
Yes, it's a very nice lounge with city view of Macau. Very nice evening spread. Skip breakfast here though and opt for the main restaurant.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
* A glass of welcome drink while I was checking in at the lounge
* Welcome drink coupon was presented but I never got to use it
* Very nice welcome gift in the room: delicacies in a very nice box and a 375cl bottle of red wine

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
* I already booked another stay for March, made during last month Accor sale

sarahluv

Name of the hotel: Mercure Bloomsbury

- What is your Le Club status? Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? No

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked a standard double, upgraded to a superior king room

- How are the rooms? Needed maintenance eg bubbling paint, tv volume broken! no fridge.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good: Proactively upgraded.

Bad: Tiny bathroom. Impossible to have door open and be in there at the same time. See other comments.

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

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Nothing. This hotel claims not to offer drinks vouchers any more. They gave me a generic flyer for a free dessert at the new Marco grill if I bought two courses. Worthless!

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? No. This was on a Ł60 happy mondays but was similar to an Ibis stay (if not worse!)

gilbertaue

Name of the hotel: Sofitel Wanda Beijing

- What is your Le Club status? Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Initially no, but it got better

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked Premium Deluxe, and was upgraded; upgraded to a room that looked like the Premium Deluxe picture on the website. I was shown the Premium Deluxe room - but it didn't look like it (it looked worse). Next level should be the Jnr Suite. But that was full, but still available online for booking. "We will look into that. We are actually in negative". And "that description (online) doesn't actually exist at this property. It should be called the Sofitel Suite" I was told.
In the end the room was fine. But I don't know what I got. The hotel also doesn't know what they have it seems. Supposedly mini-bar in the Premium room is free. I was charged during check-out. Asked them to remove it.

- How are the rooms? In some need of refurbishment. They supposedly close the rooms 3 days a year for minor touch ups. Next major renovation in 2018. They have a 10 year cycle. Some other things I don't understand: They have some nice lacquerware in the room and partitioned drawers with glass panels on top - obviously everything to have things placed in them (Pens, stapler etc). Nothing. All completely empty.

- What was good and what was bad?

Bad: I would say the whole discussion on the rooms and upgrade was bad and it came across as messy. I did have a talk to the GM and he assured me that they were in negative and can't upgrade even though the website shows availability - which I'm fine with.
What I don't understand is why reality vs pictures is different and I am then shown rooms that don't reflect what I booked.
Another example. The levels are such: Deluxe - Premium Deluxe - Deluxe Club - Sofitel Suite. So basically a much nicer Premium Deluxe room, as an upgrade, goes into a less desirable room "but you get the Club benefits". I know other hotels pass of the Club benefit as a "room upgrade". But to, though that, downgrade your actual room seems cheap.
If you go onto their own website they stack the rooms as: Luxury - Luxury Club - Luxury (top 4 floors) - Premium Luxury ... and then the suites.

Good: Bed was comfortable, nice bathroom, Grand lobby. Lots of activities.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? Yes, lounge is nice. Attentive staff. Snr Management does their rounds in the evening.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Not given during check-in and told that there isn't one. Later in the afternoon it was in my room.
No welcome gift. Fruit basket, and some treats.
They don't hand you a welcome letter during check-in. So the fact that the room had a free mini-bar I wasn't aware of. GM told me "it's on the booking page". Great.
Typically you are handed a letter with lounge opening hours etc. Nada.


- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? Expensive. Don't know. (The Fairmont was cheaper!)

One more thing. The dreaded and sneaky DCC in China. I paid close attention and they make it seem very transparent, but it isn't. I was asked to click either the red or green button on the keypad to approve. But you have about 3 seconds to do that (which I of course didn't know). By the time I read what was on the display, it auto-selected. So I waited to see what came. Sure enough it selected the foreign currency.
You receive a final receipt that states the currency in RMB and also in your home currency after payment. The lady at the desk told me not to worry as it states the currency in RMB, so that is what I was billed (but it also states what I paid in SGD!!). I asked her to cancel the transaction and that we would do it again as I highly doubted what she was saying (she seemed to not be sure herself either).
This time I quickly pressed on the red button to select RMB. - The receipt only showed RMB and not SGD and she was surprised.

wandering_fred

I accept that I am not the typical poster in these threads nor do my travel
patterns (ie budget) match the upper level Accor hotels.


