Accor gift cards declined

[New Chump]

Grateful for some advice here.

I am having a quick week away with the family, and have ended up staying at the Grand Mercure, Palm Cove Qld.

We booked late-ish in April. It was an Accor hotel, and I confirmed with the hotel at the time that Accor gift cards could be used to pay. They said yes, the gift cards could be used at checkout (this was via email exchange with the hotel, which I now can't find).

Happily collected the gift cards at Woolworths before we departed (via Cashrewards, paid on Amex Edge, and the gift cards would avoid the hotel's credit card surcharge).

Checked in this week, and was asked how I will be paying. When I said by Accor gift cards, they said the hotel just changed management on 1 July, is no longer affiliated with Accor, and no longer accepts Accor gift cards. No exceptions. This was news to me.

I now need to have the discussion about this with the hotel's manager. Otherwise I will be left with a large number of Accor gift cards I will not be be able to use, and will have to separately pay the hotel bill.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.

NC

 

[harvyk]

Your best bet is to find the email. If you have the email then you are covered.

Failing that, check out the hotel website, especially from about the time you made the booking. Using the "internet wayback machine" (google it) you'll be able to find out exactly what was on the website at the time. If a warning was not prominently displayed explaining they where leaving Accor, and especially if there is still Accor branding even without the support email they have lost credibility.

Also check out the booking confirmation, again any mention of it being an Accor property without prominently displaying that they were leaving Accor doesn't exactly give them a leg to stand on.

Basically if you had no idea that the hotel was no longer going to be affiliated with Accor during your stay (and especially if there was signed to point to the fact they where still part of Accor) then you have every right to pursue it. Explain to the manager that they will either be accepting your vouchers, or your very next action will be to call QLD fair trading (on the spot preferably) to lodge a complaint.

 

[OzEire]

Not to mention no Le Club points!

If u get stuck with the cards I stay with Accor often and could take them and sort out a good price (ex cash rewards etc)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Your best bet is to find the email. If you have the email then you are covered.

Failing that, check out the hotel website, especially from about the time you made the booking. Using the "internet wayback machine" (google it) you'll be able to find out exactly what was on the website at the time. If a warning was not prominently displayed explaining they where leaving Accor, and especially if there is still Accor branding even without the support email they have lost credibility.

Also check out the booking confirmation, again any mention of it being an Accor property without prominently displaying that they were leaving Accor doesn't exactly give them a leg to stand on.

Basically if you had no idea that the hotel was no longer going to be affiliated with Accor during your stay (and especially if there was signed to point to the fact they where still part of Accor) then you have every right to pursue it. Explain to the manager that they will either be accepting your vouchers, or your very next action will be to call QLD fair trading (on the spot preferably) to lodge a complaint.

The company changed hands, no longer Accor. Not sure how they can accept Accor vouchers... unless they have some agreement with Accor to take them and get reimbursed.

The OP may be able to cancel their booking and go elsewhere, but it would be interesting to see if the property can be 'forced' to accept 'currency' which they don't belong to.

 

[harvyk]

The company changed hands, no longer Accor. Not sure how they can accept Accor vouchers... unless they have some agreement with Accor to take them and get reimbursed.

The OP may be able to cancel their booking and go elsewhere, but it would be interesting to see if the property can be 'forced' to accept 'currency' which they don't belong to.

The booking was made under whilst the hotel was under the Accor brand. Since the hotel still honoured the booking an argument could be made that they are still liable to honour any other agreements (explicit or implied) which came along with that booking.

The hotel would have needed to have made it crystal clear that they were about to be sold to another company and therefore standard Accor benefits (eg payments via Accor gift cards) would not be accepted beyond that date. Now had the booking been made, and then the decision was made to sell the property, they could contact those customers with existing bookings and explain the situation, offer to cancel (free of any charge) the booking should the new conditions be inconvenient. Effectively Accor became the agent for this new business. With exception to things such as insolvency, just selling a business does not get you out of agreements made by the previous owners.

