Accor Plus Membership Review: Is It Worth Paying for the Extra Benefits?

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I’ve been holding Accor Plus Membership since 2021. Throughout these years, I’ve stayed in plenty of Accor hotels across Southeast Asia countries and I’ve worked my way up to reach the Platinum Status of Accor Live Limitless (ALL) program with the help of Accor Plus membership.

I’ve had wonderful experiences in some properties, and horrible experiences in other properties. I’ve had frustrations along the way, as long as satisfactions as an Accor Plus member.

Being an Accor Plus member doesn’t mean your experience will be all rainbows and unicorns. You will still face challenges if you happen to stay in hotels that don’t take hospitality seriously.

I’ve called the Accor Plus hotline numerous times to to sort out issues related to my stay (there are plenty) and to enquire about membership issues (let’s be honest, their FAQ is quite hard to understand).

After all these years and all the hassles, I figured it’s time for me to share my insights about Accor Plus membership, based on my on ground experience.

What is Accor Plus Membership?

First of all, let’s define the membership. Accor Plus Membership is different from Accor Live Limitless (ALL).

Accor Live Limitless (ALL) is Accor’s main loyalty program. It is free to join and has 5 tiers. You climb up the tiers by staying and/or spending in Accor properties.

Meanwhile, Accor Plus Membership is an annual paid membership that gives you various benefits, including free stay, bonus status nights (which automatically push you up to the Silver Status of the ALL program), dining discounts (up to 50% at participating restaurants), Accor Plus member sales, and many more.

I will be reviewing each of Accor Plus benefits further in this article.

Accor Plus Membership Fee

The price of Accor Plus Membership depends on the country you reside in.

Here are the prices of Accor Plus Membership in Singapore, with its respective benefits (source).

• TRAVELLER: SGD 308 per year
  • Benefits: UNIVERSAL BENEFITS
• EXPLORER: SGD 418 per year or 12,000 Accor Reward Points per year
  • Benefits: UNIVERSAL BENEFITS + 1 Stay Plus complimentary night + Exclusive dining and accommodation discount vouchers
• EXPLORER PLUS: SGD 538 per year
  • Benefits: UNIVERSAL BENEFITS + 2 Stay Plus complimentary night + Exclusive dining and accommodation discount vouchers
• SECONDARY MEMBERSHIP: SGD 210 per year, must be purchased in conjunction with a primary membership
  • Benefits: UNIVERSAL BENEFITS

Which Credit Card Gives a Free Accor Plus Membership

In Singapore, here are the credit cards that give free Accor Plus Membership:

1. DBS Vantage
   • Income requirement: S$120,000/year
   • Annual fee: S$599.50
   • Complimentary Accor Plus Explorer membership (worth SGD 418), which comes with 1 Stay Plus
2. Amex Highflyer
   • Income requirement: S$30,000/year (Singaporean/PR) or S$60,000/year (Foreigner)
   • Other requirement: must be a business owner and/or person with executive authority of a Company/Business with a valid UEN
   • Annual fee: S$304.59/year (inclusive of 9% GST)
   • Complimentary Accor Plus Explorer membership (worth SGD 418), which comes with 1 Stay Plus
   • Read my review of Amex Highflyer

For me, I get my Accor Plus Explorer membership as a holder of Amex Highflyer card. Most of the time, I have to pay Amex Highflyer annual fee if I don’t hit Amex annual spending requirement. So, in a way, I’m indirectly paying to get Accor Plus Explorer.

Accor Plus Membership Benefits

And here is the list of UNIVERSAL BENEFITS:

• 10% off public room rate
• Early access to Accor hotel promotions
• Member exclusive More Escapes packages
• Access to Red Hot Room to get up to 50% off
• Bonus of 20 Status Nights which means automatic qualification for Silver status in ALL (Accor Live Limitless)
• Up to 50% off your meal bill
• 15% off your drinks bill in Asia
• Exclusive access to member only events

Stay Plus Benefit

Stay Plus is the complimentary stay at participating Accor properties that Accor Plus Explorer and Explorer Plus members get when they sign up or renew their membership. Accor Plus Traveller doesn’t get to enjoy this perk.

For me, Stay Plus is the main reason I get Accor Plus in the first place. I love to experience different luxury hotels once in a while. In Singapore, it’s not hard to find a hotel that costs over S$300 a night, that also participates in Stay Plus. My most memorable use of Stay Plus is Swissotel The Stamford and Fairmont Beijing.

