nrouxel

Make a booking for your spouse, partner or child and earn the Reward points for that booking, even if you aren’t staying yourself :
https://all.accor.com/loyalty-program/promotions-offers/added-value/owm012421-001-family-rewards-points.en.shtml?clickid=32fcf9b7e9c311ea83ce00980a 18050d

hotel_user

This is either very clever, or very stupid. It is designed to fill rooms in hotels. Nothing to stop the unscrupulous booking cheap nights in a low rate country to get the number of nights to keep of move status ( providing they can get someone to just check in / but not stay - I am sure there is an app for this - )

Part of the terms and conditions is that the stays can not overlap ( good old IT at Accor )

o/h suggested that it sounds desperate - ie everyone now can get gifted Silver, Gold or Platinum status ( maybe Diamond / Black ) If someone want me to stay on their behalf and at their cost - please let me know ..... Still in Spain but looking to leave

There are a lot of other programs doing status matches ( and can understand why Accor will not now go down that route again .... but watch this space )

Are you on the hook if your family member empties the mini bar and does a runner before paying the bill ?

On the other hand, it could be useful to give as a gift stay to someone you can not meet up with or as a treat.

IMH

The linked text matches that quoted by nrouxel: the offer is for reward points, not status points.

hotel_user

Given that many people change from Silver to Gold on nights, and not status points, this is still a good offer. The only way you can not benefit from the lack of Status points is Platinum to Diamond. However, IMHO it is not worth the effort of chasing Diamond in Accor when other chains ( such as Hilton ) offer better value benefits at the higher levels. The other reason may be that Accor does not want to make Diamond status easily achievable ( I sense in a few years a change of benefits distribution )

This promotion is to fill rooms. and it may just work. If your "family" member has no status - its a win for both you, and the hotel, provided the "family" member does not "Rock Star" out the room ....

There are a lot of empty hotels and vacant rooms in most chains at the moment - look at the promotions on Secret Escapes and Travelzoo for examples.

IMH

Why do you think they'll credit nights, hotel_user? I can't see any reason to expect anything other than reward points. Am I missing something?

hotel_user

I would think, that the IT system of Accor could not cope.

Senario : You use your account and book, for a "friend". You put your "friend's" name in a comment box for the hotel. How does the Accor IT system differentiate between a booking for YOU or a booking for your "friend", as 1) no one reads the comment box at the Accor head office. and 2) it is up to the hotel to sort the booking, and 3) How many hotels actually read the booking request prior to checkin ? and say oh that room type is unavailable but we have a lovely room overlooking the bins .....I normally separately e mail the hotel either prior to booking or after to inform them of my request ( ie fridge for insulin )

It would be better if there was ( for example ) a tick box so you could enter the name of the "friend" as a "guest" booking, so the Accor IT could differentiate.

Under the system, it is more than probable that you will get all the status points, room nights and loyalty points issued.

I don't have a problem with the promotion, I just think it's probably going to be down to Accor's dodgy ( at the best ) IT as to what you receive, and on the balance of probabilities I am guessing you will gain the rewards ( and probably the status nights and guessing the status points )

The only way of discovering this is for some one to report on a booking made via this

As an aside, and I have NOT done this, nor condone it, I do know of members who do book for others and get the nights as they put the "friend" on the booking,, and state that they will be arriving later .... much later ...



In these times, Accor needs to fill hotel rooms, and I see this as a way of generating extra bookings, there are no losers here. All I am doing is saying that there MAY be a way to game the status system due to probable doggy IT implementation.

MSPeconomist

IMO this is another reason for me to avoid Accor.

CanadaDH

I tend to agree with hotel_user . I suspect that Accor has not done anything to their IT systems, but rather have just announced the offer to work within the current system. The last line of the offer says "Just make sure the dates don’t overlap with your next trip!" The Accor system doesn't like overlapping bookings now, and doing so can prevent the awarding of stay credits. I suspect all they're doing is allowing you to book under your account, and are essentially just looking the other way that you're not physically present to check-in. Your friend will show up to check-in, they'll see his name in the notes as an allowed guest, and the hotel will probably just check them in as normal, as if it were you staying in the room. For them to suspend the awarding of status points under this scheme, they'd have to actually do some system development, and I can't imagine they put that much effort into this.

IMH

Thank you both.

I was missing something: the part of my brain that has learned from years of experience how Accor tends to approach, well, almost everything. It will be interesting to see how this develops. The speculation here is probably enough to prompt a blog post or two.

3544quebec

Which would also mean that your family might also get all your elite benefits for the stay - drink vouchers, upgrades , breakfast where due/available

escape4

For me this would be the key aspect. The announcement on the Accor page says nothing about elite benefits.

I know of friends or relatives that would not go on a staycation in a local hotel for no particular reason, but if they could get a room upgrade, or more importantly, free breakfast if I book on their behalf during a weekend and they get a free drink as well, that might seal the deal for some.

JTCz

Oh wow, they are now advertising what has always been possible as an "offer".

In my experience, most hotels in Europe couldn't care less about who stays. I once booked a female friend (I am male) a birthday present stay (her airline messed up her schedule right before her departure for a big birthday treat trip and she suddenly had to overnight in Switzerland), prepaid by me and booked in my name, and she had no problem checking in, enjoying her stay, breakfast and welcome gift, and I got the points, the night credited and even the quality surveys afterwards.

I now routinely book for my friends and family who don't care to set up separate Accor accounts for incidental stays and want to take advantage of members-only rates. 99/100 I get the points and nights.

I'd rather they gave us the ACTUAL friends & family rates, i.e. the ones Accor employees can have their friends & family use.

IMH

The T&C are available from the offer page, if you're logged in. I missed the link when I first looked. The English version includes:

"This offer is available only to current members with an address in Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom."

The list of countries in which stays are supposed to qualify looks similar.

The English version only talks about "ALL - Accor Live Limitless Reward points", but the German version (which is differently formatted, with numbered paragraphs) says qualifying stays will lead to both "Status- & Prämienpunkte" being credited, i.e. redeeemable points and status points.

Maelstrom

So with your blatant violation of the terms of membership aside, why should Accor offer non-employees the employee friend and family rate? How about they offer you the Accor staff rate while we are at it?

JTCz

Because that would truly entice me to increase the number of my bookings, duh. I would even actually book some stays at those rate fully knowing I would not be getting the nights or points, given how attractive they are. Accor is pushing for their "Northern Europe" region employees to have their friends and families use the rates as much as possible to increase paid occupancy, and it could really help if we could book those without harassing an eligible Accor employee to share their Bienvenue numbers or complete / sign off booking authorisation forms.

European hotels have been extending the "benefit" provided by the "Earn points on your family’s stays" promo to me - and, I know for a fact, to a large number of members - for years now out of their own volition, although they were fully entitled not to. It is just a marketing gimmick on Accor's part to suddenly advertise it. Nothing wrong with it, good on them to highlight this is in view of the fact that hotels need every paid night they can get, and they have to contribute to Accor's ALL pool for any stay booked via Accor's channels, and as Accor needs every penny now as well, it is better for the chain (and, ultimately, for us) they do so rather than share with third-party OTAs, intermediaries and such.