Accor Plus Hotel Loyalty Program: How to maximize discounts and credit card points for ultimate savings? | Mint

India’s travel and tourism sector has been booming for the last few years. An annual family vacation has become an important financial goal for many individuals. During a family vacation, travel tickets, hotel accommodation, and meals are some of the biggest expenses. Hotel loyalty programs can help you save money on two of these expenses: hotel accommodation and meals.

In India, various hotel chains, such as Marriott, Taj, ITC, Accor, etc., offer hotel loyalty programs with various benefits. In this article, we will explore the Accor Plus hotel loyalty program, its features and benefits, and how you can make the most of it with credit card reward points.

What is the Accor Plus membership?

The Accor Plus membership is a hotel loyalty program offered by the Accor Group. The Accor Group is one of the world’s largest hospitality groups. It has 5,700 hotels under more than 45 brands spread across more than 110 countries. 

The group operates more than 60 hotels in India across brands like Novotel, ibis, Raffles, Fairmont, Pullman, Sofitel, Grand Mercure, etc. The group has big expansion plans for opening several new hotels in India in the coming years.

The Accor Plus membership has two variants and offers the following benefits.

Accor Plus Traveller

The Accor Plus Traveller membership gives you benefits across 1,000 hotels with 1,400 restaurants spread across 20 countries. The membership benefits include the following.

1. 10% discount on public room rate all year round
2. Up to 50% off on meal bills at over 1,400 participating Accor hotel restaurants within the Asia Pacific region. There is a 25% discount for 1 diner, a 50% discount for 2 diners, a 33% discount for 3 diners, a 25% discount for 4 diners, etc. The discount on drinks is 15%.
3. Elite status and a bonus of 20 status nights
4. Access to Red Hot Rooms with up to 50% discount on the room rate
5. Early access (one day in advance) to Accor hotel promotions
6. Exclusive access to members-only events

Accor Plus Explorer

The Accor Plus Explorer membership is a higher variant with all the benefits that the Accor Plus Traveller membership provides. The additional benefits include:

1. One Stay Plus voucher that entitles the member to one complimentary night stay at any of the participating Accor hotels.
2. Exclusive dining and accommodation discount vouchers. Some of these include a complimentary buffet for two, a 40% off group dining certificate, a Rs. 500 discount on food and beverages, a room upgrade certificate, a complimentary birthday cake, etc.

The annual cost of the Accor Plus Traveller membership is Rs. 11,800 per year. Similarly, the annual cost of the Accor Plus Explorer membership is Rs. 16,520 per year or 12,000 Accor Live Limitless (ALL) reward points per year. 

However, Accor keeps running various offers from time to time for the purchase of these memberships. The offers include a direct discount on the membership purchase price, discount on membership purchase through specific bank credit cards, additional vouchers for Explorer membership, purchase of Traveller membership with ALL reward points, etc.

How to make the best of these memberships during a family vacation?

The memberships add great value and help you save a lot of money during your family vacation. For example, you can stay a night free with the Stay Plus voucher with Explorer membership at any of the participating hotels. The voucher can help you save more than Rs. 10,000 on the hotel accommodation cost for a night at many participating premium hotels.

When you join the ALL program, you start as a Classic member. With the Accor Plus membership, you get a bonus of 20 status nights. With these bonus status nights, you become a Silver member. As a Silver member, you get benefits like a welcome drink, priority welcome, later check-out, etc., during your hotel stay. 

During the year, with an additional ten stay nights (totalling 30 status nights), you can become a Gold member. As a Gold member, you get additional benefits like room upgrades (subject to availability), guaranteed room availability, early check-in or late check-out, etc.

With the Explorer membership, you get a couple of complimentary buffet vouchers. You can use them either during your family vacation stay or as a walk-in guest at the specified hotel restaurants. The memberships also give you up to 50% discount on all meals. 

You can avail of the meal discount during your family vacation stay or as a walk-in guest at over 1,400 participating Accor hotel restaurants. The discount can be availed any number of times, thus saving you a lot of money on meals during the family vacation.

The Red Hot Room offers for members provide a discount of up to 50% on booking hotel rooms during the offer period.

Apart from the above benefits, Accor keeps coming up with limited-time offers for members regularly. These offers provide great value and save a lot of money during a family vacation.

Booking stays with credit card reward points

Some banks allow their credit cardholders to transfer reward points to various hotel loyalty programs, including the Accor Live Limitless (ALL) program. The Accor Plus members can then use the ALL loyalty points to book stays at participating Accor hotels. The ALL loyalty points can be used to pay for room stay charges, meals added to room charges, and other charges that can be added to room charges.

For example, suppose you are staying at an Accor property with your spouse. As an Accor Plus member, you can enjoy a 50% discount on all the meals during the stay. The remaining 50% of meal bills can be added to the room charges and can be settled with ALL loyalty points at the time of check-out.

Currently, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and SBI Card allow their credit cardholders to transfer reward points to the ALL loyalty program. The transfer ratio differs from bank to bank and from card to card. For example, the transfer ratio for HDFC Diners Club Black Credit Card is 2:1 (2 Diners Club Black Credit Card points = 1 Accor Live Limitless point). The transfer ratio for Axis Bank Altas Credit Card is 1:2 (1 Atlas Credit Card point = 2 Accor Live Limitless points). The transfer ratio for the SBI Card Miles is 2:1 (2 SBI Card Miles points = 1 Accor Live Limitless point).

How to enjoy free stays and meals during a family vacation?

You can enjoy great discounts on hotel stays and meals with the Accor Plus membership. The balance amount can be settled with ALL points (converted from credit card reward points) at the time of check-out. Thus, your stay and meals during a family vacation can be free with the combination of Accor Plus membership and credit card reward points.

Gopal Gidwani is a freelance personal finance content writer with 15+ years of experience. He can be reached at LinkedIn.