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. Since mid-2023, Accor Plus also comes with a bonus of 20 Status Nights to boost you on your status journey.
The news is even better for American Express Platinum Card Members, as a complimentary Accor Plus membership is included in the package (or, more accurately, the $1,450 annual fee).
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 AU$399. You can also apply for a supplementary cardholder for AU$149. If you’re overseas, you may be able to apply for Accor Plus through local channels – pricing in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Fiji is said to be cheaper.
Here are the headline benefits:
- A free night ‘Stay Plus’ at participating hotels with 800+ properties in 18 countries across 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-Pacific.
- Silver status with the Accor Live Limitless loyalty program.
- 20 Status Nights to bring you closer to ALL Gold status and higher.
- ‘Member for a Day’ certificates that you can give to friends/family.
- 20% discount with Europcar rental.
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.
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 one night could potentially outweigh the cost of the Accor Plus annual membership fee. The highest I’ve seen is a single $549/night room on Australia Day available under Stay Plus, but this is definitely the exception to the norm. Expect rooms of around $300 a night or under to be available for Stay Plus (this is anecdotal, not a definite figure).
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.
Save money with Red Hot Rooms
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. Usually, Red Hot Rooms rates are non-refundable.
Make sure to use Cashrewards, as you’ll receive extra cashback on your accommodation costs.
Eat more with up to 50% off dining
As an Accor Plus member, you also get year-round access to 50% off the food bill at any participating hotel restaurant, whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner. No, you don’t even have to be a guest staying at the hotel.
| 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 two 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.
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. 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 also be other promotional offers, such as a free beverage or complimentary afternoon tea at participating hotels. Not all restaurants participate in this scheme. View the list of Accor restaurants here.
Gift benefits for a day (or three)
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. This includes member rates and the dining benefit.
Accor Plus members based in Australia, New Zealand & Fiji can request up to three certificates per year. These can be obtained by contacting Accor Plus Member Services, which is as simple as submitting a quick request through this form.
More details about ‘Member for a Day’
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.
Other certificates
Sometimes you will receive another certificate type in your membership pack. A renewing member might receive a complimentary breakfast voucher in their renewal pack, for example.
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). You also get 20 bonus Status Nights which brings you within reaching distance of Gold (30 nights usually required).
With Silver Status, you get a few more benefits than base-level members:
- Priority check-in
- Late checkout on request and (depending on availability)
- 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.
Summing up
Savvy members could extract a lot of value from an annual $399 member Accor Plus membership.
- 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
How much is an Accor Plus membership?
The cost of Accor Plus varies. In Australia, it is currently AU$399 a year.
Is Accor Plus membership worth it?
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.
What is the difference between Accor Plus and Accor Live Limitless?
Accor Plus is a premium paid membership giving the holder greater discounts. Accor Live Limitless (previously called Le Club AccorHotels) is the chain’s loyalty program and is free to join.
How do I book Accor Plus complimentary nights?
Refer to our guide above to learn how to redeem the Accor Plus ‘Stay Plus’ complimentary night.
Originally written by Daniel Kinnoch. Featured image courtesy Sofitel Nusa Dua.
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this year have been short paid on recent stays at hotels in NSW, the Accor calculator states 62 status points at Ibis but I received only 22. Accor says 22 is correct, is the calculator wrong? I will probably just scrape in with 14000 status points by 31st December, but I will certainly be rethinking the value of the membership.
It is disappointing that an international hotel brand based in Europe don’t operate the program worldwide.
Poor decision Accor!
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!