Accor Plus membership: what are the benefits and should you get one?

With up to two complimentary nights, 50% off dining and other lifestyle benefits, Accor Plus membership can bring some serious value.

[The following is a sponsored post by Accor Plus. All opinions are those of The Milelion]


Accor Plus is a loyalty program run by AccorHotels, which owns more than 30 hotel brands including familiar names like Fairmont, Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Grand Mercure and MGallery.

Sign up for Accor Plus here

Accor Plus members receive complimentary and discounted hotel nights, up to 50% off when dining at hotel restaurants plus other lifestyle benefits. Membership normally costs either $378 or $478 per year– the $378 version comes with one complimentary hotel night, and the S$478 version comes with two.

Having reviewed the features and benefits of the program, I’m of the opinion that paying S$478 for the two-night version represents potentially excellent value for money. Burn your certificates at top-tier hotels in expensive cities, utilize the 50% discount at a couple of high-end restaurants in Singapore and the region, take advantage of additional savings on regular AccorHotels rooms, and you’ll easily earn back the value of your membership plus more.

Here’s how to use your Accor Plus benefits right:

Stay Plus: One or two free nights at selected AccorHotels properties

Accor Plus members are entitled to one or two complimentary nights in a standard room at participating hotels across Asia Pacific.

Sofitel-So Singapore

There’s nothing stopping you from blowing these certificates at an ibis, but presumably you’d want to maximize the value by using them at more aspirational properties. The problem is, every one of Accor Plus’s 385,000 members is thinking the same way, so you’ll need some flexibility to snag the nights you want.

My first attempt at booking a Stay Plus reservation on a random weekend in December was met with the following selections:

The cheaper ibis hotels had Stay Plus availability, but the more expensive Novotels and Sofitels did not. Fortunately, Accor Plus doesn’t make you guess at random dates and hope for the best. The website has a “rate calendar” feature that makes searching substantially easier. Simply click on the button in red below and a whole week of space can be viewed.

You want to look for dates that are colored in gold, because that’s when Stay Plus nights have availability. Note that not all Stay Plus dates are equal- be on the lookout for Comp. in the calendar because there may be dates in gold that still require a cash upcharge. Those are dates where base-level rooms aren’t available, so your Stay Plus certificate is used to offset the cost of a higher category room.

Sample Stay Plus dates at SO Sofitel Singapore

A maximum of one Stay Plus certificate can be used per booking,  and Stay Plus follows the same cancellation policy as the hotel’s best available rate. In the case of SO Sofitel, I could cancel without penalty up to 2 days before arrival. When you cancel a Stay Plus room, the certificate should be returned to your account immediately, although in some you may have to log out of your account, clear your cookies and log back in to see the certificate reappear.

Sofitel Darling Harbour Sydney

Where should you use your Stay Plus benefit? Here are some of the most popular properties among Accor Plus members. To give you a sense of price and value, I’ve added the flexible rate (remember- Accor Plus stays are cancellable) for the particular night an Accor Plus stay is available.

PropertyLocationIndicative price per night
Sofitel Bangkok SukhumvitBangkokS$280
Pullman Bangkok Grand Sukhumvit AsokeBangkokS$210
Novotel Hong Kong Nathan Road KowloonHong KongS$270
Novotel Hong Kong CenturyHong KongS$243
The Park Lane Hong KongHong KongS$346
Sofitel Sydney Darling HarbourSydneyS$396
Sofitel Gold Coast BroadbeachGold CoastS$400

Hopefully what the table above shows is that the Stay Plus benefit, carefully utilized, can more than pay for the cost of your membership (especially if you take the two-stay version).

Park Lane Hong Kong- a Pullman Hotel

Red Hot Room sales

In addition to the Stay Plus benefit, members also get access to Red Hot Rooms, a weekly sale exclusive to Accor Plus members. Every week, a new set of hotels across Asia Pacific is uploaded with up to 50% off regular rates.

Here’s some comparisons of Red Hot Room Rates versus the cheapest regular non-cancellable rate the hotel offers to the public (before applicable taxes):

PropertyRed Hot Room RateRegular RateSavings
SO Sofitel SingaporeS$198S$245~20%
Novotel Samui ResortS$108S$172~37%
Pullman Melbourne on the ParkS$172S$334~50%
Pullman Yangon CentrepointS$131S$154~15%
Legacy Yen Tu- MGallery By SofitelS$88S$211~60%

AccorHotels has more than 800 properties across Asia Pacific, so someone who travels frequently around the region should be able to obtain significant savings over the course of a membership year.

Year round 10% off best available rates

Even when Red Hot Room Rates aren’t available, Accor Plus members can still get year-round access to member’s rates which are 10% off the best available rate. For example, the Accor Plus member’s flexible rate at the Fairmont Singapore prices at S$378 versus S$420 for non-members…

Fairmont Singapore

The Swissotel Stamford prices at S$256 versus S$285…

Swissotel Stamford Singapore

And the Sofitel Sentosa Resort prices at S$414 versus S$460 for non-members. All these rates have exactly the same cancellation policy as the regular flexible rate.

