How does Accor treat you as an Elite guest?

Property: Pullman Melbourne Albert Park
Room booked: Standard
Room upgraded/type: Exec corner, hi floor
Rate: Flexible
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Yes x1 - bottled h20
Late check-out:
VIP treatment: Nothing special
Access to executive lounge (if existing): Yes*
Additional care: Welcome amenity and pre-printed template "letter" naming manager.
General comments: I've stayed at his Pullman often/long enough to observe its decline. *The executive lounge is now defunct- although I was given access almost everything has been removed. Exec drinks/canapé hour is held in the atrium bar area. Its a farce, two bar staff couldn't keep up with about 15 patrons who were a mix of exec and regulars and we had to explain every time not to charge drinks, they had no clear idea of what was in/excluded from exec freebies. Wait time often >15 mins for a drink.

The main issue is the (management instilled) culture of staff here. Everything is at first "no" until you can politely explain the hotel/Le Club policy to them. Communication is very poor - reception says breakfast avail in restaurant in lieu of exec lounge, restaurant charges the room. Check-in says late check out to 5pm, confirm with morning staff who say no its 11am, no exceptions (changes after showing welcome Plat letter showing 5pm).

Lift broken again, took >10 mins to call a lift to 9th floor, kept opening doors on the "blocked/unservicable" car instead of summoning a new one. Reported to reception "we will get right on that" but no change 3hrs later when I returned. Hopeless.

Ps. Fire alarm at 1am, lots of announcements, some pointless/gratuitous.
 
Property: Sofitel Darling Harbour
Status: Accor Plus Silver
Room booked: Luxury Room, 1 King Bed, Darling Harbour View, Club Access
Room upgraded/type: N/A
Rate: Members Sale rate $365
Free internet: Yes 50 Mbps
Welcome drink: Coupons for two drinks: selection of beers and wines.
Early check in/late out: An extra hour for checkout.
VIP treatment: N/A
Access to executive lounge (if existing): N/A
Additional comments: Great brand new hotel. A fantastic club lounge with great food, drinks and service. Would recommend people checking this hotel out if need an Accor hotel in Sydney and the price is right.
 
Sorry a bit OT - but is anyone else getting errors while trying to search or login to the accorhotels site using existing credentials? I keep getting an error saying my identification is not valid. If I remove my number it allows me to search.

I vaguely recall my number changing in the past - is this a regular thing?

Thanks.
 
Sorry a bit OT - but is anyone else getting errors while trying to search or login to the accorhotels site using existing credentials? I keep getting an error saying my identification is not valid. If I remove my number it allows me to search.

I vaguely recall my number changing in the past - is this a regular thing?

Thanks.
Fixed itself eventually. Seems as though several others on FT had same issue.

Sent a query to customer care 2 days ago - no response.
 
Property: Novotel Kowloon
Status: Platinum
Room booked: Base Room
Room upgraded/type: Exec king
Rate: Members Sale rate, about $175 inc tax
Welcome drink: None given but I could have asked but didn’t bother as exec lounge was adequate.
Access to executive lounge (if existing): yes
Additional comments: The Hotel was very generous with extended check-out (offered to 5pm). I also decided to test the bus option to the airport as I was travelling during non peak hour. A22 bus is a short walk away (make sure you use the lane to the left of the hotel and not Nathan road as that’s way further). Only HKD39 and gets you to the airport within 45mins which would be about the same time as the Taxi /Airport Express option.
 
Property: Mercure Townsville
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked: Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed
Room upgraded/type: Deluxe Room, 1 King Bed, Lake View
Rate: Members Flexible Rate
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Coupons for two drinks.
Early check in/late out: Not required.
VIP treatment: Welcome card in room with stubbie of Townsville Bitter, small bottle of red and other snacks. All appreciated.
Access to executive lounge (if existing): N/A
 
Property: Novotel Auckland Airport
Status: Accor Platinum
Room Booked: Exec room
Room upgrade: Yes. Executive Suite, top floor, runway view
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drinks: Yes, but only 1 this time.
Early check in / late out: 2pm check-out requested and granted.
VIP treatment: 2 waters in room, small snack and hand-written welcome-back note.
Additional care/notes: Ordered late room-service pizza which was quick and generous and well-priced. Skipped breakfast to sleep in given arrival was about 2am!

