On 1 October 2025, Accor Plus was replaced with ALL Accor+ Explorer, a single-tier, single-price loyalty subscription programme, marking the biggest overhaul in its three-decade history.
While I’ve already covered the major changes in detail, I now want to focus on one of its biggest draws: the Stay Plus complimentary night benefit.
Unfortunately, unlike the old programme, ALL Accor+ Explorer now requires that Stay Plus redemptions be combined with a minimum of one paid night. On the plus side, Accor has also pledged expanded availability, so that members can enjoy Stay Plus “whenever and wherever they like” (their exact words).
That sounds great in theory— but now that the new programme is live, the internet is awash with complaints that reality isn’t living up to the promise. Here’s a look at the issues members are facing, and how Accor has responded.
How has Stay Plus changed?
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| 🏨 Stay Plus Benefit | ||
| Accor Plus | ALL Accor+ Explorer | |
| Certificates | 1x (Explorer) 2x (Explorer Plus) |
2x* |
| Requires Paid Night? | No | Yes |
| Limited by allocation? | Yes | No |
| Covers | Most expensive night |
|
| *As a transitional measure, any unredeemed old Stay Plus certificates were converted into new Stay Plus certificates on 1 October 2025 at a 1:2 ratio | ||
First, a quick recap of how the Stay Plus benefit has changed.
- Prior to 1 October 2025, Accor Plus Explorer and Explorer Plus members received one and two Stay Plus certificates respectively. Each certificate could be redeemed for a single-night free stay, or combined with a multi-night paid booking
- From 1 October 2025, ALL Accor+ Explorer members (reminder: the programme only has a single tier now) receive two Stay Plus certificates, each of which can only be used in conjunction with at least one paid night
While Stay Plus still covers the most expensive night in the booking, it’s clearly a negative change in the sense that it’s become a 1-for-1 discount rather than a free night per se.
| ❓ What about existing Stay Plus redemptions? |
| Stay Plus redemptions booked before 1 October 2025 (for any future date) will be honoured as-is, i.e. you will not need to add a paid night. |
However, the carrot that Accor dangled when announcing these changes was better availability. It’s no secret that Stay Plus nights were virtually impossible to find at some properties (looking at you, Sofitel Sentosa), and with the relaunched programme, Accor promised the removal of so-called “allocations”.
Here’s what was stated in the FAQs prior to the relaunch (emphasis mine):
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Q: Will the new Stay Plus FREE Night be subject to allocation and availability? A: With the upgraded ALL Accor+ Explorer programme, the Stay Plus FREE Night benefit has seen some improvements, so it’s no longer subject to or limited by allocation. This means you can enjoy this benefit more freely, whenever and wherever you like. Just a quick note, though: the new Stay Plus FREE Night benefit does require a minimum stay of two nights, with at least one of those being a paid night. Please note: Blackout dates are applicable and can be found here: Accor Blackout dates |
This, understandably, generated a great deal of excitement. “Whenever and wherever you like”? Was Accor saying that Stay Plus would no longer have any capacity controls, and outside of blackout dates, you could use it so long as rooms were available?
Well, not quite…
Blackout dates still apply
As mentioned in the FAQ, hotels are allowed to designate certain periods as blackout dates, during which Accor Plus benefits — including Stay Plus — will not be honored.
Accor has created a tool that allows you to check blackout dates for a given property. Here’s what it looks like at the Sofitel Singapore Sentosa, for example.
No last-room availability
However, even outside of these blackout dates, Accor members are reporting numerous instances where rooms are available for cash bookings, but not Stay Plus bookings.
For example, we can see below at the Mercure Tokyo Hibiya that no Stay Plus is offered for 10-13 April 2026, despite rooms being available for sale.
I asked Accor about this, and received the following response.
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Under the new ALL Accor+ Explorer structure, the Stay Plus FREE Night benefit has been enhanced to widen access and reduce constraints that previously limited availability at some hotels on high demand nights. The programme and our hotels are committed to providing member preferred access, meaning Stay Plus availability is aligned more closely with rooms offered for public sale. This approach exceeds the former fixed allotment model, but does not operate as full last-room availability. Hotels continue to maintain the flexibility to manage commercial considerations such as blackout periods or exceptional demand dates. However, overall, the intent and effect of the new structure is to deliver significantly improved access and booking freedom for members. -Accor spokesperson |
Note the part highlighted in red. Accor is basically saying that even though there are “more” Stay Plus nights available now, Stay Plus does not provide last-room availability.
In other words, you cannot use cash inventory as a reliable proxy for Stay Plus inventory, because no one knows what percentage of rooms each property is allocating for Stay Plus.
Rates may be higher with Stay Plus
Members have reported cases where the room rate with Stay Plus certificates applied is higher than the rate they would pay without Stay Plus.
For example, the screenshot below shows the same room type and same dates, but the cost is S$577.36 with Stay Plus, and S$499.32 without Stay Plus!
