Guide to Accor Plus – Is It Worth Signing Up For This Membership Programme?

Accor Plus is a membership programme run by Accor – the same group behind iconic hotel chains such as Sofitel, Raffles, Fairmont, Novotel, Mercure and ibis. As one of the largest hotel chains in the world, the group manages thousands of hotels worldwide, from the ultra-luxurious to budget-friendly options.

Note: If you stumbled upon this article due to the new DBS Vantage Card, check out my review of the card here

The Accor Plus programme is essentially a paid membership where members get to enjoy perks such as complimentary hotel nights, discounts for room bookings, an upgraded loyalty programme membership tier as well as up to 50% off on dining at the hotels’ restaurants.

Membership to the Accor Plus programme essentially comes in three tiers. The first is the Traveller tier (S$298), followed by the Explorer tier (S$408) and the highest one is Explorer Plus (S$528). The difference between these three tiers is the number of complimentary nights that comes with the membership, this being 0, 1 and 2 nights respectively.

Accor Plus and Accor Live Limitless (ALL)

Accor Plus membership can be thought of as going hand in hand with ALL – Accor Live Limitless, Accor’s loyalty programme. Accor Plus rewards you with an automatic upgrade to ALL Silver status which comes with additional perks during hotel stays and when it comes to earning points.

Let’s look at a rundown of Accor Plus benefits:

Stay Plus complimentary night

Depending on the membership tier you sign up for, you get either 1 night (for Explorer) or 2 nights (for Explorer Plus) complimentary hotel stays in participating Accor hotels across Asia-Pacific. This benefit alone has the potential to recoup the cost of membership so you can imagine that redeeming the complimentary stay at one of the higher-end hotels may prove to be more challenging. The good news though is that the booking system for Stay Plus redemptions allows you to check through a rate calendar. If your stay dates happen to be flexible, there’s a good chance of scoring that complimentary night at a Sofitel-branded property.

Up to 50% savings on dining

The other compelling benefit of the Accor Plus membership is the dining discount. With over 1,400 restaurants across 20 countries, this could mean scoring a meal at a high-end restaurant at just half the price. In Singapore, selected restaurants belonging to Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel the Stamford are among the most worthwhile places to avail of this discount. With Accor’s rapid expansion in the country, there are now several compelling dining options under the programme including Racines (Sofitel Singapore City Centre), Skai (Swissotel the Stamford) and Mikuni (Fairmont Singapore).

Do note that the 50% dining discount applies to a dining party of two (1 member + 1 guest). Here’s the discount breakdown:

• 25% off dining – dining alone
• 50% off dining – 1 member and 1 guest
• 33% off dining – 1 member and 2 guests
• 25% off dining – 1 member and 3 guests
• 15% off drinks in Asia-Pacific

Red Hot Rooms – Fortnightly Discounts of up to 50% on room bookings

Red Hot Rooms provides a platform for Accor Plus members to enjoy discounts of up to 50%. Offers are refreshed every 2 weeks on a Friday and the roster of hotels changes each time. I checked the latest one to appear at the time of writing and found offers for the Sofitel Singapore City Centre going for as little as S$171++ per night versus the usual BAR rate of S$276. Whether you are looking at some potential last-minute hotel stays or planning for trips several months in advance, the validity period of the Red Hot Rooms seems to be quite long. I see some hotels with a stay period of up to 10 months into the future.

10% off the best available public room rate

If the hotel you are eyeing isn’t in the week’s Red Hot Rooms, you can still obtain some form of discount on hotel room bookings with 10% off the best available rate. It is worth noting that this discount is available all year round, so that adds up to quite a lot, especially if you foresee yourself making multiple bookings / staying several nights in a year.

Automatic Silver Tier in Accor Live Limitless (ALL)

If you are already a member of Accor’s loyalty programme – Accor Live Limitless (ALL), the Accor Plus membership allows you to enjoy greater benefits by giving you instant Silver status. Silver members earn 20+% more points with every EUR 10 spent at Accor hotels (31 pts versus 25 pts for Classic members) and receive extra perks such as a welcome drink and late check-out.

Verdict – Is Accor Plus Worth Getting?

Even if you just look at the benefits coming from the complimentary night and 50% off in dining, it is quite apparent that you can easily recoup the cost of Accor Plus membership. Indirectly, this card is also a way for foodies to enjoy that much-desired fine dining meal at a fraction of the price. Take for example Mikuni at Fairmont Singapore. Their dinner set menu can go up to S$230++ per person. One person essentially dines for free under a hypothetical booking of 2 persons with Accor Plus (translating of a savings of S$230++). Scoring a free night at Fairmont Singapore under the Stay Plus benefit gives an additional value of around S$300++. Add these two and it’s already higher than the cost of either the Explorer or Explorer Plus plans. That’s without considering the other perks yet, or even the multiple usage of the dining benefit. 

So yes, Accor Plus may be worth getting if you are interested in their dining establishments, especially now that they’ve added a number of compelling restaurants in their portfolio (think the Sofitel and Swissotel/Fairmont Singapore dining outlets).