3544quebec

Accor Asia Pacific market prepaid gift cards which can be purchased direct from Accor or from several outside (Australia Post, Woolworths, Aldi, Big W)

Reading through the Ts+Cs they just seem unnecessarily restrictive.

Basically you are paying dollar for dollar for a gift card but the card is not at all treated like you are handing over $s at the hotel.

1) Reservations can only be made by phone not online :All Card reservations for a Service Provider’s hotel must be made via the Manager's central reservation department's, or individual hotel reservations' department ('Reservations') via published telephone numbers and when making a reservation the Holder must advise Reservations they will be using a Card as payment method, and must quote the relevant Card number, and must also quote a credit card number
2) A Card entitles the bearer to use the Card Value as a payment method for overnight accommodation at the hotel's 'Best Unrestricted Rate' at the time of booking, or any accessible publicly available rates at time of stay....... at the specified redemption rate advised by Reservations at each of the Service Providers- it would seem that it can't be used for a prepaid rate only a rate that is available and can be paid at time of stay
3) It can not be used for AccorPlus rate stays even flexible rates
4) The Accor brands where it can be used don't include any of the Mantra brands or Movenpick taken over in the last few years: "any participating Sofitel, SO/, MGallery, Swissotel, Quay West, The Sebel, Pullman, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis or Ibis Styles in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji"

Clearly they are marketed as gift cards and that is all that they would be useful for - no one in their right mind would buy these as any sort of a value proposition given the restrictions.

The reason I researched this is that they are available from tomorrow at Woolworths for 10% off the face value but I am glad I did some digging through the Ts+Cs before outlaying any money for one (or a thousand) of these

Jasper2009

Those restrictions are just insane!

Gift cards should be treated like cash in terms of settling the folio at the hotel.

The equivalent Fairmont GCs can be used for any charges on your folio (room rate, F&B etc.) and with some effort can even be used with prepaid rates. No restrictions whatsoever in terms of booking channel, rate etc. (other than not working with 3rd party rates like Expedia, which obviously makes sense)

CanadaDH

But there is one thing about the Accor gift cards that are more flexible than the Fairmont cards. It sounds like you can pay for your stay at time of reservation using the card. With the Fairmont cards, if your stay requires a deposit, I think it can only be done by credit card. That said, all of the hotels are happy to refund your initial deposit back to your credit card upon check-out, so you can settle the bill by gift card. That typically works for me just fine. However, if I was making a payment in a different currency than my credit card, I would lose a bit on the exchange rate spread between the charge and refund of the deposit. But other than not being able to use a GC on the Fairmont website at booking, they can be used at the hotel to settle anything you charge to the room; even if I do a room charge of purchases at an independent store operating in the hotel. If it can be charged to the room, you can pay for it with a Fairmont gift card.

3544quebec

That one redeeming feature is actually not quite the case - you pay for the stay at the hotel. You cannot use a prepaid rate it would seem. At time of reservation you give them the card details and a credit card number and then you present the card when you arrive at the hotel. It can be used to pay for hotel associated incidentals but I am unsure whether the stay has to be a card-qualifying stay to be able to pay at check-out eg for meals charged to the room. For example if staying on an AccorPlus rate where the accommodation cannot be paid with the card, I don't know if you can pay your charged meals to the card.

SaintKev

Give them a wide berth.
Only used once years ago, never again.

Kaz101

I recently tried to purchase a gift card for a family member through the Accor group. When I attempted to submit payment it told me the payment was unsuccessful, I tried numerous times with different cards, without success. Upon contacting the group by e-mail I was asked how much I needed to be refunded. I thought that was a strange response so I checked my bank accounts, they had taken a lot of money from my bank accounts. I immediately called my bank however was unable to stop the payments. I contacted the group again, by e-mail as their phone number was not working, and they said they would send the matter to the accounts section. On thinking this is some type of scam I immediately put in a dispute with my bank and contacted Fair Trading. It wasn't until I threatened to contact the police to report them for fraud that I was able to speak to a manager. I managed to purchase a gift card easily through another hotel group and cancelled all bookings through the Accor group. I am now concerned about how many people may have been stung by this scam and are unable to advocate for themselves.