Should also note a lovely ‘greeting’ on checkout from Caitlin. Even though I’ve only seen her a couple of times she greeted me warmly and we had a lovely chat. A real gem. The bar / room service staff on the graveyard shift also remembered me and were great. This and the regular upgrades will probably see me stay here again whenever I arrive late.
 
Property: Pullman Auckland
Status: Platinum
Room Booked: 1 bedroom residence suite, 3 nights
Room upgrade: No although did get corner room.
Rate: Can’t recall.
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drinks: Yes, three.
Early check in / late out: A late checkout at 1pm granted but a bit grudgingly.
Exec Lounge: Yes.
VIP treatment: Welcome note, small serving board of chocolate, plenty of waters. Turndown service.

While I got a corner room, it was just on the 6th floor so not much of a view to enjoy. Hotel crowded with tennis on. breakfasts crowded but better co-ordinated than previously and the staff were great. Lounge food good. Especially as one night there was a big crowd and the hot food came out. below usual standard.

Unfortunately had a poor experience for the first time in the spa, which has put me off and agreed to cancel next appointment.

Worst news though is Liz has left. Yet to appoint a replacement.
 
Another stay at Pullman Auckland. Basically all the usual excellent features which I won't repeat. Two key things of note:

1 - Arrived at 7:30am and not only was my room ready, it was the high floor corner residence suite I prefer.
2 - Through my own stuff-up, I had booked two rooms. Only one showed on my app and dashboard so I must have assumed no booking and booked later. But clearly I had booked twice. Without hesitation or even having to ask, front desk agent and then assistant manager advised 2nd booking would be cancelled, no problem. When realised it was pre-paid was told a refund would be processed in a few days - which it was.

Superb treatment and greatly appreciated.
 
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Late update from my trip in October 2017

Status: Platinum
Property: Novotel Nha Trang
Room booked: Superior (most basic)
Room upgraded/type: Yes, to a Junior Suite
Rate: Fully flexible
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Yes, the usual refreshing non alcoholic beverage x 2
Early check in/late out: Not applicable. As usual the check in experience at this property was smooth and without issue.
VIP treatment: Acknowledgement of all previous stays at this property since 2013.
Access to executive lounge (if existing): Not applicable.

Additional care: The staff at this property go out of their way to acknowledge their guests. In my experiences as a platinum member and having stayed at this property for approximately three weeks, I have nothing but praise for the front office staff. Over the years I have gotten to know a number of staff and watched their careers progress. This is extremely satisfying as a guest to know that the hotel values their staff. Given I travel regularly I make the effort to provide constructive feed back to the property owner.

In this instance Mr Remy please note a special thanks goes to the following staff members for their amazing service:

Manager: Trang
Front Office Supervisor: Ms Diep Nguyen
Barman: Hau and a fantastic staff member who will goes above and beyond, Thi.

General comments: As mentioned above I have been returning to this property since 2013. I believe I have stayed a reasonable amount of nights to give an honest opinion of this property over the years and to date I remain impressed. The lobby appears to have been refreshed which is lovely.

The room: The room is very large and easily caters for three guests. The bathroom is still modern and you can choose between between a sunken bathtub or the shower. Both offer the rainfall shower experience. The balcony is also a reasonable size and is an excellent entertaining area both in the morning and at sunset.

House keeping: House keeping was intuitive. The room was always spotless on our return from wandering around beautiful Nha Trang. I felt embarrassed for the house keepers because I travelled with a messy person. However the house keepers were extremely professional at all times.

The food and bar service: While I always ordered room service I did take a cheeky wander through the breakfast buffet. Nothing has changed. The Novotel still offers a fantastic selection of east and western selections that will keep you satisfied. Ice buckets and room service were always delivered well before the promised times.

