Unless you stay at hotels for many nights a year, it’s hard to attain status with frequent guest loyalty programs.
One of the ways of leveraging more value from your hotel stays is through programs like Accor Plus because you are essentially buying a form of status — along with a range of other perks.
The news is even better for American Express Platinum Card Members, as complimentary Accor Plus membership is included in the package (or more accurately, the $1,450 annual fee).
This is a guide to the benefits of the Accor Plus program, which includes a free night, discounts of up to 50% on rooms and food/drinks for your stay, and benefits with other partners.
What is Accor Plus Membership?
Unlike the free-to-join Accor Live Limitless loyalty (ALL) program, Accor Plus is a separate premium membership that retails for A$399. You can also apply for a supplementary cardholder for A$149.
Here are the headline benefits:
- A free night ‘Stay Plus’ at participating hotels within the 800 plus properties in 18 countries across the Asia-Pacific
- Up to 50% off ‘Red Hot Rooms’ promotions, where you get a half-price discount rate at certain hotels
- Up to 50% off your restaurant bill and 15% off drinks at participating restaurants in Asia
- Silver status with the Accor Live Limitless loyalty program
- ‘Member for a Day’ certificates that you can give to friends/family to enjoy the same benefits that you do, on their next stay
- 20% discount with Europcar rental
- Other special events for members only such as cooking with famous chefs and golf with professionals
What is the ‘Stay Plus’ free night?
The Stay Plus benefit is a complimentary free night for a standard room in a participating hotel across the Asia-Pacific and can be redeemed at Accor’s budget brands like Ibis all the way up to upscale Pullman and Sofitel hotels.
Here’s a quick video overview of the various flavours of Accor brands at different properties around the world:
It’s a no-brainer that the Stay Plus benefit yields the best value at the upscale hotels. However, just to make your life more complex, not all hotels are eligible for Stay Plus.
But most properties can be redeemed with Stay Plus. The cost of some of the rooms for the one night could potentially outweigh the cost of the Accor Plus annual membership fee.
How to book the ‘Stay Plus’ benefit
- Visit the Accor Plus website to check room rates.
- Under ‘Search and Book’, click on ‘Stay’ to expand the search fields.
- Search for your desired destination and dates. Select ‘Yes’ from the dropdown box for ‘Stay Plus’.
- Browse available properties and room types that show availability for Stay Plus.
- Checkout to redeem your free night in a standard room, or pay the difference to a premium room if offered.
Notes with using the ‘Stay Plus’ benefit
- Ineligible properties will be marked as ‘Stay Plus Not Accepted’ in blue somewhere on the booking screen.
- In some cases, a Stay Plus benefit may not be available on the dates you want. Instead, you may have the option to mix the Stay Plus benefit with cash and book an upgraded room type.
- A minimum length of stay may also apply at some hotels.
- Be sure to bring your Accor Plus membership card to present at check-in, as the Stay Plus credit is loaded onto your card.
What are Red Hot Room sales?
Accor Plus members have access to special deals at certain hotels over a certain time period, where you can book rooms with up to 50% off.
If Red Hot Rooms promotions are not running, you can also receive 10% off the Best Available Rate at any of the 600+ hotels. This includes Ibis Budget hotels in Australia and New Zealand.
You can book up to two rooms at the discounted rate, as long as you will be staying in one of the rooms and will be settling the bill for both upon checkout.
Make sure to use Cashrewards, as you’ll receive an extra 4.2% cashback on your accommodation costs.
How can I save up to 50% off dining with Accor Plus?
As an Accor Plus member, you also get year-round access to 50% off the food bill at any participating hotel restaurant, whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner. No, you don’t even have to be a guest staying at the hotel.
Here’s how the savings work, based on the number of adults dining and percentage saving off the total food component of your bill:
| Member-only | 25% off |
| Member + 1 guest | 50% off |
| Member + 2 guests | 33% off |
| Member + 3 guests | 25% off |
| Member + 4 guests | 20% off |
Once you go beyond three people dining, the discount is calculated by dividing 100% by the number of diners. For example, the ‘Member + 4 guests’ example has 5 diners, so 100% ÷ 5 = 20% off.
