Accors summer promotion chaos and missing 7,500 points

While Accor is generally very active with its promotions, they often come across as rather complicated and, perhaps as a result, not always very well thought out. Conflicting terms and conditions, as well as unclear stipulations, can make some promotions rather difficult to navigate.

Accor summer chaos

The latest example of a promotion gone wrong also implicates yours truly: Accor's 'Summer Bonus' promotion. It was off to a bad start when Accor first published it, with unclear terms and conditions. Users were promised bonus points for stays depending on their membership tier, but it was unclear exactly how many stays or points would be eligible.

Accor then later changed the terms twice, including a rather large limitation: Most Asian countries, previously eligible for both users and stays, disappeared from the terms.

The problem: Many members, including myself, had already registered and were not informed of the change in terms. I had booked a 5-night stay in Malaysia under an eligible rate, which took place at the end of August. Since then, I had been waiting for my points - but nothing happened.

Support circles

Last week, I finally decided to raise this issue with Accor support, as the missing 7,500 points, equivalent to EUR 150, are not an amount I would simply let go. And even more so on principle, as I believe companies should learn to respect their customers' time and loyalty.

Unfortunately, the support so far has been pretty much useless. I filled in a form for missing points, after which I was contacted two days later and referred to Accor Plus support. They replied within just two hours by guiding me... back to the form I initially filled in. I refused and escalated; now there are multiple support threads open with tickets flying back and forth. I've been asked multiple times to provide details of the stay, the URL to the promotional offer (it's not online anymore), screenshots or emails of the offer confirmation (I didn't keep these, there's a lesson there), etc.

Disappointing

I am not 100% sure if the missing points in my case are indeed due to Accor shooting themselves in the foot with their absurd terms and conditions changes for the promotion, but I wouldn't be surprised. After all, I registered for a promotion and then later Accor decided that I (and probably thousands of other customers) weren't eligible, but also didn't tell anyone.

What's disappointing is that I actually like Accor's hotels and loyalty programme; I've been a Diamond member for the last three years and it's always my first option I check when booking a stay. But situations like this make me rethink my loyalty. In the end, I could do without the 7,500 points, but wasting my time trying to prove that I indeed registered because for some reason the support seems unable to, that's just disappointing.

To be continued...