Fancy a free night’s stay, up to 50% savings when you dine out plus a fast track to elite hotel membership status? These are all perks that you can access with a shiny Accor Plus membership card.
And while Accor Plus membership can be yours for $395 (we’ll show you how to maximise the benefits below), it’s also generously provided as a complimentary benefit for American Express Platinum cardholders.
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to the Accor Plus programme. Read on to discover everything you need to know and find out if it might be worth your while to join.
Bonus Points
100,000 Membership Rewards points*
Annual Fee
$1,250
X Factor
Up to $300 Dining Credit and $200 to spend on travel each year.
Accor Plus – how does it work?
In a nutshell, Accor Plus provides members with a range of benefits when they stay or dine at Accor Hotels properties in the Asia Pacific region.
Unlike Accor Hotels Le Club, it’s not a loyalty scheme based on travel frequency. Rather, a range of benefits is provided in exchange for an annual membership fee ($395 NZD, at the time of writing). Accor Plus is also provided as a complimentary benefit to American Express Platinum cardholders.
The Accor Plus programme covers Asia Pacific Accor Hotels from brands including Sofitel, MGallery, Pullman, Novotel, Ibis and more.
And it’s a particularly relevant program for New Zealand based travellers to participate in, as Accor has aggressively grown its footprint in the NZ accommodation market in recent years.
Which countries does Accor Plus membership cover?
Accor Plus membership is valid at over 800 hotels (and 1,100 restaurants) located within the Asia Pacific region.
You can use your Accor Plus membership in Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Boom!
Let’s delve into the key benefits:
Enjoy a complimentary night at an Accor Hotel each year
First and foremost, Accor Plus members score a complimentary one night stay each membership year at a participating Accor hotel property in the Asia Pacific region (the Accor Plus ‘Stay Plus’ benefit).
There are many top five star hotels and resorts that participate in the programme. This includes a range of high-end Sofitel, Pullman and MGallery properties.
There’s no need to stray too far from home to enjoy your Stay Plus night.
Cardholders based in Auckland could choose to enjoy a ‘staycation’ at one of twelve properties in the city, including no less than five high-end 5-star hotels.
At the time of writing, we’re seeing limited Stay Plus availability (for base-level rooms otherwise being sold for $400 at cash rates) at Auckland’s newly opened five-star Accor property, the Sofitel So.
There are also six participating Accor Plus properties in Wellington, four in Queenstown and two in Christchurch.
You can book your Stay Plus benefit online up to 12 months in advance. It’s encouraged that you do so as early as possible so as to maximise the chance of securing your preferred dates.
Note that some blackout periods may apply, and the Stay Plus is subject to availability.
Save up to 50% on your accommodation with ‘Red Hot Rooms’ sales
Members of Accor Plus gain access to an exclusive members-only sale, known as Red Hot Rooms. This benefit sees prices on various hotels slashed to just about half retail value. From high-end Sofitel resorts to inner-city Ibis properties, a range of hotels across the Asia Pacific region are frequently offered at half price rates.
The beauty of this feature of your membership is that Red Hot Rooms are only accessible to members, and not the wider public, so you have a greater chance of scoring a deal before they all run out.
Also, if your chosen hotel is not listed in the Red Hot Rooms sale for your travel period, never fear; Accor Plus members always receive 10% off the best available public rate when booking directly via the Accor website. Better still, Accor Hotels offers a price match guarantee.
Enjoy 50% off food at participating Accor Hotels
After a long day of sightseeing, sometimes the last thing you want to do is leave the hotel for dinner. In this day and age, many hotel restaurants are rivalling stand-alone restaurants for food quality and dining experience, because in short, they can’t afford not to offer a great experience!
At participating properties, Accor Plus members can receive 50% off the food portion of their bill when dining as a couple – essentially buy one, get one free.
Let that sink in for a moment… if you dine out on two scotch fillets, you pay for one.
If you are a solo diner you still receive 25% off your total food bill, while if you bring two guests, you receive 33% off, 3 guests, receive 25% off… and so on. The deal does not include children’s meals (which are usually cheap in any case).
Better yet, if you are dining out as a four with two Accor Plus members at the table, you can receive 50% off your total food bill. Best of all, when dining in Asia, you receive 15% off your drinks bill on top! Another round of poolside mojitos, anyone?
It’s important to note that you don’t need to be staying at the Accor Hotel at the time to enjoy savings when you dine – simply show your Accor Plus card to access your discount. So even if you live or work in an Australian capital city, you may at any one time have access to a number of Accor Hotels restaurants – at 50% off food, every time.
Note that there are a handful of hotel restaurants that are excluded from the offer – currently, nine in Australia, five in Singapore, just one in Indonesia and one in New Zealand – a full list can be found here. As you can see, out of 800 hotels in 18 countries, the exclusions are very minimal.
Be rewarded with Silver Accor Le Club Membership
When you join Accor Plus, you’ll unlock automatic Silver tier membership to Le Club Accor Hotels.
Silver status is usually awarded after 10 nights stay in Accor Hotels or 800 EUR of eligible expenses, this is a nice little benefit that you’d usually need to earn through travel.
Now, we aren’t entirely convinced that this isn’t a wishy-washy facet to the membership that allows the cardholder to feel some sense of grandeur, regardless of what those benefits may actually be – so let’s break the benefits down.
From a practical perspective, Silver members enjoy free internet and a welcome drink on their stays, advance access to private hotel sales, late checkout (subject to availability), and Le Club Accor Hotels customer care.
While some of these benefits might not be of use to you, others could save you money you’d otherwise spend. A welcome drink is always great, and the chance for a potential late checkout can significantly decrease your travel stresses on departure day.
Silver Le Club Accor Hotels membership status also helps you to boost and accumulate points that can be used to book more trips, applicable to hotels stays and frequent flyer points among other things.
Accor Plus Membership – the bottom line
The Accor Plus programme has the potential to delivers tremendous value to members. And while it usually comes at a cost of $395 each year, it is also be obtained as a complimentary benefit to those who hold the American Express Platinum Card.
By making use of the included benefits – even if you travel infrequently – it’s possible to extract significant value from the programme.
In fact, depending on the property you choose, simply using the Stay Plus perk could deliver the full value of the $395 membership fee.
Add in access to Red Hot Rooms sales, up to 50% on food at hotel restaurants and a fast track to Silver Le Club benefits, and you’re well on your way to getting ahead.
If you plan on travelling within the next year either locally or within the Asia Pacific region, Accor Plus membership may be worth your while.
You can join Accor Plus here
Or, to discover more about the American Express Platinum Card, read our in-depth card overview here
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Adele