In addition, participating restaurants in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will accept multiple-member cards per table so you can save more than 25% of the bill. This is unfortunately not valid in Asia. Here’s an example of how the stacking works:
| 2 Accor Plus members and 2 guests (4 pax total) | 50% dining discount (excludes Asia) |
| 1 Accor Plus member and 3 guests (4 pax total) | 25% dining discount |
There may be also other promotional offers, such as a free beverage or complimentary afternoon tea at participating hotels.
Not all restaurants participate in this scheme, particularly if they are owned by third parties. View the list of dining exceptions here.
What are the ‘Member for a Day’ Certificates?
The MFAD Certificate entitles a non-member to receive all the Accor Plus benefits, except the Stay Plus benefit, for a period of 24 hours from the point of presentation at a hotel. A maximum of one can be used per stay. No points or status points will be earned.
Up to three certificates are allocated per member, per year. These can be obtained by contacting Accor Plus Member Services, which is simple as submitting a quick request through this form
The Accor Plus team will need to know the details of the person using the certificate (i.e. name and phone number), and if known, the date it will be used.
The certificate is only valid for one month when it is ordered, and for use only whilst the Accor Plus membership is valid, so make sure you time your request well. It can’t be used within Greater China.
‘Member for a Day’ certificates can only be requested by members residing in Australia, New Zealand & India via the above link.
Other certificates
Sometimes you will receive another certificate type in your membership pack. Our previous writer Daniel received a certificate for free buffet breakfast at any hotel in Australia, New Zealand or Fiji, with one guest and no stay or reservation required.
What status perks do I get with Accor Plus membership?
In addition to those benefits, an Accor Plus membership also gives you a Silver status with the ALL program. This normally needs at least 10 nights of paid stays or 2,500 Status Points (earned from hotel spend).
With Silver Status, you get a few more benefits than base-level members:
- Priority check-in
- Late checkout on request and upon availability on arrival
- Welcome drink
- Bonus rewards points on eligible spend
Remember — the Amex Platinum Card gives you Silver status with your complimentary Accor Plus membership, which is a great benefit.
If you are an existing ALL Gold, Platinum or Diamond member, then Accor Plus membership will help you retain your status. That’s a very handy perk! The ALL Rewards points earn rates are below:
What are the other Accor Plus benefits?
Accor Plus members receive 20% off the best rate of the day when renting with Europcar, plus up to 1,000 Rewards points per rental.
Finally, there are other member-only special events and niche benefits such as cooking with famous chefs or golf with pros. It’s hard to put any kind of value on those given they need to match your taste for them to be appealing.
Summing up
Savvy members could extract a lot of value from annual $399 member Accor Plus membership, given the inclusion of:
- The Stay Plus free night, if you use it at a suitably expensive hotel
- 10% off the best available rate, or 50% off Red Hot Rooms
- Up to 50% off your restaurant bills
All up that should equate to at least $400 in value when each benefit is used just once. If you use the dining benefit often on a getaway, the savings against the usual cost of a hotel stay will quickly add up.
Frequently asked questions
The cost of Accor Plus varies. In Australia, it is currently A$399 a year.
If you can maximise the ‘Stay Plus’ free night and discounted dining benefits, then it is possible to get more than $399 worth of value out of Accor Plus.
Accor Plus is a premium paid membership giving the holder greater discounts. Le Club AccorHotels (now rebranded as Accor Live Limitless) is the chain’s loyalty program and is free to join.
Refer to our guide above on steps on how to redeem the Accor Plus ‘Stay Plus’ complimentary night. It’s quick and simple.
Originally written by Daniel Kinnoch. Featured image courtesy Sofitel Nusa Dua.
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The Accor Plus website still shows those benefits as being applicable. I’d suggest you contact Accor Plus to see what happened to your benefits.
