I want to share my bad experience with Accor Advantage Plus.
Hopefully others will not be a victim like me.
It was started in a travel exhibition in Bangkok in 2008, where Accor group display their range of hotel.
I was interested with the offer of a membership of Accor group, they said that they'll give a compliment voucher to stay one night in any participating hotel in Accor groups Asia.
Thinking that Accor was a reputable hotel group, I bought the membership for THB 5,500 (I don't remember the exact amount but it is around that number)
A few months passed, I almost forgot the voucher and the membership, but I found the voucher when I was reorganizing my working room.
I tried to book the hotel in Sofitel Centara Huahin, but got the answer that the hotel is fully booked until next 2 months. I was wondering, if a hotel could get such a good business, perhaps it was time for me to start investing in hotel business.
However, when I checked the hotel via an online hotel booking, it was apparent that the hotel still had plenty of vacant rooms (even I tried to pretend booking for a large group of visitors, surely I didn't finalize the booking because it will disrupt the hotel booking system)
I called the customer service for the card, and finally got explanation that the complimentary certificate was running based on certain allocation only, for the expensive hotel like Centara, (perhaps) they got only 1 room for every two weeks.
Well, it is not a hotel voucher (yes, they didn't write it as hotel voucher) but a gift, which you have to beg to get it.
Nevertheless, I canceled my vacation plan and sent a strong complain email.
Guess what? It took 1 week for them to answer? Can you imagine? They answered it after I sent the email for the third times.
After a few months, I forgot the case.
Today (15 August 2009), I find that the voucher will be expired by the end of this month (August 2009), so I try to book Novotel Clarke Quay Singapore.
Do I get it? As you can guess, NO.
The officer even suggests I plan my trip 2 months in advance. I ask him if he does the same, and he admits that he doesn't.
The hotel is fully booked and the only available time is not during weekend, hence surely I cannot use it.
I tell the officer that my voucher is almost expired and ask for exception; He suggest I extend my membership so that I can extend the voucher life time.
From this case, I understand that there is no room for negotiation, no tolerance for an urgent case.
Finally, the officer tells me to call the hotel directly to get the exception.
I try to call the hotel directly and get explanation that they do nothing with Advantage Plus except give allocation to some rooms to the company, if the rooms have run out, the hotel can do nothing.
Now, I hope that the reader of this testimonial will know that it is better to avoid the membership of Accor Advantage Plus unless you want to have similar experience like mine.
My membership number in that Accor Advantage Plus is 308409 000 627738 2
p.s.
Actually I don't want to waste my time writing this case, but I think that I have the obligation to avoid other people to fall victim of that bad service.
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