typical

Of course for someone like me, with a mix of Accor hotels skewed towards the ibis and Adagio brands, those spend requirements are rather more forbidding. I am far more likely to switch to an SPG brand or IHG brand than to pay the extra for a Novotel or Mercure in cities where I might previously have gone for the Ibis next door.

Then again I'll hit the nights requirement for Gold relatively easily. In this brave new world though, the reduced status points earning for ibis and Adagio properties makes a lot less sense.

ZenWorld

While I think this is the right step forward for the program, the dysfunctional customer service of Le Club makes me uneasy to bank all my stays with them.

I will happily accept my status till 2017 end, and stay with them when they offer the most competitive value, but will also monitor how they fare in the next 1 yr plus.

The end of Starwood (after the Marriott merger) opens up possibilities for me, but at the moment, Hilton is winning for the next main program for me, despite my unhappiness over some parts of HH, but Le Club is not doing any better for now.

I would have banked everything with Hyatt, but their footprint needs to ramp up massively.

I think Le Club Accor is something to watch out for, but really their ability to deliver their benefits and the recovery by their customer service is a huge suspect.

Finally, I hope they also ramp up the Plat benefits given that it will be earned the hard way next time, but all Plats get a taste of the better Plat treatment, so that we know what we will be missing out in future, if we do not work towards the status.
(At the moment, I must say, not that much to miss out on - but maybe great reports of Fairmont lounges + Fairmont Suite upgrades as Plat benefits may change my mind. And Breakfast for Plats, please.)

lingua101

Of course they can do whatever they want to do.

But we are discussing from what known now.

orson_y

wow seems weird to me is that a 10 euro only counts for half the points in ibis/ibis styles compared to the novotels/sofitels. i mean a euro is a euro is a euro.

gojko88

It makes perfect sense to me, since it encourages people to spend a little more cash and move to a more upmarket hotel. I've often seen Mercures and Novotels costing 10-15% more than Ibis (Styles), so with the extra points, it can be a fair value proposition.

Awesom Andy

Some other programs also have lower earn rates for some of their lower-end brands. It's a more price sensitive market, and the revenue per room/night would also be lower.

Castleford Tiger

I must admit that I am less than happy with this. Mainly because of the poor standard of Le Club Accor customer service. Perviously it was relatively easy for me to meet the points threshold for Platinum, but mainly by playing the promotions. I stuck with Accor because of this and inspite of my poor experience with CS. For instance I have an unanswered website related ticket dating back to November 2015.

I am not sure that there will be any Status points promotions and I have very serious doubts that CS will have the ability to deal with any missing point queries in a speedy and consistent and manner. They struggle with the current system, the new one will have two types of points.

CT

starflyergold

"The whole programme seems designed by accounting committee"

http://www.thewisemarketer.com/news/...g96986dx4856zo

JTCz

I actually wrote an angry email to my own marketing today in reply to attempts to start a project with the aim to redesign our loyalty programme (in an unrelated business), explaining how usually this is a great distraction from the actually material problems at hand.

And then I thought of LCAH...

IMH

... and for many years airlines have awarded fewer than 100% of miles flown on lower fares (both redeemable and qualifying). So if Accor's accounting committee is really given free rein maybe we will have to spend all weekend in an Ibis to earn a single status 'night', or will earn double status points for Sofitel suite bookings. The possibilities are almost endless...

typical

In Asia, that's often true.

In Europen major cities, I'd guess most Mercures are about twice the price of nearby Ibis hotels, and Novotels a bit more than that. (I have found a couple of exceptions in smaller cities - The Hague for example.)

sarahluv

I'd say that in central London it's a 10% to 25% difference.

typical

My direct experience of staying in accor hotels in London has been you're lucky to see a 30% difference and it's usually in the 50-80% range.

E.g. I stayed two nights ago in the ibis Styles Kensington for 57 quid. Didn't see any of the upper brands going for less than 90...

sarahluv

kensington is a bit of an outlier
eg. tonight:

ibis Blackfriars £156
novotel waterloo £180
novotel Blackfriars £210
mercure London bridge £189
novotel city south £190
ibis styles southwark rose £176

ibis Euston £153
mercure Bloomsbury £145

typical

Sure, but still zone 1 (or just in zone 2 if the ibis "Earls Court")...

Tonight the ibis Earls Court is £81 and the ibis Styles Kensington is £90.

The Mercure Bloomsbury is admittedly coming in at £116. But that's still >40% more than the ibis Earls Court.

I do admit that if you're more tied to a particular location within central London the difference can be smaller.