The “Up to” 50% off at restaurants actually isnt only impacted by the amount of the cards at the table, some restaurants such as the Noosa Beach House has a maximum 15% discount regardless.
I can echo some of the comments when trying to book a “free” room with availability, and the night I have booked has cost me $100 as the room is self contained.
The communication through their website (Contact Us) is truly terrible, I think I’ve only had 1 response to 3 queries that I’ve made.
And their Apps – You have to use one App to see the benefits, and another to book. There’s links that don’t work, prices that still show in Euro when you have AUD selected, I could go on.
BONUS: Instant Accor Gold Status
Silver Status, not enough? Here’s some good news, for only 90 Euro you can buy your way to a shiny gold card with Accor Le Club. As a gold member, you get similar benefits as Silver but with the additional perk of room upgrades. If you like staying at luxury Accor properties the status could pay for itself pretty quick.
Here’s how you get it:
Head on over to:Â https://businesstravel.accorhotels.com/hotel-subscription-cards/ibisbusiness/index.en.shtml
Sign up for the Ibis Business card, not only will you get 10% off Ibis hotels, but you will also get Gold Status with Accor Le Club
ACCOR PLUS HAS NOT RESPECTED MY 10-DAY COOLING OFF PERIOD and I haven’t been able to cancel the membership.
BEWARE ACCOR PLUS IS A SCAM!!
When you actually want to book a hotel and include the “free-night” (which you have already paid for), it is never available as part of other bookings you want to make.
Personal experience and recommendation – lack of flexibility, waste of money.
Paulo stated
What I did in the beginning of the year was buy Smiles miles in one of their buy miles promotions. Got enough to transfer to Accor when they released a 3:1 promotional rate. At the end, I got Platinum and a discount at Accor Hotels since I paid 32 EUR for every 2.000 Le Club points (that worth 40 EUR).
Is this a strategy you are familiar with? I also don’t quite understand, I went to smiles which was a foreign language and that completely threw me off.
The restaurants I have been to never let me use two card for the same table.
Had great experiences with upgrades, breakfast, check in early 8am! and check out late 4pm.
It’s one status thst really has me hooked on their brand.
Keith you have any ways to shortcut to platinum that you came across?
Yes it does as well as Le Club Platinum, which is handy to use to status match with Hilton Diamond and other programs.
I think the most significant thing for me, though, was that Accor loyalty status was pretty patchy in recognition (worse than the other major hotel loyalty programs) which sort of killed any enthusiam to continue in the scheme (plus Accor was often giving away Platinum status which sort of undermined a significant benefit of this paid program).
That Ibis Business Card certainly sounds like a sweet spot.
I’ve held off though, having watched the Red Hot Rooms availability for a while. Quite obviously they are trying to fill empty rooms in low periods. Consequently most of the Red Hot Rooms seem to be available Sunday – Thursday. Most (although not all) of deals also tend to be for the immediate week to month – not too far off into the future. Work OK for a last minute business travel bargain though, I should suppose.
Unsurprisingly there isn’t a whole lot available in CBDs on weekends (although there is some, having said that, just don’t expect something in every city every weekend). Also don’t expect the Sofitel to appear to often. That said, from time to time there are some deals for places that’d be nice for a little escape that can get a bit pricey – Cairns, Broome etc.
A plus side of the program is that as I understand it points are still earned on the Red Hot Room deals. Down side, I’ve read in places once above silver there generally aren’t any upgrades when staying on Red Hot Room deals.
Overall for me, given Accor always seem to have a sale of some sort on (i.e the 40% off one rolls around a few times a year) I’ve found the Ibis Business card better value. For what is about $120 AUD a year you go straight to Accor Gold with all benefits at all brands & 10% off everything @ Ibis.
Even after a few stays that card has paid for itself with room upgrades, drink vouchers and late checkouts. When trying to use the card for the 10% off food and drinks however, be prepared to explain to the average Ibis staff member what the card is!