Gotcha! I was thinking they didn't recognize your payment at all.

Unfortunately, Accor Customer Service has a reputation for being often incompetent and/or uncaring and/or unwilling to help. Have you tried calling the hotel directly, instead of dealing with Accor customer service?

If the hotel won't help you, then I would pursue a chargeback. You have paperwork showing what you booked, and they're no longer honouring it, then I don't see how they can legally keep your money.

Not sure if the hotel is to blame. I think something during the booking must have gone wrong. The hotel in question is listed as a participating hotel and I could book the hotel again using SNU, with only having to pay a few Euros extra. I even offered to rebook this myself, but been told I wouldn't get a refund on the current booking. Unfortunately, it is an advance rate, otherwise I would have tried to fix it myself.
I did contact the hotel today, but since it is now a weekend (been trying to solve this for a week now), the person I spoke to wasn't equipped to solving it. So either have to try again on Monday or email them. However, it didn't sound like they would be able to refund me and I guess from their point, this is something that went wrong with Accor's system not theirs. But your idea of just staying in the non-suite room might be a solution I could suggest to the hotel and means I do not have to pay more money. Thanks for that. A shame about the SNU, but seems like Accor won't allow me to use them anyway.

In the past, SNU could only be used by making a reservation to an Accor call center and not on the website...for about 2 years, booking on the website is possible.
It is certainly not a scam but another IT glitch for which Accor is infamous for.

Accor CS is hopeless but I would insist, that the hotel must help (even if it is a Accor IT problem) and not accept any excuse, that it is not their problem... they know better, where to get this resolved than we as customers...

Raffles Dubai (Downtown) confirmed to me that they officially stopped accepting SNUs.

Raffles Dubai Palm Jumeirah (different owner) still accepts them for now (Duplex Suite is the only category).

Regarding additional SNUs.

Clearly stated, as mentioned above, in the T&C, that you get the third SNU after 18 000 status points, but deceiving then on the website where ACCOR decribe how it works:

"How does it work?

How do you get a Suite Night Upgrade?
You earn two Suite Night Upgrades when you reach 14,000 Status points or 60 nights. You then get one extra Suite Night Upgrade each time you accumulate 4,000 additional Status points (up to 12 per year)."


"Then", that is after 60 nights as well, then you get another after 4000; but that is not how it is stated in the T&C.

The third suite night upgrade is only credited at 18000 status points as explained by Stargold a few messages above

Regardless of how they worded it, think of it this way.

Get 2 SNUs upon 14,000 points OR 60 nights.
Get the 3rd SNU at 18,000 points, and nights don't matter.
Get the 4th SNU at 22,000 points, and nights don't matter.
...
Get the 12th SNU at 54,000 points, and nights don't matter.
Get no more SNUs beyond this point.

Yes, the T&C will prevail, but that is not how ACCOR try to sell it on the website. I just wanted to point out the discrepancy.

Interesting update.

More and more higher tier Accor hotels refuse SNU (Raffles Singapore never accepted them in the first place) so at the end we can only use those SNU at Mercures? :D

I have never used my SNU certificates before but this year I have a chance to use one of them for a 1 night stay in a Movenpick which is on the applicable hotel list. What I am not sure is if I can book the cheapest room category available or if the SNU can only be used when booked in the highest room category, which I assume would be one category lower than the cheapest suite.

The available suites vary with the specific property. Some hotels offer awesome SNU value. Most are mediocre value. Some are worthless. Just log into your ALL account, and do a rate search like you would any other room search. Click on the "Benefits" button, and activate the SNUs, and it will show you what suites are available for use with the SNU and the applicable price.

You cannot use a SNU from the cheapest room available in the majority of cases. It's usually one category below the suite, sometimes 2 levels below. And don't forget some hotels are champions of having different sub-categories with different ranking, like :
- deluxe room parking view low floor
- deluxe room parking view highfloor
- deluxe room city view low floor
- deluxe room city view high floor

As said by CanadaDH, just make a simulation booking on the hotel(s) you're aiming for.

Suite night upgrades
 

The website quotes One extra free upgrade every 4000 points after reaching platinum but they say say only after reaching diamond(18,000)
now they don’t even answer my e mails disputing this

What exactly is your question?

You receive 2 SNUs when you reach Platinum. Who is saying otherwise?

You receive a 3rd SNU when you reach 18,000 points, then a 4th at 22,000. You reach Diamond at 26,000, and that's also when you receive your 5th SNU of the year.

That continues, with 1 additional SNU every 4,000 status points earned, until you receive your 12th SNU at 54,000 points.

The website says
earn 2 upgrade when you reach platinum and a further one for every 4000 points.
it doesn’t mention diamond or needing 18000 points

i would put a photo of the page here but I don’t know how to do that or even if it’s possible