Since Stay Plus mostly cover only the basic room, I decided to pay more to upgrade to rooms that have access to Executive Lounge in both hotels (at that time, I was still holding a Silver status). The upgrades were so worth it. Highly recommend that you upgrade in order to make the most of your stay. You’re already staying in a 5-star hotel, why not pay a bit more to enjoy the lounge.

Still, looking for the hotels that give best utilization value of Stay Plus is not that straightforward. First, you need to find out which hotel actually participates in Stay Plus.

There is no official list, you’ll need input random dates to Accor’s search engine while having Stay Plus toggle on, to figure out which hotels offer Stay Plus. Some hotels may not appear during your initial search because they don’t have room availability, not because they don’t offer Stay Plus. So, you need to perform searches for multiple dates to find out which hotels actually offer Stay Plus.

After you have found out which hotels offer Stay Plus and you’ve decided you want to stay in a certain hotel, you need to use the same Accor’s search engine to find whether the hotel has available Stay Plus on your intended travel dates.

Popular hotels get booked early, so you need to plan far in advance!

If you’re wondering whether to choose Explorer or Explorer Plus, it’s actually a no-brainer, Explorer Plus is just S$80 more expensive but you get one more night stay. So the value of 2 night stay is easily at least S$600.

Room Sales Benefit

Throughout the years, there are plenty of sales/promotions. From Red Hot Room sales, Member Private sales, More Escapes, Opening Promotions and many more I can’t recall.

They’re great if the hotel you plan on staying participates in the sale. But they don’t announce in advance when the sale would be, so the waiting can be tough sometimes.

Also, do note that those super cheap sales (50% discount) often comes with many restrictions, like non-refundable and no breakfast included.

10% off Public Room Rate Benefit

Most of the time, Accor Plus members gets cheaper rate than ALL members. And most of the time, ALL members gets cheaper rate than non-members. But, it’s worth noting that this is not a guarantee.

There are times when Accor Plus members are paying the same rate as ALL members. So, don’t expect this is applicable for every hotel rooms.

Dining Discounts Benefit

Before I became Accor Plus member, I didn’t think I will be using this benefit often. I mean, I love street food and local food, and I seldom dine in hotel’s restaurant because I perceive them to be overpriced and overrated.

Surprisingly, when I became an Accor Plus member, I started to understand the real value of this dining discount benefit.

First, you may get up to 50% discount on breakfast if the restaurant is operated by Accor. This comes in very handy if you book a room without breakfast, or if the rate for room with breakfast is too expensive on Accor’s platform. But, it’s hard to know whether it’s possible to get 50% discount in certain restaurant, so you’ll have to call/email them to ask.

Then, the dining discount is extremely useful when I can’t go out for whatever reason (eg: extreme weather like typhoon), and/or I just want to stay in. I can simply head to the hotel’s restaurant to have my meals. After 50%, the hotel meals suddenly become affordable.

What I don’t like is the fact that the amount of discount depends on the number of pax. Usually I travel with my husband, so we always get 50% on dining. But, if we plan to bring our family members along, we may or may not not get 50%, it depends on the restaurant’s policy.

Member Events

To be honest, I’ve never attended any member events because I’m not that into dining and most events are dining or wine related.

20 Status Nights

Accor Plus Explorer and Explorer Plus members get bonus 20 Status Nights upon sign-up/renewal. With this, you automatically get into Silver Status, and you only need 20 nights to reach Gold, or 40 nights to reach Platinum.

I love this perk. It is because of this perk that I get to reach Platinum status faster than I would if I don’t have Accor Plus.

Suite Night Upgrade (For Platinum & Diamond status)

Once you’ve reached Platinum status, you will be granted 2 Suite Night Upgrades immediately. You then get one extra Suite Night Upgrade each time you accumulate 4,000 additional Status points (up to 12 per year).

Suite Night Upgrade (SNU) allows you to book a Suite room with the price of a lower category room. When you perform search and turn on the toggle for SNU, you will immediately see the rate that you have to pay and the Suite room types that are available.

You DON’T NEED to request for upgrade. When you book on Accor’s platform, you are guaranteed the Suite Room that you choose during booking.

Here’s an example. A basic Premier Room at Swissotel The Stamford costs S$341 per night.

If you have Suite Night Upgrade, you can get a Signature Suite by paying the same price of S$341 per night. That’s obviously a steal!

Do note that SNU is only applicable to selected hotels though. And the availability is limited (just like Stay Plus), so if you have a certain hotel in mind, you’ll need to be flexible with your dates.

I have yet to utilise my Suite Night Upgrades. I’ll be updating this review once I do. I foresee that I’ll be enjoying this perk!

