I am going to Cairns in January and had no problem booking my free night. When were you looking at booking? If you call a hotel specifically I know you can't book it with them?

Well I found this thread by accident but its content doesn't surprise me as I have found thier Advantage Plus and Aclub to be a bit less than straight forward.

I thought we would have been regarded as friends of Accor and yet we seem to be treated like clients who are locked in with no choice as we have paid our memebership. I recently made a mistake on the web site with a booking for the Sofitel at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast when I looked at my Worldmate app I had'nt booked there my booking was at a place called Artique. Within an hour of making the booking I tried thier call centre to get the booking cancelled without a penalty but as you can imagine no go - I got the 'got you' response your mistake you are to live with it. I asked for my request to be put through to Guest Relations and got a call a week later with only 6 days to go before my trip. They said much the same thing but said I can try to sort it out with the hotel in person but I requested they sort it out as I don't have the time. Now it's the day before and I have heard nothing.

Anyway, what I think is at the heart of this poor service is that Advantage Plus and A Club are not Accor and niether are some of the hotels, they are franchisees or something along those lines. Accor however is to blame as it is thier name under which all of this is being done. There is a substantial disconnect between Accor, Advantage Plus/A Club and some of the hotels. They are very good at taking our revenue through all of this web but not good at providing the service. I do not feel as if I get value for money, after reading the above I almost feel as if I am being taken advantage of. I will look more closely at rates for the same rooms elsewhere and will come back to this thread.

I am a member of both Advantage Plus and Vacation Club, I find AP not too bad and of benefit, have now been to 4 of their Vacation Club sites and would not return to two of them, we are currently in Bali at the Novotel in Nusa Dua, what an old run down relic of a hotel or restort, also very dirty and certainly not what is represented in any of their information, it is a disgrace to have this place as a members resort. If I had any advice for people thinking of joining the Vacation Club, DON'T!!!

Gary Morrison

I could not get any complimentary nights at the hotels i wanted even though i tried booking 4 mths ahead and guess what the rates are comparable with the on line websites. Their service is terrible ... what a joke!

it is all smoke and mirrors

Hello people, tonight we were considering an advantage membership and thought "lets google and see what kind of feedback is around". All we have read is negative feedback and so we are rather relieved to have done the search before taking on the membership! So its a hooray from us....we aint taking one out! More money in the pocket I guess. Thanks guys for taking the time to write your feedback.

Read the fine print on what the terms and conditions accor plus has with the hotels some dont let you use your card for breakfast , lunch , dinner , specials of the day and room service but most do... And watch when you use your credit card the 10% discount on your room usually goes towards your sercharge on the credit card .... But if you know all this you do save money , if your hotel dosent do half price there are plenty other hotels to go to if your in the city .... I live in Port Hedland so we only have 1 hotel here and before christmas i was going to cancel my card the food was **** and they put the prices up 4 dollars on each items . But after chrissy they sacked the chefs got to new 1 and are changing the menu about time and the food is much much better so im keeping my card ....It come in handy it so expensive up here its good have something half price

Have been a member for 2 years and about to renew as I think it is great value. Never had any problem about the free night, half price meals (great!), a free drink in the bar, even got chocolates one night which was a pleasant surprise. We use the 1/2 price meals a lot and have never had a dud meal - have used the Accor hotels in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

After being spoken to by a crafty sales person at advantage plus I signed up. Best part of $300. Essentially you can't use the free night at any of their decent hotels. Can't be used on a weekend. I had lunch at Sofitel wentworth on Australia day and upon going pay did not receive the 50% discount because it was a public holiday.

I can think of better ways to spend $300.

Purchased our Accor Advantage Plus card about 1 week ago in Thailand for AU$175. We have already saved over $100 on dining at Sofitel Bangkok, Vie Bangkok and Pullman Bangkok and just booked 2 nights at the Sofitel Brisbane using our free night and paying for the second night at a discounted rate. All up we are paying $185 and getting two nights at the Sofitel. The booking process was easy and we had not problems booking this premium hotel becuase WE PLANNED AHEAD and booked 3 months in advance, our free night is for a Saturday night!

Wotif would have charged us $205 per night!

My only issue is that we didn't get on board with Advantage Plus years ago.