In this particular case, the manager would be better simply accepting the Accor gift cards and taking it up with Accor, effectively stating that as an agent whom sold the room, certain agreements where made and one of those was gift cards. They probably won't have much luck (as that's the sort of thing bean counters are suppose to pick up on when looking at books, what liabilities the business may have), but it certainly isn't the responsibility of the consumer.

Of course finally, there is the good will component of it on behalf of the hotel. In my experience Fair Trading tends to side with the consumer, especially when dealing in a grey area. The hotel may be forced to accept the vouchers whether they want to or not. Besides often the threat of fair trading will bring a company into line.

(We're lucky here, our consumer rights and protections are actually pretty strong in this country for most things)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Morally you might be right to argue that, but I'm not sure of the legal basis for the argument. Consumer Affairs will be able to advise on that. It may come down to the contents of the email and maybe something like whether the OP made it explicit that they were going to redeem accor vouchers, which they can't otherwise use, in order to pay for the hotel.

 

[astrosly]

Is this the hotel, still listed on the Grand Mercure's website with Accor branding all over it?
Palm Cove - Grand Mercure

Granted it doesn't come up as a valid booking alternative using the reservation engine.

 

[OzEire]

I just tried to use Accor gift cards as payment for an online a booking (pay now). Not possible.

Am I doing it wrong? Select dates, hotel, room type/price, book button, details (prepopulated from profile), confirm then arrive at payment screen. Can use points and/or CC ... no GC option.

 

[New Chump]

Is this the hotel, still listed on the Grand Mercure's website with Accor branding all over it?
Palm Cove - Grand Mercure

Granted it doesn't come up as a valid booking alternative using the reservation engine.

That's the one.

The hotel did say on booking that I could not use gift cards to pay the deposit (something about exchange rate issues) but could use them to pay the balance on checkout.

Update: email found, and the wording is crystal clear to me. The hotel is "taking it up with Accor". Hmm, we are checking out in two days, so I can see the buck being passed...

 

[anchew]

I just tried to use Accor gift cards as payment for an online a booking (pay now). Not possible.

Am I doing it wrong? Select dates, hotel, room type/price, book button, details (prepopulated from profile), confirm then arrive at payment screen. Can use points and/or CC ... no GC option.

You can't use the gift card for pre-paid bookings. You can only use them for bookings where you pay at the hotel on check-out

 

[harvyk]

<snip>

Update: email found, and the wording is crystal clear to me. The hotel is "taking it up with Accor". Hmm, we are checking out in two days, so I can see the buck being passed...

Remind them that under Australian Consumer Law it's their problem, not yours. Agreements in writing are as binding as any contract, and it is illegal for them to pass the buck and force you to contact Accor directly.

 

[oz_mark]

Remind them that under Australian Consumer Law it's their problem, not yours. Agreements in writing are as binding as any contract, and it is illegal for them to pass the buck and force you to contact Accor directly.

Reflagging of hotels is awkward on a lot of levels - as the hotel may now be operated by a separate legal entity.

 

[New Chump]

Final update: Accor honored the gift cards.

Without the email from the hotel clearly confirming I could use the gift cards to pay at checkout, there is no doubt in my mind that it would have been a battle to get them to come to the party.

Thanks for the responses, this is a great forum.

NC

 

[JohnK]

This is the risk you take when you try to double dip.

I bought 3 Accor gift cards earlier in the year and had problems booking with Mercure Charlestown. Eventually came to some agreement but I still have one gift card which I need to use before expiry.

I said never again. I don't want to save $10 on each Accor gift card to then go and spend $15+/night to book flexible rate.

 

[thatsthatmattressman]

I can't help but think you are stuffed here. Best bet will be to rely on the generosity of the AFF members to take the cards off your hands at a reasonable rate. The only other recourse would be to deal directly with Accor but I wouldn't wish that upon anyone and may lead to brain damage.