Question about hotel loyalty schemes - LeAccor vs IHG

Please see below.

Ah bugger, sorry all.  Tried it on a tablet and accidentally hit "Ask"

Query regarding Hotel Loyalty schemes.  Looking good for a role that will see me on the road for 80-100 days/year.  Budget appears to be around $250/day (I know I'll have to go higher in some cities).  My area of responsibility is Oceania.  So will travel to all major cities in Aust and NZ (twice per year) with single trips to Noumea, Nadi and Port Moresby.

I beleive I've narrowed it down to LeClub Accor or IHG Rewards.  Can anyone suggest any other that would stand out?  That level seems to generate app 4 free nights not accounting for bonus points.

Our holidays are generally HKG or onto the USA.

Thanks and apologies again for the User Error!!

IHG in Australia have very expensive hotels in their chain.

Holiday Inns now cost an arm and a leg, and in Australia, thats the lower/lowest of the chain, plus you MUST stay at an expensive hotel in the chain once a year, or you loose it.

Where as (I am new to LeAccorHotels) LeAccor have cheaper options, in capital cities in Australia.

For $450 at IHG's Holiday Inn or Intercontinental, I could spend 2 nights or 3 nights at an Ibis Styles, and have met my yearly requirements 3 times over, $150 can buy you a night at some Ibis Styles hotels.

Have a look anyway at the IHG website.

I was with IHG and have/had 14000 odd points, $1000 per stay, but am happy to let that go.

To keep your LeAccor account active, you can use E-Rewards, and this will give you varying points per survey.

The trick I was told by a member on AFF is that to just answer no for every survey you get, you will still get minimum 25 E-Rewards points, and can transfer this to LeAccor to keep LeAccor alive.

AFF is another travel forum, but they are stricter, and I have been banned from there.

You can read up on comments or join there too if you want.

Just one more snippet, though if you don't want your email address spammed with "legal" or you joined up for it spam, E-Rewards will keep sending you surverys, and are cunning enough to know if you just delete without out ansering them, would be the IHG rewards, which more or less leave you alone.

I just achieved Accor Platium recently and have been a member for 6+ years. Here are my thoughts about the LeClub program:

What I Like: 

- Loads of choices with low (Ibis chain) to High (Sofitel, Pullman, etc) end hotels and everything in between (Mercure, Novotel, Sebel, M Gallery, etc). You'll find Accor hotels in every major and most secondary citiies in Aus and NZ, as well as arcoss Asia Pacific (e.g. Nadi, SE Asia). 

- Not too hard to achieve higher status (i.e. Silver, Gold, Platium) compare to other loyalty programs. They often have promotions with x2 or x3 points and they all go towards your status tally.

- Once you achieved higher status, most member hotels are pretty consistant with providing status beneifits: e.g. room upgrade, free water, welcome drinks, etc. (This never used to be the case but Accor seemed to have improved in the past year or so).

- If you eat often at hotel restaurants, you should also consider paying for the Accor Plus membership (it used to be called Accor Advantage Plus). It's about AUD$300 pa, you are guaranteed LeClub silver, you get one free night voucher, and good discounts at hotel restaurants, i.e. one guest (you dine alone) get 25% off the total food bill, 2 guests (you and another guest) you get 50% off the total food bill, 3 guests you get 33% off, so on (you get the idea). PLUS, you don't have to stay at the hotel to use this benefit, which means whenever you want, you can impress a client with a nice lunch at the Sofitel for example, and your food will be free. I've been a paid member for quite a few years now and found it works well for me seeing I eat at the hotel very often. Althought keep in mind Accor Plus can only be used in Asia Pacific (which suits your situation) 

What I Don't Like:

- The high end hotels (e.g. Sofitel, Pullman) can be a hit and miss, some good (e.g. Sofitel Auckland), some very average (e.g. Sofitel Sydney)

- Whilist Accor hotels are everywhere in Europe and Asia Pacific, they have very limited choices in the US (only a couple of hotles in LA, NYC, DC and Chicago as far as I know). 

- In most cases you can't use points to book the cheapest special rates (they are prepaid only). 

-  In-room wireless isn't very fast in some hotels, I often end up using my own mobile wireless device to connect to the internet. 

Overall given the region I mostly travel to (Asia Pacific) and budget, I'm happy with what I get with LeClub/Accor Plus and hope my comments above will help! Good Luck!

Thanks jianga.  Great summary.

For the large number (and for the competitive prices) of Accor Hotels in Australia and New Zealand I would go for Accor. They're less widespead in the Pacific but have a reasonable property near Nadi.

I would recommend signing up to this for your first year while you earn status in your own right.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/grab-a-shiny-le-club-accorhotels-gold-card-for-just-130

I have been a long time member of IHG.

But there has been a lot of hotels lost where I travel.

EG Darwin all three properties went to Hilton, nothing in Brisbane.

Disappointed in the IHG program of late. You can get Jade at Shangri LA or Hilton Gold fairly easily and get a lot more benfits compared to IHG.

Therefore Accor maybe better depending on regions travelled.

If you can go Hilton if you are doing capital cities I would recommend them.  Gold you get breakfast and lounge access.

Just to add to your confusion.

I've got Platinum with Hilton (Honours) and also with IHG. Also paid for the IHG "Ambassador" status this year. Best addition from HH over IHG is lounge access from any room in Hilton/Conrad - so you can book the cheapest room. With IHG, you need to book a more expensive "club room" to get access to the lounge in Intercontinental Hotels.  So HH works better for us when holidaying (e.g., Bali Singapore or into Europe) when staying at top end hotels as a family - saves heaps on breakfast, afternoon tea, cocktails at 6pm, etc! I also find the IHG program, "Ambassador" program, club rooms, free night pass etc very confusing comparted to HH which seems a little less on the fine-print details side.  When working, I also prefer the HH 2nd tier hotels (Doubletree) compared to Holiday Inn. All the lower tier motels of both chains are pretty similar when on a work road trip (pretty ordinary). I do like Intercontinental as a brand hotel over a standard Hilton hotel, but I much prefer a Conrad (or Waldorf Astoria with HH) where available.  Try the Conrad in Trafalgar Square if you ever get the chance - great roof top bar looking right at Lord Nelson's one good eye! Fantastic!!

Thanks for the replies all.

Apart from E-Rewards constantly sending you surveys, trying to glean info from you, they get your email address from your first LeAccor hotels stay, LeAccor hotels will also keep sending a "how was your stay at xxx hotel", they are always after your feedback, but at the least they do listen, unlike IHG.

I was skeptical when I replied to an email after I stayed at the Welcome Hotel on Swanston in MEL, they gave me a room near the lifts, I am a light sleeper, and so, when I got the "how was your stay" email, I mentioned the noisy lifts.

Of all things, I got a reply back, they said they would put me away from the lifts the next time I stay at the Welcome

Things like this will make me come back, unlike the IHG, when I wrote I was not happy about the "Must stay a night at a very $$$ hotel" and that I won't be staying with the ING hotel chain anymore and to stop emailing me about the IHG ADL hotel, I still keep getting emails from the IHG ADL hotel!