I wandered down to the bar to use the complimentary drink vouchers and was impressed with the available options. Generally you receive a house wine or local beer. At this property I was able to select a range of coughtails and tap beers, thank you! Having used my vouchers Hai I mentioned to Hai that I liked cognac. He posted me to the hotel special. Thank you Hai! On another occasion I didn’t know what I wanted to drink. He asked me what I usually liked and he made me a delightful coughtail on the spot!!!!

The service didn’t stop there… While walking around something got in my eye. The front desk instantly organised a taxi for me to go to the closest international hospital, once again next level service! The staff checked on me the following day too!

All the while I kept extending my stay and did not give a clear indication of when I would leave the hotel. The front desk were ALWAYS accomodating. A friend unexpectedly visited from out of town and Ms Diep immediately organised an extra bed. I gave no prior notice which may have been an inconvenience to staff given the number of people at the property at the time.

On my last day sat the property I decided to celebrate more than usual. With foresight Ms Diep arranged a 2 am wake up telephone call and a taxi to the airport, which was most appreciated. I paid my bill on checkout and jumped into the taxi. Ms Diep had also pre-arranged the price to the airport which was another seamless experience I was thankful for.

Once I arrived in Singapore I realised I left my expensive Bose noise cancelling headphone in my room. I contacted Ms Diep and she already knew about the issue and made arrangements in that regard. When I stay at this property I feel like I am visiting old fiends and family.

General comments:

If you want to get to the hotel cheaply from the airport get the ‘yellow’ bus for 50,000VND. It’s two minutes walk from the bus stop to Novotel. Follow google maps.

The Accor brand usually reserves the word ‘magnifique’ for their Sofitel brand. In my experience the Novotel at Nha Trang staff are just as attentive, if not more so.

The beach is to die for and so are the views from the room 1705. Thank you once again to the Mr Trang and Ms Diep and all the Novotel staff.

Room Tip: Room 1705 is one of the best positioned rooms on the 17th floor
 
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Property: Sofitel Gold Coast Broadbeach
Status: Platinum
Room Booked: Prestige Suite + Classic Room
When: 3-5 Mar 2018
Room upgrade: Classic King upgraded to Luxury Ocean to adjoin suite.
Welcome drinks: Yes, two
Early check in / late out: Late out at 1PM
Exec Lounge: N/A
VIP treatment: Breakfast in restaurant, free parking (after sweet talking at booking!), nice bottle of red, some extra fancy waters, fruit bowl (I think)

Cheers,
Matt.
 
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Property: Novotel South Wharf
Status: Platinum
Room Booked: std queen
Room upgrade: Upgraded to one bedroom suite 23rd floor
Welcome drinks: not at check in, received phone call 15 minutes after check in offering the vouchers with an apology.
Early check in / late out: NA
Exec Lounge: N/A
VIP treatment: no acknowledgement of status at check in, no mention of upgrade. to be fair it was only the third day in operation and i was late in and early out so I didn't get a chance to really have a look around. card and block of choc in room gift.
decor of room felt basic and fittings and fixtures seemed on the cheaper side, to be honest prefer the pan pacific over the way.

is anyone getting the free breakfast communicated to them on check in as a new plat benefit?
 
Property: Novotel South Wharf
Status: Platinum
Room Booked: std queen
Room upgrade: Upgraded to one bedroom suite 23rd floor
Welcome drinks: not at check in, received phone call 15 minutes after check in offering the vouchers with an apology.
Early check in / late out: NA
Exec Lounge: N/A
VIP treatment: no acknowledgement of status at check in, no mention of upgrade. to be fair it was only the third day in operation and i was late in and early out so I didn't get a chance to really have a look around. card and block of choc in room gift.
decor of room felt basic and fittings and fixtures seemed on the cheaper side, to be honest prefer the pan pacific over the way.

is anyone getting the free breakfast communicated to them on check in as a new plat benefit?

Yes, stayed at Mercure Townsville this week, and was informed of the new Plat Benefit. Then at breakfast, was told again breaky was free.
 

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