Dining & Spa Rewards (For Diamond status)

Once you hit Diamond status, you’ll receive 10 Dining and Spa Rewards, at 10 EUR each. You can use these rewards to offset your bill at participating restaurants, bars and spas.

I haven’t reached Diamond status yet, so haven’t got the chance to enjoy these rewards. But, judging from the amount, I doubt it’s game-changing.

Accor Plus Customer Service

Apparently, Accor Plus has an office in many countries, including Singapore. So, you can get hold of the customer service by a phone call.

I’ve talked to some very helpful and knowledgeable staffs who helped me understand more about Accor Plus membership validity (which I’ll explain in “Longer Status Validity” section below).

I’ve also talked to some that are too afraid to give confirmative answer, when the answer is already very clear. It drove me nuts.

There was a time when I was working towards Platinum Status. I stayed my final 6 nights in 3 different hotels, but all 6 status nights were not credited even 1 week after check-out. I emailed Accor Plus membership team; they assisted me by contacting the hotel and the hotel eventually credited the status nights within 24 hours. On one hand, I’m grateful of Accor Plus team’s help, but on the other hand, I’m mad that I had to chase them to credit the status nights.

What I Like

Accor Plus Has Generous Benefits

Accor Plus membership fee alone can cover the complimentary Stay Plus. The reward points, bonus status nights, room sales, dining discounts and elite status perks are added bonus.

Bonus Status Nights Help to Fast Track to Higher Status

The bonus 20 status nights helps me achieve Platinum Status faster than I would have otherwise. Without this, I’d have to stay for 20 nights (and spend at least S$800 for a 20-night stay in a cheap hotel) and spend 20 more days traveling, which is a huge waste of my resources.

Plenty of Sales

There are too many sales for me to recall. It’s nice to pay cheaper price than ALL member or non-members.

But, as I said earlier, some of the sales are not cheaper than ALL member rates or other third-party promotions.

Longer Status Validity

Accor Plus Members have a different way of defining the validity of Elite Status. For ALL members, Elite Status is valid until 31 December of the next year after it was earned.

The highest number of Eligible Nights spent or Status points earned during one of these two periods, will determine your new Status. You will then keep that status until your next membership year. (Source)

So, for some people, it is possible to keep your Elite Status for almost 2 years. Here’s an example:

You reach Platinum in December 2023. Your membership renews every November. In Nov 2024, based on your Status earned in the previous calendar year (2023), your new status is Platinum, and you get to keep this Platinum status until next membership year, which is November 2025.

Helpful Accor Plus Team in Singapore

As I explained above, most of the team members are pretty helpful.

What I Don’t Like

Glitchy Platform

Sometimes I can’t book a hotel through Accor Plus platform (eg: ibis Beijing Tiantandongmen). I’ve reached the payment page, but my payment can’t go through. In the end, I had to book from Agoda. Anyway, all ibis properties in China don’t participate in ALL program, so I won’t get Status Nights and Points anyway, so I didn’t lose any points.

Other times, I can’t put remarks when booking certain hotel. As a result, I had to email the hotel directly, which is such an inconvenience.

Not Easy to Maximize Stay Plus

I’ve explained in “Stay Plus Benefit” above so I won’t repeat here again. I just hope Accor can create a list of hotels that allow Stay Plus, so that we can plan our stay date according to the availability of the hotel, instead of blindly putting a check-in date to figure out which hotel actually offers Stay Plus.

Based on my own trial and error so far, I found that hotel brands that offer Stay Plus are Swissotel, Sofitel, Fairmont, Pullman, ibis, Mercure, Novotel, McGallery. And hotel brands that don’t offer Stay Plus are Raffles.

Maybe we should crowdsource and create such a list? Let me know in the comments if you think this is a feasible idea!

Unable to reach Accor Plus team via phone sometimes

Sometimes, their hotline gets busy and the automatic machine tells you they’re unable to accept your call, advise you to call back later and hang up. It’s ok if my issue is not urgent, but I’ll feel frustrated if I have urgent issues.

Should You Get Accor Plus Membership?

I think it depends on how often you stay in Accor Properties in a year, and how much value you put on the benefits.

For me, I’d like to stay at least once a year in a luxurious Accor Properties, so getting an Explorer membership which comes with 1 Stay Plus is worth it.

I also value free breakfast and free lounge access highly, which are the benefits of Platinum Status holders. So, I wanted to get to Platinum as quickly as I could, and Accor Plus helped me accelerate the journey.

If you do not travel often, or if you don’t travel that much around Asia Pacific, or if you don’t enjoy staying in Accor properties, maybe Accor Plus is not worth it for you.

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