JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 businesstraveller.comSTAR LETTER
PRIZE
BEYOND REDEMPTION
I am a frequent traveller and have often booked
accommodation with the Accorhotels group. Being
a Silver member and having collected points over the
years, I finally made a redemption booking and it turned
out to be the worst experience I have ever had with any
hotel group.
I was travelling to the UK with my family in June and
planned one night’s stay in Reading. I was looking for a
newly renovated hotel with elevators, parking space and
air conditioning.
Ibis Styles Reading Centre checked all the boxes so
I made a reservation on April 30 – nearly two months
before arrival. I used 8,000 points to settle the bill.
As usual, I got a reservation confirmation from Accor
immediately. A few days before arrival, I received
another email welcoming me to stay in the hotel.
Everything appeared to be in order.
However, when I arrived at the hotel to check in,
the receptionist told me that my reservation was not in
their system and the hotel was completely full. It was
the last thing I expected, particularly after all of the
communication from Accor.
She told me all she could do was to put us up at the
Mercure George Hotel, just around the corner. At 8pm
after a long drive, I had no choice but to accept.
However, the stay was terrible. First I had to physically
carry three 30kg suitcases up a staircase, then we had to
stay in a room without air-con (during England's hottest
week in 2017). To make things worse, it was a Saturday
night and throughout the night I was woken up by
waves of shouting, laughing, drunken partygoers. I woke
up the next day as exhausted as when I arrived.
I wrote to Accor twice in July to explain my
experience and demand an explanation for such a basicStar letter
This month’s Star
Letter winner will
receive one of
the newBusiness
Travellerbranded
cabin-size
suitcases from
Timothy Travel
Essentials
(timothytravel
essentials.co.uk).
For your chance
to win the
Star Letter, email
us at editorial@
businesstraveller
asia.com and
include your full
postal address
and daytime
telephone
number. We
reserve the right
to edit letters.error. Accor never replied. Ironically, Accor did
reply instantly to another query about missing
points from a different stay during the same trip,
stating my stay was ineligible for reward points
even though the reservation was made on their
official website...
I just can’t believe that Accor, which is always
strict in awarding points to its customers,
“rewards” its customers in the exact opposite
manner when it comes to redemption.
Kelvin Lo, Hong KongACCORHOTELS RESPONDS:
We apologise profoundly to Mr Lo for
delivering an experience which is below our
own high standards, as is the unfortunate delay
in responding. Guests are our utmost priority
and we thank Mr Lo for raising this matter so
we can have the opportunity to address what
went wrong on this occasion.
We can confirm the hotel in question has
subsequently been in touch on the subject of
recompense for this experience and the delays
in responding.
Separately, there are a few hotels in our
portfolio that choose not to participate in our
loyalty scheme, so we advise customers to
check when booking that the hotel in question
participates in Le Club Accor Hotels and that
points can be awarded.TELL US ABOUT YOUR TRAVELS AT [email protected]INBOX YOUR LETTERS
18
Valid until 28th Feb, 2018