Accor will not honor my Silver status because I booked on Expedia
 

I booked a reservation and Accor refuses to add it to my account where I have Silver status, GRRRRR!!!!

Here's the email:

Read Accor's T&C.

Your status won't be recognized if you booked thru Expedia or other OTAs

The non-recognition of elite status is quite common among other hotel loyalty programs, when booked through third parties.

Standard practice. Book direct through the hotel website. If Expedia truly is cheaper, you can jump through the hoops of the Best Rate Guarantee (assuming the rooms have the same conditions of sale).

Agree, its with the Accor terms of service.

However some organisations will not accept paid receipts from employees from hotels not booked through an approved OTA or other method. It could be in this case.
It may be worth a short e mail to the hotel GM and plead your case ?

Even if the OP was required to book through a OTA, it doesn't really change the case at hand.

Hotels cannot afford to or don't want to provide status benefits if people don't book direct. If someone books a chain hotel via a direct booking channel, the hotel has to pay the chain a fee in the amount of around 4% of the room rate. However, if the booking is done via OTA, the commission the OTA gets for the product distribution service it provided is in the ballpark of 20% of the room rate.

That's a huge difference in cost. It's not financially sensible to grant status perks to OTA guests. Besides, hotels want to incentivize people to book direct. You don't do that by rewarding people booking via OTA.

Totally agree.

If you want the "soft perks" with status you should use the hotel booking direct. That's what you pay the hotel for ( indirectly by saving them some money ) I don't know of any good status programs run by booking.com for example :)

All I was trying to say was that it may not be possible to book the hotel direct for other reasons.

No, as far as I am aware, most hotels only confer the soft status benefits if you book with them, or an approved agent or route. There are some niche OTA that do offer perks and Status benefits, but not Expedia, and these tend to be for the top range properties in a hotel group.

I understand you won't get status acknowledged or points on room rate but if you add your Accor number will you get points awarded for drinks meals etc on the stay?

no, that won't earn you point

This sounds like OP has a labor problem with his employer. This has nothing to do with the chain which is both explicit and is in keeping with many other "loyalty" programs.

its on the T&C
And pretty much all hotel loyalty program does the same.

boboqui - I sympathise. If you don't book a lot of hotels then the rules on loyalty card recognition can be confusing especially because airlines don't have that issue. I made the same mistake myself with a Starwood property a few years ago and it can be doubly confusing because some employers use corporate travel agents to make bookings where your status is recognised (certainly this was the case with my previous employer who used a corporate travel agent to book Accor hotels and all brands except Ibis would recognise status and give loyalty and status points for stays).

It's a frustrating lesson but now you know it and can move on.

1F