Hotel loyalty in France and Iceland. Worth it?

[wizphiz]

Hi all,

Very new to the Hotel Loyalty labyrinth, as I don't stay in hotels frequently. But I'd like to make good use of when I do by choosing well in terms of value with the various programmes. Above basic status wise, I'm currently Silver with Accor and Marriott and that's about it this year(!)
About to go to France and Iceland where Accor has many choices of hotels all over France. SPG and Hilton Honors are way more limited in hotels and very pricey.

So, do I go with Accor in France, simply because there are a lot of choices, or not even bother with a hotel loyalty and go with whatever looks like a good hotel?
And in Iceland, it looks like Club Carlson is the only option for where I'm training. Is that worth spending extra for a few nights' stay, especially if any advantages are probably not available at that base level?

Would appreciate any advice for this and generally on the value of the various programmes, and if it's worth the time and effort of aiming towards certain programmes/statuses. Thanks!!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

If you're pushing Silver with Accor and Marriot you're at the lower end of the scale and likely not receiving many benefits.

In all honesty - I would look at two options:-

1) Hotel tonight or similar app if you are comfortable booking last minute (with discounts of 50%+ off the room but you can't book it til the day of arrival)
2) Hotels.com gives you every 10th night free or essentially 10% off and you can stay anywhere you want without being locked into a chain.

In all honesty if you can't hit top tier in a hotel program it can often make sense to abandon it entirely.
In France you also have hundreds of beautiful independent and boutique hotels that are not part of Accor

 

[Moindardt]

I only went with SPG in Paris because I will be platinum and could use SPG50 and BRG as well as get benefits. Other than that, if you don't have at least gold and looking at midscale, just use a website. If you are looking at high end, either use a vituosso TA or just website. You seem to have too many baskets for your eggs. If you can't do the nights, look at a card which gives you the benefits, like the hilton honours from Macquarie or the Amex plat for spg gold and Accor plat.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm gold with Accor but don't go out of my way - literally - to stay with them. If there is a choice in the area I want to stay in, I will book it and generally maintain my gold status. But I won't stay on one side of town when I want to be on the other just because its Accor. Gold benefits are OK - just but the program isn't worth inconvenience.

The reason I like Accor is that the standards of their various brands are pretty consistent and Novotel and Mercure in particular are usually at my amenity/price point.

That said, in France I think it would be hard to go wrong with Accor wrt locations and amenity.