How does Accor treat you as an Elite guest?

[r01x]

Property: Novotel Barcelona

Room booked: Standard

Room upgraded/type: Upgraded to suite

Rate: Pretty good, cheaper than ibis down the road

Free internet: Yes

Welcome drink: Big bottle of water each day + free soft drinks and I think Pringles in the minibar

Early check in/late out: 9am check in offered. Didn't need late check out

VIP treatment: Didn't really need/ask for lol

Access to executive lounge (if existing): N/A

Additional care:

General comments: Pretty good. Recommend

Edit: Platinum

 

[jase05]

Property: Sofitel Adelaide
Status: All Accor Explorer Diamond
Room booked: Superior King
Room upgraded/type: Yes, Prestige Suite
Rate: 4 nights ALL Accor Explorer rate $325pn
Early check in/late out: Neither required but 3pm checkout offered
Free internet: Yes,
Free breakfast: Yes, Garçon Bleu but I had breakfast box
Welcome drink: Good selection of beer, wine, spirits and coughtails at any bar
Welcome amenity: Yes, bottle of wine, fruit platter plus jar of nibbles.
Recommend: Yes absolutely.

Won’t bore people with another review of this property as due to Mrs Jase’s work we have racked up over 40 nights here this year
I mentioned several months back that I felt the staff here were really struggling and we had a few complaints passed on to management and received follow up dialogue with management actively reaching out to us. I must say they seem to have taken it onboard as the last 5-6 stays have been on dot and clear that they have made a concerted effort to get the right staff in. Room upgraded to a Prestige Suite which is pretty much the norm for us here. Club Millesime was quiet and staff were friendly and efficient and ensured drinks refilled promptly. Had dinner at Garçon Bleu twice on my own and food was good as was the service and Accor Explorer discount proactively applied.
Breakfast during the week is only in Garçon Bleu and starts at 0630 but I had to leave at 0600 daily but staff had a breakfast box of fruit and pastries waiting for me plus a takeaway coffee. Wife enjoyed her breakfast in the restaurant though.
Not much more to say other than yeah we will be back absolutely but barring any last minute bookings I don’t think it will be until the New Year.
As a side note I’m a little depressed now as it’s the first time in 6 years I haven’t got an upcoming booking on. my account!
Probably no more Accor stays this year we have comfortably retained Diamond so all good

 

[sudoer]

Property: Sofitel Wellington
Status: All Accor Explorer Plat
Room booked: Superior Room
Room upgraded/type: Luxury Room
Rate: 2 nights Accor Preferred $364pn
Early check in/late out: 2pm checkout requested/granted
Free internet: Yes, but unreliable
Free breakfast: Yes, but given the wrong menu on day 1
Welcome drink: Vouchers in app, redeemable at Jardin Grill or lobby bar
Welcome amenity: Cheese plate, bottled water
Recommend: Not unless you are visiting for business and need to be near the pointy end of town. For leisure I'd suggest the Movenpick or Novotel locations are better.

At check-in I was told about Accor Preferred benefits and that I'd been upgraded to a luxury room, but wasn't given any info about the lounge. When I queried it, the front desk looked taken aback and started tapping away to check whether I was entitled entry. They then apologised for "not noticing" I was Plat, and gave me an info sheet about the lounge. Makes me wonder whether I'd have received a suite or not, had they noticed earlier.



The luxury room is the top category before a suite. Suites at this property go for ridiculous money ($2.5k+) so there's quite a gap and I'd guess an upgrade is very unlikely.

Unfortunately these rooms are fairly basic for a Sofitel. The furnishings are nice, but the views are poor, bathrooms small with no bath, bedside charging options limited, and no Chromecast.



Welcome amenity was a cheese plate (that my daughter happily demolished.)



On the first night I tried to use the Bose bluetooth speaker but it was stuck in a boot loop. I called reception - who sounded as though they'd heard of this problem many times before - and asked tbey arrange maintenance to fix it the next day while we are out.

We get back the next day and the issue is still there. I try to call reception - the phone rings for (no exaggeration) three minutes before I give up. I try concierge, no different. Out of desperation I try room service, who pick up immediately. They are apologetic and note down the issue. A few minutes later maintainence is at my door, they come in and hold down a key combo on the Bose device for 60 seconds to trigger a factory reset. Device worked fine after that, they gave me an additional 2 drink vouchers as service recovery.

The whole time we were there, wifi sessions on our devices would reset every 30 minutes or so. No VPN, no randomised MAC, etc, not sure what else it could be.

As the Accor Preferred rate came with 100 USD / 175 NZD property credit, we had breakfast and dinner at Jardin Grill, as well as room service.

The breakfast buffet at Jardin was decent. Barista coffee good and free. Self pour mimosas for all diners.



The first day we were given a very limited a la carte menu as below - seems my Plat status was once again unnoticed.



The second day we were given a far more attractive menu.



Dinner at Jardin was excellent. No issues using A+ 30% discount with 100 USD credit (have had issues with this at other properties). I'd recommend an Accor Plus dinner here even if you're not staying.



Room service was high quality, quick, and not toooo outrageously priced.



The club lounge (notably NOT branded Millesime) was small and a bit awkwardly laid out. The food offering was a limited but tasty selection of canapes. Would be difficult to construct a light dinner. The craft beer options were excellent with around 8 different cans from local breweries Parrotdog and Garage Project.



At checkout I had 5 drink vouchers to redeem, and was able to use them on takeaway craft beer cans.