Sofitel Sentosa Singapore

Private Sale

AccorHotels also holds what they call “private sales”- periodic hotel flash deals open to the public where rooms go up to 30% off. Accor Plus members get a further 10% savings on these rates, allowing them to save as much as 40%.

One final tip for hotel stays: because you enjoy up to 50% off on dining (see below), you can stretch your dollar by not booking breakfast included rates. Simply flash your Accor Plus membership to get discounted breakfast when you stay.

Complimentary Le Club AccorHotels Silver status and a longer requalification period

As an AccorPlus member your status with Le Club AccorHotels is automatically upgraded to Silver. This tier normally requires 10 nights or 800 Euros of spending.

Silver members don’t get room upgrades or free breakfast, but do get at least a welcome drink and late check-out, subject to availability.

However, Accor Plus members do enjoy a longer period of status validity. Suppose an Accor Plus member buys his membership in June 2017 and later qualifies for Gold in October 2017. That Gold status by right should expire in December 2018.

However, by virtue of his Accor Plus membership, he will retain Gold until at least June 2019 provided he renews his Accor Plus membership in June 2018. in this case, he enjoys an additional 1.5 years of Gold benefits.

In other words, whatever status you earn with LeClub Accor is further “locked in” for one more year upon the renewal of your Accor Plus status.

Up to 50% off dining at participating AccorHotels restaurants

Prego Fairmont

For me, the other major benefit after Stay Plus would be the dining benefits of Accor Plus, because members receive discounts at participating AccorHotel restaurants of up to 50%. Here’s how the discount tiers:

  • 25% off dining – 1 member only
  • 50% off dining – 1 member and 1 guest
  • 33% off dining – 1 member and 2 guests
  • 25% off  dining- 1 member and 3 guests
  • 15% off on drinks in Asia

Participating Accor Plus restaurants in Singapore include Prego, Mikuni, Asian Market Cafe and Szechuan Court at the Fairmont, SKAI, Bar Rouge, Cafe Swiss and Kopi Tiam at Swissotel and The Cliff, The Garden, Kwee Zeen at the Sofitel Sentosa Resort.

Mikuni

What I like the most about this benefit is unlike other dining membership programs where you’re limited to discounts in your home country, Accor Plus dining discounts are valid in 18 different countries.

That’s to say, you could go to Australia, Cambodia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, China, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam and get similar discounts in participating hotel restaurants.

Image result for atelier by sofitel
Atelier by Sofitel, Sofitel Darling Harbor Sydney

Tables can be booked through the Table Plus interface on the Accor Plus website (although it’s not strictly necessary to make a reservation if you want to use the discounts). Do note that Table Plus currently only covers about half of Accor Plus’ 1,000+ restaurants, so there will be certain restaurants you can’t book online. In these cases, you can book a regular reservation through email or by calling up the restaurant.

If a restaurant is participating in the Accor Plus program, you’ll see a tag under the “featured offers” header, as seen below.

Different restaurants may have different blackout dates (e.g. some allow the use of Accor Plus on the eve of public holidays, others do not) so it’s best practice to give them a quick call and confirm before showing up. You can also check this page for exception dates. The dining discounts can be used as many times as you want each year.

Group dining and lifestyle certificates

The regular Accor Plus dining benefit offers a 50% discount for 2 diners, but if that discounts steps down the more people you have dining (e.g. with 4 diners your discount is only 25%).

However, the Accor Plus welcome pack that gets mailed to new members  comes with a load of group dining certificates, which I’ve summarized below:

PropertyRestaurantDiscountMax Benefit
Fairmont/ Swissotel The Stamford/ Swissotel Merchant CourtAsian Market Cafe, Prego, Szechuan Court, Cafe Swiss, Kopi Tiam, Blue Potato, Ellenborough Market Cafe50%1 X certificate for 4-6 diners, 1X certificate for 6-12 diners
Sofitel SentosaKwee Zeen50%4 diners
Illido at the Cliff50%4 diners
The Garden50%4 diners
LeBar20% for afternoon teaN/A
So SPA25% on a la carte treatments3 persons
Novotel Clarke QuayThe Square50%10 diners
Le Bar Rouge30% on beverages4 diners
Novotel Singapore on StevensFood Exchange50%10 diners
L’Aperitif Tapas Bar30%2 diners
Sofitel Singapore City CentreRacines50%4 diners
186420% on beverages4 diners
SO Sofitel SingaporeXperience50%4 diners
HI-SO Rooftop Pool30% on beverages4 diners
Mercure Singapore on StevensWinestone50%4 diners
Fudebar30%2 diners
Grand Mercure RoxyFeast@East50%10 diners
Jia Wei50%10 diners
Mercure BugisRoyale50%10 diners
BARtistry@12230% on beverages4 diners
ibis NovenaOopen Pasta & Grill50%6 diners
Oopen Bar30%4 diners
ibis BencoolenTASTE50%6 diners
Le Bar30%4 diners
ibis Styles MacPhersonChat & Chow50%4 diners
Chat & Chow30% on beverages4 diners

50% off for up to 12 diners is pretty impressive, and maybe you can get on the in laws’ good side by taking them all out for a meal (for bonus points try and conceal the voucher when you pay).

