Mercure Minsk Old Town
 

Today, I received an email from Mercure Minsk Old Town informing me that they had cancelled my reservation because "The hotel suspended its work from 07/09/2019 and unfortunately, we would not be able to accommodate you." We were booked in for the last week this month (July) and have Accor Gold status. Booking reservations on Expedia, Booking, etc also appear to be suspended. Does anyone have a clue what is going on? The hotel has been open only for a few months!

In Belarus, hotel bookings cancel you!

We have received a telephone call from Mercure Minsk Old Town to apologise for the cancellation, but they declined to explain the reasons and have refused our request for a refund (the booking was prepaid). Truly bizarre.

Sorry but there is something I don't understand : they cancelled your booking because the hotel will be closed but they refuse to refund you ? :confused:
Something is very wrong here. Did you book direct or through a TA/OTA ?

If the booking was made by Accor official channel, please contact accor customer service to solve it out.
If the booking was made by OTA, please contact the OTA to solve it out.
If one of them above couldn't refund you the payment, please contact your credit card bank to claim dispute transaction.

Eventually, you will get your money back...

Dear Martin,

We received a few days ago the information that the hotel had to immediately stop any activity.
Regarding your upcoming stay and its refund, I strongly invite you to contact Customer Service to ask for their assistance.

Best regards,
Amy

I smell that there was something going on at this hotel ...
Where as the customer to contact CS for getting a refund for a stay cancelled by Accor, I am sorry Amy but this is an utter joke. It should be sorted here and there.

This is where the Accor "system" fails.

- there is a 80% chance that the guest's name is Martin Rickman
- internally at Accor, messages and emails should be flying to figure out if a certain guest by the same name had a booking.
- if not, reach out to him by DM
- sort it out. Accor (via the hotel) caused a guest a problem. Sort it out for the guest! Not the other way around!!!

This is where I argue that in certain cases, Accor just doesn't give a damn!!

OP, when I visited Minsk last year I stayed at the DoubleTree. Had a great stay and they didn't cancel my reservation!

Many thanks to everyone for your advice.

We have now raised a query via the Accor customer services team. To his credit, the agent was horrified that a refund was refused and confirmed with me several times that it was the hotel (and not me) who had cancelled the booking. The agent explained that the query would go to a team in Paris and a response normally takes 72hrs.

Update: We booked an alternative hotel via Expedia and have returned from a great city break in Minsk. We did a walk past the Mercure Old Town Minsk and found it utterly abandoned - all blinds drawn, no lights or power on and no information posted on the front door. The Old Town area is thriving so the hotel stands out like a sore thumb.

We had to chase Accor Customer Services for a third time about the refund and finally received it at the weekend - a month after initially requesting one. We haven't yet received any form of apology or explanation from Accor.