Accor’s response (which I don’t quite understand, but I’m still posting anyway):
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In this example, the Stay Plus has not been opened up for bookings on the most expensive night which is why the system is applying the Stay Plus FREE Night to the second night where the Stay Plus is bookable. -Accor spokesperson |
Even if Stay Plus does offer a lower price, you’ll still want to be careful because the savings may be marginal at best. Here’s another example of how the application of Stay Plus only results in a ~S$30 saving.
Inventory may not be loaded
Finally, members have reported their frustrations with certain properties where there’s no Stay Plus availability at all, period. This is a known issue for Fairmont and Raffles properties, though there were also reports (since resolved) about no availability at the Mercure Hibiya or Pullman Tokyo Tamachi either.
Accor’s response to this:
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We’re aware that in some cases, members are finding that Stay Plus nights aren’t yet appearing as available. This is because some hotels are still in the process of updating their system settings and rate configurations to align with the new structure. -Accor spokesperson |
It seems members will just have to be patient and wait for inventory to be loaded. But given that ALL Accor+ Explorer memberships have a limited validity, each week that goes by without space is another week that members can’t use their Stay Plus benefit. This feels like the kind of thing that should have been ready to go at the time of the launch, rather than “launch first, fix later”.
Conclusion
With the new ALL Accor+ Explorer, Accor has promised greater availability for Stay Plus nights, and to be fair, we have seen availability open up at properties where Stay Plus was almost impossible to book previously.
At the same time, I suspect they may have overpromised a bit with the “whenever and wherever” line, because Stay Plus does not offer last-room availability, and some hotels have yet to load any inventory at all. And even where inventory does exist, the savings with Stay Plus can sometimes be marginal (or even negative!).
My hope is that these are all teething issues that will be ironed out in the months weeks to come, but in the meantime, please share any experiences you’ve had with the new programme.
What’s your experience with the “new and improved” Stay Plus?
Wrote to Accor complaining the lack of availability of stay plus and asked about the refund of the membership fee. They immediately cancelled my subscription and refund me 299 without confirming with me 😶
At least you managed to get a refund. I wrote to Accor too and they just replied hotels are still in the process of updating their system then ghosted me. They don’t even reply any of my emails now.
Gave up on Accor even though I have two memeberships with Stayplus. It’s a scam. I use Marriot, Shang and Hilton programmes as my default. Accor is when all others are full or too expensive.
Gave up on accor already. Hard nerfs time after time.
I find the biggest upshot of this new explorer+ are the meal discount 30% for up to 10 person. I had the exact 10 person dine in Banyan Tree Lang Co recently, the savings are immense compared to the previous scheme. 1 meal almost recuperated by entire membership fee.
I think this is overall very much in line with ALL. The real value is there (I continue to subscribe just for RHR), but the promises that they make they never actually keep.
accor plus is dead
I managed to get a good stayplus deal with Sofitel Singapore but I guess u will need to be flexible with your dates
Another issue I’ve had with the new stay plus is with free night being allocated to the less expensive night when booking.
I booked three nights (the minimum at the hotel in question) with my stay plus and the free night was applied to the cheapest night! Cost $200 less for that night than the most expensive one.
Followed up with Accor Plus – got the run around, 3 emails, 4 phone calls later… still no solution.
Diamond member, member since 2012.
with regards to this situation, i suspect they will say that stay plus availability was not present for your most expensive night, so it was applied to the next cheaper night. which is…something
Accor is a scam! It is just a scheme to make you pay for a membership upfront, then lock you into their ecosystem, without offering much benefits. Anyway, the scheme had always been just for Asia rooms. I have switched over to GHA and that is my favorite go-to hotel group now… very good properties at decent prices and you get the free breakfasts
One of the glitchiest apps by any hotel site. The good hotels have not loaded inventory and the stay plus nights are so often on the worst rate package (non refundable, no breakfast) and it’s just cheaper to book without if you want a better package. It’s very much false advertising. I get it with my credit card but would never bother paying for this. There are more honest hotel memberships
Mine is worse. I have not been credited with the 2x stay plus voucher, only the dining vouchers. At first they say the system still undergoing migration, then now they say that they are aware of my issue and checking with their HQ. Been like that since 1 Oct.
Asked for refund as I wanted to use the Stay Plus during the long weekend but couldn’t. They just say that their HQ has been notified and will reply to me ASAP. Been a week since then and no reply.
Availability is very bad.… full stop.
I have just booked 2 of my Stay Plus one in May over the long weekend and one in end July. I was surprised to find that I can use my Stay Plus to book a Courtyard suite in Raffles Hotel and I only need to top up $530 for the night I’m using the Stay Plus. The usual rate is about $1.5-1.6k after taxes. So the value I get is roughly about $700. For the other one in Jul I got the premier marina bay room in swissotel and again the value I get for the Stay Plus is… Read more »
Congrats on the great value. We had to do a short stay recently because we replaced our HVAC, ducting, heaters and piping.
We haven’t done any other hotel stays in Singapore other than the free Amex nights which we don’t bother with now since there is no breakfast. Would you do a staycation even if there was no voucher to use or no promotion to take advantage of?
We have toddlers so the idea of a staycation in Singapore seems needlessly daunting when everything we need is at home.