Conclusion

It’s quite clear that a member who stays and dines at an AccorHotels property more than once a year could easily earn back the value of his/her membership. What’s even better is that your membership benefits aren’t just restricted to Singapore- load up your digital membership card and enjoy them on your travels too.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Daniel

Some of the hotels on your list (such as the Pullman in HK) do allow you to utilise the stay plus benefit but require a cash top up. I used this earlier his year in HK but has to top up around $100.

Jeff

Hi Aaron do we have to purchase the membership because we can see award availability?

Chai

I Guess so. I tried to log into accorplua.com with my normal Accor acc and they said my account is not Accor Plus. Hestitating to take up the Plus as I want to go Japan and looking at Swissôtel Osaka for the Stay Plus,

Maximus

Accor plus members can utilise stay plus for Swissotel / Fairmont starting Jan 2019.

milecat

for now, swissotel osaka is not inside. I just signed up and did a quick search.

Ben

Hi Aaron, great stuff. Do you know if Accor does status matches?

David

you will retain your status at the point of sign up (unless you are a classic member then you get upgraded to silver)

Derek

I’ve an existing platinum card with accor. Can I get this but still accrue my stays with existing membership instead of the silver card I’m getting?

David

yes you get to retain your platinum status (and get a platinum Accor Plus card)

Ah K

How is the availability like for the complimentary stays in syd/mel? Any way to check for availability before I jump into this?

TheBlend

The most accurate description for this program is that it is a dining discount program with some limited hotel benefits.

Use it primarily for dining and not the other way around, and you won’t be disappointed.

M

AccorHotels has lots of properties in AU, I am pretty sure it is quite easy to use the free night. Can’t guarantee 100% for sure but chances are really good.

Chris

Hi Aaron, you mentioned in the article that members can extend their Le Club Accor Hotels status by renewing their Accor Plus membership? Will signing up for Accor Plus membership for the first time also extend one’s existing Le Club Accor Hotels status?

David

yes, signing up for new membership qualifies for the benefit as well. however, be careful of the term “extend” as it is not an automatic extension. the benefit of being an Accor Plus member is that they assess your status period for a longer time compared to a Le Club member. To give you an example, imagine you are a current GOLD le club member. On 1st January 2019, if you fail to qualify for GOLD in 2018, your status will be downgraded because le club assess your points on a calendar year basis (jan to dec 2018). Now imagine… Read more »

Christopher

To share:- Please keep in mind that you will get into complication if you are already have another Accor paid subscription programme (i.e Ibis business card – for immediate Gold status) running on your current membership account . You will need to create the 2nd account (on another email address) to get the AccorPlus. I got into this problem after signed up for AccorPlus a few years ago. I have to wait till the Ibis business expired and begged the Accor customer service (different team) to untag it from my account to be able to combine both accounts into one… Read more »

Phoenix

I researched that different country actually offered different benefit and different price point. Am I right?

Richard

Aaron, i tried to sign up but encountered this error message during payment page, “Primary membership creation is unsuccessful. Please try again later. Please check the details and submit again.”.

Accor Plus

Hi Richard, thank you for your interest in signing up as an Accor Plus member. We are looking into the issue currently and will provide you an update once it is fixed.

Accor Plus

Hi Richard, the issue should be resolved now. Should problem still persists, even after clearing your cache, please let us know so we can assist you further. Thank you and we look forward to serving you!

Richard

I have gotten another error message this time “Email address already exists, please enter different email.”

Accor Plus

Hi Richard, we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience caused. Can you kindly send an email to [email protected] so that we can assist you further please? Thank you so much!

TinKoon Yeo

Sent the email, please advise. Thanks.

popeye88

Anyone who has signed up can share if it is treated as Online Spending or non-Online Spending ?

milecat

it seems as if i cannot use 2 stay plus nights consecutively at one hotel? i just signed up and got the account.

Yong

it says there in the article “A maximum of one Stay Plus certificate can be used per booking”

[…] the first 3 people to reach will get to share in the 20% off drinks coupon that I got as part of my Accor Plus membership. Everyone else gets a measly 15% off. That’ll learn […]

Ee Ling

Hi Aaron I just found your site! And then this article. I am ending my 1st year with Accor Plus and contemplating renewal for 2019 but the rates have gone up so much 🙁

Your meetup sesh looks interesting but I wonder if its strange going alone? Or its time to make new friends? Haha.

Ee Ling

Ah point taken about the sesh. Haha.

I paid $398nett for the 2-night package last year but at that point the Fairmont / Swisotel / Raffles properties are not included yet. By now I have redeemed way more than my fair value out of the amount though I have to say. But that’s still almost a $100 incremental.

Bernard

Hey Aaron, is it me, or did Accor quietly raised the prices to $508 for the 2 night version?
Was thinking of signing up, but the increased rate is a discouraging factor..

https://www.accorplus.com/en/singapore/summary

Kate

can I get the discount benefits (dining and facility uses) for the accor plus silver membership in Korea?

Law

Is this still available? I clicked on the link and got the error “Accor plus online membership is not available your set country, Asia. Please call…………”

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