DuMaInSin

There is a message on the Dutch Le Club AccorHotels Facebook page (in Dutch) which translates to the following:

http://www.facebook.com/leclubaccorh...84950074976512

However clicking on the link in this Facebook post leads to a page which doesn't disclose any information on this.

monahos

A change is definitely afoot. I redeemed a family member's soon-to-expire points for vouchers, and while the voucher order page was still unchanged, the confirmation email says 'Your vouchers are valid for 3 months from today.'

Fortunately the vouchers themselves still display the 6+ months validity they always did (redeem now, valid till 2017-10-31).

Those vouchers had been one of my favorite aspects of LeClub Accorhotels, allowing me to turn orphaned points from relatives into little luxuries such as hotel cars, hotel restaurants, room service, etc., which would have come out of my pocket at competing chains or, more realistically, been replaced by lesser but lower-priced non-Accor alternatives.

Fortunately it appears I will still be able to redeem my own points for hotel expenses. I do hope the implementation will allow choosing how many points to use, as I do not trust Accor IT to give proper stay credit for folio balances below €10-15...

The problem with vouchers valid for 3 months (if that option remains) is that unused vouchers will have a good chance of expiring if there is even a short lull in one's travel schedule, or travel only to USA or Japan or hotels with unpalatable/limited services such as Ibis etc.

Goldorak

Thank you for sharing, but the "ask for it at the front desk" sentence you quote from the Facebook post makes me fear the worst
I believe you need to schedule at least one hour to do your check-out

NickB

. Pretty much what I thought too.

AccorHotels Concierge

Hi All,

The information about this change to the program was released a little earlier than intended.

With this new service, you will be able to choose how many points you use directly at the hotel reception desk. As before, the minimum spend will be 2000 points, and you will be able to pay in stages increasing by 2000 points each time.

Concerning the vouchers, they are indeed valid until the date specified on each voucher. In fact, the validity will soon be reduced from six months to three months.

In any case, be sure to check the validity date displayed on your voucher in order to use it before the expiration.

I hope this is clearer now but don't hesitate to get in touch if you have more questions

Kind regards,
Amy

In the Wood

I was last weekend in Amsterdam and they pro-actively asked me at check-out whether I wanted to pay by card or by using points. First time this happened to me.

markis10

Vouchers are gone next month, not available after June 15

winkny

For me will be very interesting to know if paying part of the bill ( not the room rate ) with point will prevent you of earning points from an offer.

If you pay for the reservation with cash and then let say you eat something in the restaurant and pay with point and then finding out that this prevent you from earning that extra promo points will be very frustrating and probably will be a reason for many people not to use points , unless they decide to settle the entire bill with points.

pb9997

Any info on what kind of currency exchange rate are used on these reception-redeemed points ?

Whether a neutral EUR/local exchange rate or a highly expensive imposed exchange rate by hotel ?

winkny

Probably they can make up wherever rate they want, unless you pay in euro.

There was some very nasty exchange rate in some hotels 1-2 years ago when the currency of the hotel wasn't euro , something like 10-20 % loss , because of it.

nrouxel

https://secure.accorhotels.com/leclu...tions.en.shtml

"using Rewards Points to obtain a reduction in the price of accommodation or an expense charged in a currency other than euros, will entail the application of the AccorHotels group’s exchange rate of reference, as taken from the “Multicurrency” database (database of monetary and financial information from Reuters bank). This rate shall be applied"

3544quebec

Which sounds better than the current situation using vouchers:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28083012-post8.html

Travel-Quinten

In my case: Yes. Even though the terms and conditions of the promo (3 stays/6000 points) say the STAY has to be paid in cash. I had a non-refundable room paid with creditcard before arriving. Paying my food bill with points at check-out changed the whole stay to 'partly paid with points'. Having a hard time to explain that to Accor.