Name of the hotel: ibis Styles Kuala Lumpur Fraser Business Park

What is your Le Club status? entry (ie nothing but a member)

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? basic n/a

How are the rooms? clean and larger than I expected

- What was good and what was bad?
Good:
Check in was quick
LeClub members have a separate breakfast area with waiter service. (big +)
The general breakfast area (and buffet) caters to groups.
Captive taxis seem to have reasonable fixed prices.

Bad: The walk way to the KL train system passes through the (mostly empty) mall
area. The escalator necessary for access to the station was not operating.
The hotel should "encourage" that the escalator (at least) operates during day time hours

- 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 and meal discount vouchers. Although with a limited (but acceptable)
menu, the dinner voucher minimum spend would never be reached by a single traveler.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? Acceptable value though KL has become far too built up for my liking.

Happy wandering

Fred

Goldorak

Name of the hotel: Mercure Nelspruit (South Africa)
Olivedel (gold member) and I were staying at the same time in this hotel and our experience is the same with our two rooms.

- What is your Le Club status? Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? No

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive ?
Booked junior suite 2 single beds (because no double beds were proposed). At check-in they asked me if I would prefer a double bed and I said yes of course. When I asked whether they gave me an upgrade, the answer was yes. But the room given was clearly the category I booked. So now, be aware that a double bed vs 2 single beds is considered as an upgrade...no comments

- How are the rooms? Large but tired. The walls have molds (see pictures below). The junior suite includes a sofa and a kitchen. The bathroom has both a shower and a bath tub.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
- large rooms and the bed was very comfortable
- Nice staff at front desk
- Swimming pool

Bad:
- Rooms are starting to be in very average to poor conditions. See pictures below.
- no towels were available for the pool (they were out of stock of clean ones)
- Wifi : uncredible. As explained by Olivedel in a separate thread, free wifi is limited to 250 Mo. For more you need to pay, and a very substantial amount, especially for ZA (50 ZAR, about €3.5 per hour !!). In order for you to realize how poor this is for 250 Mo, after 15-20 min of Flyertalk browsing, you're done and your connection is interrupted. Olivedel asked the front desk to have a voucher, as free internet is a LCAH benefit, but the 1st answer was negative. I went to ask again some time later and after some arguments, they printed us some vouchers with an individual access code, but those were denied by the system. They gave us some other ones, but same response. We finally gave up, but this is clearly unacceptable and miserable
- Even if you sit at the bar for 15min, the bar tender is not asking you for your order unless you call him specifically.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? no lounge

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks : welcome drink was given spontaneously and was valid for wine, beer, soft drinks, etc
No VIP treatment or welcome gift of any kind. Not even a bottle of water, which is quite surprising in a place where tap water is not drinkable.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? no

starflyergold

Thanks for the mini review Goldorak but yuck, what a dump!

drifterSE

First post, been an occasional lurker for a while. Staying frequently at Accor Hotels (staying in all budget classes from Ibis to Sofitel), mainly in Europe and APAC.

- Name of the hotel: Novotel Central, Sydney

- 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?
I booked Standard Room 2 Queen Beds (traveling alone but the cheapest at time of booking). Upgraded to Executive room 1 King bed automatically upon check in.

- How are the rooms?
In general good and fairly modern with a few scuff marks here and there. Bathroom is a bit on the small side though, and lightning isn't the best infront of the mirror. Combined shower/bathtub. Nespresso machine in the room which is a nice extra.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
- Quick check in, handed over my card and everything was done in a few minutes. Also arrived early (before 11am) and got an early check in without any fuss even though I hadn't notified the hotel about my early arrival beforehand.
- Good breakfast.
- Outdoor pool, not the biggest though.
- Good help from the On call manager when I got credit card problems. Card was declined but charged anyway, twice. This was not a fault of the hotel though but with the Visa network and my card provider. This was for a two week stay as well, so quite a lot of money was tied up, but the manager took full responsibility and helped me clear it with my card provider. (Note: this happened last time I stayed at this property, I'm back a second time now.)

Bad:
- Nothing in particular.

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

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
Drink voucher for one drink (soft drink, beer or glass of wine). Free Internet. Two bottles of water.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
For business yes, not for vacation due to the location. It's close to Central which is good as I need access to the trains to go out to customers. But it's far from everything else, I rather stay closer to Town Hall when in Sydney, or up at The Rocks. But then again, I would never go here for vacation either way. So yeah, if any hotels further up in CBD is cheaper or you're willing to pay a little bit more stay there instead.