Jasper2009

I'm still hoping there is some sort of misunderstanding.

Presumably dozens of management folks must've been working on this for several months.

"Our loyalty program isn't very competitive. Especially among guests staying at our high-end / luxury brand, the program fails to generate much loyalty. And all the former FPC members are unhappy. What can we do?"
"Well, FPC used to have suite upgrade certs allowing members to confirm up to 15 nights in a suite each year. Hyatt offers four suite upgrade certs valid for seven nights each. Most other hotel chains offer an upgrade to a standard suite if available at time of check-in."
"I have an idea: In addition to the "upgrade from a room overlooking the dumpster to a room overlooking the parking lot, subject to availability and whether the hotel wishes to provide this benefit", let's allow Platinum members to confirm an upgrade to a suite one night per year."
"Genius! Idea of the century!"

It does seem rather surreal.

fransknorge

Dav77

geekman

Same for me, haven't been able to log in last night or this morning. I'm done with them

markis10

rfrost

starflyergold

I am coming back to what I said at the very first announcement: It is far too early to announce these changes. And it certainly does not make sense to announce things piecemeal. I understand new perks are still being discussed internally so announcing a "suite night" looks to me as unfinished business. Surely somebody somewhere will have noticed that this is not going to cut it. Lost in translation? Maybe. Even as an Accor aficionado I can tell them that this is a very poor idea. And what's more, and I said that too, I want to know whether customer service and IT will be upgraded. I happily trade a suite night for a working website and immediate and trained customer service (a 2 day response rate on twitter is unacceptable).

Dav77

starflyergold

Raffles Paris - email sent 19 November 2018 - still waiting for a response.....

CanadaDH

You would trade a suite upgrade for a working website? We shouldn't have trade anything for a working website. A working website and competent customer service should not be a status benefit. It should be a given for any hotel organization, and available to all customers. Maybe my standards and expectations are unreasonably high, but these two issues shouldn't be connected.

And if they are still discussing the changes internally, and haven't decided on what the program benefits are going to be, then why on earth did they announce anything at all? Accor keeps proving over and over again, that they just don't know what they are doing. We are very clearly dealing with a bunch of amateurs at Accor HQ, and it seems to be across all departments... Customer Care, IT, Loyalty, Operations, Marketing and Communications. If I ran my division at work the way most Accor divisions seem to operate, I suspect my boss, the CEO, would rightfully turf me to the curb.

starflyergold

Maybe a European sense of humour did not quite translate here.... I could get very worked up about all these things but more than two decades in the loyalty game with airlines and hotels have shown me that it is not worth it.

hotel_user

Can I claim a record ... dubious ... Quick overnight stay in an Ibis near Limoges on the motorway - total disaster - no meaningful response since October - if it was not for the possible dire consequences to myself caused by the Ibis to me - I would have dropped it by now - but have had several deadlines issued by Accor that they have failed to honor .... the last one was December 21st

Fyd

Got you beat - waiting for Marriott to correct a double-point deduction since June 2018....
In the Freaky Awards for the worst IT project, Accor and Marriott are in a head-to-head competition...

Fyd

I"m happy with the Platinum benefits in general, especially the lounge access, but I don't share your experience - I just went back through my records and it's more like 1 in 10 stays is a suite upgrade...
The other 9 out of 10 are "minimum" upgrades - most often, club room - same room, different label or higher floor, espresso machine, bathrobe/slippers, ...
That's still an improvement over a few years ago when platinum got me no recognition on many stays...
And, in fairness, I usually book the cheapest room category...

tris06

Yes quite often hotels will try to pass off an upgrade from say a luxury room to a luxury club room. Now there are some hotels where the room is slightly different in (example Sofitel in Bali) which I couldn't really argue with because maybe direct pool access is more pricey than having a small pond out the front to dip into. However if the rooms are... same size or even slightly smaller (it does happen) andpretty much the same layout (coffee machine is not an upgrade) I will tell the hotel it is not an upgrade. Also higher level does not cut it. You just should not accept it. It only takes 2 mins of your time and if we as a group consistently push for it they will understand the practice is not acceptable.

So in my stays, always the room/suite I get is definitely a higher category and I will always get the junior suite or even the prestige/deluxe suite unless the hotel is really fully booked.

People need to change their mind set it is not begging for a proper upgrade it is a demand and you have every right to demand it.
I had this issue you mentioned. It has happened about 6-7 times over the last couple of years and every time it was resolved within a few mins.