R.O.

IHG is points-driven the way Accor used to be a few years ago.

It's all about earning and burning. Earnings rates are excellent if you make use of the various promos. But you gotta be willing to redeem for properties a bit less luxurious than, say, a Raffles or a Sofitel Legend, otherwise you won't find much in IHG's portfolio.

My point is that IHG is about earning reward nights. Benefits are even poorer than with Accor. (Benefits are somewhat better if you make RA or Inner Circle; I am talking about all other status levels such as Spire/Ambassador and such.)

PCHammond

There's really no advantage of Diamond over Platinum for me, considering I can't use my SNUs. Most of my nights are for business, so there's no point getting a Suite when I'm travelling for work. I was going to use the SNUs to give my wife a little treat but all my holiday travel next year is in Italy.

Even if IHG is earn and burn, I'm not fussed about not being able to get a room at a Raffles or Sofitel Legend. Intercontinental is fine with me.

tris06

I think all that has been said is correct. But may I add that some expectations were obviously too high. In that I mean some of the points being brought up are not a suprise. I am not too fussed about each SNU being 1 night each even if I think the realistic number a plat member should get is 3 to 4 nights per year. Diamond should be getting 8-10 nights given when you get to 26k status points. So for me they are not too far off the mark though a bit low to what it should be.

Only having 10 to 20 percent available is also not horrible but again below my expectation of more reasonable 25 percent or so. Why? Because Accor has many apartment hotels, budget hotels and etc which lack suites and make up well over half the number of total hotels. Newly integrated hotels also bring difficulties in getting them to standard within a year or 2. I think Novotel should get on the list but to be honest they usually only do have 1 suite level and on rare occasions 2 and when booking the 2nd cheapest room (Usually Superior or duluxe room) I have often been given the suite anyway as well with Mercure when requesting upgrade on arrival.


My main issue with SNU is that it is not clear what suite type is upgradeable unless you contact the hotel and it is unacceptable that suites above junior suite level are blocked when they have 3 or more suites of that type. Even 2 suites should be made available.

And of course pressure needs to be applied on Accor about getting european hotels to be gradually opened up to accepting SNU as well as this (needing the same rate business which gives hotels a lot of room to wiggle out of granting a SNU).

The 3 things mentioned above should take the highest priority for us members to focus on pushing Accor to fix in 2020. By focusing on a couple of important aspects that Accor needs to correct ASAP should allow for a more clear message to Accor what their plats and diamonds members want fixing.

Look at the consistent message of wanting breakfasts over the last couple of years that has partially been a success especially for those who travel in the Asia- Pacific regions.

RTWFF

I bought an Ibis Business Card valid to 30/6/20 some months ago; I see my ALL status is Gold but only until Dec 2019. The IBC shows up as a "subscription". I'm hoping I get an extension until June as all my trips are in the first half of next year. I'm assuming there is no way to add a digital version of the membership card to my Apple Wallet

starflyergold

https://www.pollstar.com/article/aeg...program-143049

IMH

If they offer tickets (or packages) at attractive 'prices' (rather than simply payment with points at a poor rate) then using points for concerts or sporting events could actually be interesting.

MPC

https://all.accor.com/gb/loyalty-pro...xception.shtml

almost all Mövenpick in Asia will not participate in ALL😤

kaizen7

That's pretty long list.
And seems like either they didn't manage to integrate those new brands in time or the owner refuse to participate at ALL

LeClubVirgin

Welcome to all. Where all means all. Apart from all of these listed here.

paolo64

I think you’ll find that is just a glitch/bug in the transition to the new system. I was in exactly the same situation, showing ALL Gold valid until 12/19 only. It has now corrected and shows 12/20 ( Ibis card 06/20).

JTCz

The failure to integrate 25hours and the SBE hotels is even more of a disappointment

R.O.

Fair point. On more than one occasion, I had to make a close call betweeg going for 25h hotels or a non-Accor brand. Elite recognition at 25h might have tipped the scale in favor of Accor.

While the failure of a timely integration is disappointing from the perspective of ALL elites, I can somewhat see a rationale for proceeding slowly. E.g., 25hours is a young brand. They probably want to leave them some freedom to be creative and not tie them to closely to Accor. Or perhaps, there were even promises made during the takeover that the brand would keep most of its independence for some time.

RTWFF

Thanks. Just checked and mine shows the same

JTCz

First of all, it was not a takeover, Accor holds a minority share (35%). Secondly, I do not believe "independence" was much of a consideration, it was more of a P&L issue probably - to cover the generous points earnings for Golds and Platinums the hotels would need to contribute around 5% of their revenues which they currently don't, as 25h does not operate a loyalty programme. So the investors into 25h would not be all too happy to see this 5% go in return for a questionable boost in patronage, as 25h hotels do not seem to suffer from low occupancy or ARRs.

...having said which, it has been a painful choice to have to forgo 25hs across the DACH in favour of Accor's "earning" brands, as the 25h's usually have the perfect combo of style, location, service, "freshness" (i.e. not being worn out) and value-for-money in most of the cities where they can be found.

R.O.

Hotels do not pay 5% to the chain to cover the points earnings. This number is not even in the right ballpark. Hotels do not pay fees directly for points earning to the chain. And the chain doesn't have costs of a size of 5% of hotel revenues from issuing points. It's much less. (Accor's liability when it issues a point which is supposed to be worth two cents is much less due to things such as breakage.)