Is Accor Platinum Room Guarantee a scam?
 

I booked room on Accor website at Mercure Angers Lac de Maine hotel for 2 nights. Booking was made 5 days prior to arrival. Rate was: LE CLUB ACCCORHOTELS PLATINUM - FLEXIBLE RATE. I would say that the rate was painful and double the usual (€235,80 per night with breakfast), but I decided to take the hit.

Surprisingly, on the following day (4 days prior to arrival) I received email stating that my reservation was cancelled.
It looked like error, so I immediately contacted the Accor hotline to check. After longish waittime, I was re-assured that it was a mistake and hotel will honor the reservation asap. I also received case number.
About 3 hours later, I received the new confirmation directly from the hotel, with personal note from someone named V***. The confirmation also included this information: “Le Club AH Platinum - D-2, Room only”
And exactly 12 minutes later, the same V*** cancelled my reservation!

So I contacted Accor again…
My issue was re-checked and I was reassured that supervisor will contact the hotel and definitely will call me back solving this issue at satisfactory way. As it turned out it was just blah blah blah, because I never heard from Accor again. Just hotel wrote quick email quoting: “We can't take your resevation from 17th to the 19th… … Have a nice day.”. Beautiful, right?

I also re-checked the conditions:
- Reservation done 2+ days (OK)
- Guarantee requested (OK – and confirmed by hotel)
- Not resort hotel
- Booked via accorhotels.com
- Not excluded brand (Mercure)
- Not blocked dates

Oh, and of course, this was not ever offered (which comes from T&C, paragraph 8): “If the hotel is unable to guarantee room availability, it commits to accommodating the Member at another nearby AccorHotels hotel or at a hotel in an equivalent category. If the Member is accommodated at a hotel that is not part of the AccorHotels group, the hotel will refund any difference in the cost of the first night and any related transportation fees, upon presentation by the Member of the corresponding invoices. All hotel accommodation expenses for the night in question (price paid by the Member plus the additional price difference reimbursed by the hotel) qualify for Points credit.“

I have never had such experience with MR or HH, as they usually go extra mile for top tiers.

I am hoping that Accor Concierge could comment and help on solving this?

It's a published program benefit, one the hotel is trying to weasel out of because they cannot manage their room inventory.

What I find truly incredible here is that the hotel did not even call a Platinum member to discuss the matter and find a solution :td:

It is incredible, indeed: neither hotel, nor Accor hotline called me back... I had to chase them and explain my problem quite few times.

This is what you get, when being Platinum @ Accor...

Hi mileq,
Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.
It is best to contact customer services who will have the reservation information :)
Could you please provide me with your reservation details and the dates of your reservation by private message? I will then also pass the information straight on to the AccorHotels team.
Kind regards,
Amy

This is truly unacceptable. Not just the hotel but also the customer service ineptitude. Why nobody is willing to take ownership and why it should be the guest's responsibility to chase this up is beyond me.

If I read the OP correctly, mileq contacted Accor twice before posting here.

More generally, many people here will struggle to agree with the assertion that contacting Accor 'customer service' is likely to be a very positive experience.

Yes, you are correct. I contacted with Accor hotline twice. After first contact I received email confirmation with case number starting with CAS-7 digits-6 letters/digits mix. Second time, I was following up on the initial case, as it was on the same day.

I am contacting AccorConcierge now by PM and I will keep you updated.

Fingers crossed to fix this guarantee to be working for sake of all of us, Accor nomads.

Then people wonder why FPC folks are worried! ;)

The sooner AccorHotels HQ realises that the outsourced AccorHotels "Customer Service" is merely a paper-pushing and non-empowered call centre, which does not actually provide a service, the better.

It works for the competition...........in the eyes of the bean counters :D

Well, it seems like Accor has no idea what to do with my complaint. It has been already 8 days and over a month, since my stay was supposed to happen there.

Shall see...
Have a good weekend to all!

As I said before, nobody takes ownership of such CS failures. Very poor.

Calling Accor Concierge...

Over 2 weeks and counting for any reply. Will keep you posted.
I will not let it go. After all, getting status is not free and they still want our money in future!

Luckily we have the choice, where to spend it... :)

I booked a stay at So Sofitel Bangkok and Sofitel Singapore Sentosa using the current Asia Pacific promotion and found cheaper rate for the same promotion on another website after I completed my booking on Accorhotels.com. I filled Accor's Best Price Guarantee form and received a positive reply from both hotels. ^