Your guide to Accor Live Limitless: hotel loyalty, status and perks

Among the global hotel loyalty programs, including Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, Accor Live Limitless arguably has one of the better footprints for Australian travellers – Sofitel, Art Series and MGallery are just a few names within its vast domestic stable.

Internationally, it’s a roll call of premium and luxury brands, including Raffles, Fairmont and Banyan Tree, together with Pullman, SO/ and the iconic Orient Express. And this one shiny membership card allows you to earn and redeem points at them all.

Among the list of perks are free WiFi access and room upgrades, as well as access to the executive lounge (if the hotel has one, that is).

Novotel Sydney City Centre recently emerged from a $20 million refurbishment sporting a fresh new look.

Of course, that’s on top of earning Accor Live Limitless Reward Points, which can also be swapped for discounts on hotel stays or frequent flyer points through Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Etihad and more.

Spanning the globe you’ll find 5,300 hotels in 110 countries included within the ever-growing program. Though indeed less than some of its rivals, it still provides blanket coverage in almost all the most highly-visited destinations for leisure and play.

There are many reasons for Australian road warriors to befriend the Accor Live Limitless (ALL) program, so we’ve put together a savvy traveller’s guide to get you started.

Which hotels are part of the Accor Live Limitless program?

Accor has an impressive portfolio of 46 distinct brands, ranging from hip pocket-friendly options to show stopping five star properties which deserve the adulation received – and more.

• Luxury: Raffles, Orient Express, Faena, Banyan Tree, Sofitel Legend, Fairmont, Emblems Collection, Sofitel, Onefinestay and Rixos Hotels
• Premium: Pullman, Swissôtel, MGallery, Peppers, The Sebel, Art Series, Grand Mercure, Mövenpick, Angsana, Mantis, Aparthotel Adagio Premium, and Thalassa
• Midscale: Novotel, Mercure, Mantra, Handwritten Collection, and Adagio Original
• Economy: BreakFree, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Ibis Budget, Adagio Access, Greet and HotelF1
• Lifestyle by Ennismore: 21c Museum Hotels, 25 Hours Hotels, Delano, Hyde, Joe&Joe, Mama Shelter, Mondrian, Morgans Originals, SLS, SO/, The Hoxton, Tribe

How do I join Accor Live Limitless?

ALL is free to join. After registering at the Accor website, you’ll receive your membership number and can start earning Reward Points and Status Points straight away.

What’s the difference between ALL Reward Points and Status Points?

As members quickly learn, you earn two types of points with ALL: Reward Points and Status Points, and they both have very different purposes.

Reward Points have a monetary value and the amount earned depends on both a member’s status and the brand they’re staying with. These can then be redeemed for a variety of benefits, including hotel discounts, room upgrades and experiences.

A guest room at The Porter House Hotel Sydney, an MGallery Hotel.

You’ll earn between 5 and 44 Reward Points per 10€ spent (or the equivalent in a hotel’s local currency) depending on the hotel category and your ALL status.

Status Points, however, are a measure of progress towards elite status levels within the program. Like Reward Points, the earning rate varies between 5 and 25, based on the hotel category. Earning rates are the same for all elite loyalty tiers though.

The specific rates are as follows:

What are the Accor Live Limitless membership tiers?

Speaking of tiers, ALL spans five, starting with the base-level Classic tier and moving up to Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond as you frequent participating properties.

Higher status levels can be reached by either the number of nights spent (Status Nights) in Accor hotels each year, or the number of Status Points earned throughout the same period:

• Classic: Achieved immediately upon joining
• Silver: 2,000 Status Points or 10 Status Nights
• Gold: 7,000 Status Points or 30 Status Nights
• Platinum: 14,000 Status Points or 60 Status Nights
• Diamond: 26,000 Status Points on stays and services

There’s no requirement to hit both the number of nights and the number of points earned in a year – regardless of how you’ve qualified, you’ll automatically move up the ladder.

ALL also has an invite-only tier dubbed ‘Limitless’, previously known as Black, which doesn’t have any qualification requirements. Benefits are more or less on par with Diamond. 

For those who limit their travels to the Asia-Pacific region, Accor also offers Accor Plus, a paid subscription program that enables you to experience more benefits in addition to those offered in Accor Live Limitless (more on that later).

What are the benefits of Accor Live Limitless status?

Straight off the bat, ALL Classic members enjoy access to members-only rates, free Internet in most hotels, and early access to private sale rates, plus complimentary use of health club and sport facilities.

Banyan Tree Buahan, part of the Accor All Limitless stable.

As you advance towards Diamond status, your privileges and benefits as an Accor Live Limitless member also increase. Here’s what awaits at each of the programs elite tiers:

Accor Live Limitless Silver benefits

Silver members go from earning 25 points per 10€ to 31 points on the same spend at most Accor brands, with the earn rates at budget hotels also seeing an increase.

Where not already offered, in-room Internet access is free – although in many cases it’s the same low-speed connection available to all guests, with faster downloads a chargeable extra.

These guests also enjoy a welcome drink, use hotel priority check-in desks and take advantage of a free late check-out at all brands, where hotel capacity permits.

Accor Live Limitless Gold benefits

Topping the Silver benefits, Gold-level guests receive 37 Reward Points per 10€ spent, along with a room upgrade to a higher category if available for the full duration of the stay.

While late check-out remains an option, members can instead check-in early at no extra charge, but it’s not guaranteed and depends on the rooms available at the hotel.

Redeem points on dining at properties across the globe.

Even in fully-booked hotels, Gold members can often grab a room when booking at least three days before the planned arrival date, although the perk sadly isn’t honoured during the busiest times of the year, which makes it less useful.

At the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney, you won’t have any luck on New Year’s Eve, for example.

Similar rules apply at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, which bars elite members from procuring VIP rooms during the Melbourne Cup, the AFL grand final and the Australian Open.

Members are also entitled to a ‘Welcome amenity’, which can encompass little niceties such as a fruit or sweets offering delivered to your room on arrival or a handwritten card from the hotel manager.

Accor Live Limitless Platinum benefits

Expanding on the benefits given to Gold members, Platinum guests can take advantage of guaranteed room availability when booking at least two days before arrival, although the same blackout periods still apply.

Platinum members can also make use of any available Executive Lounge (except to the Fairmont Gold Lounge), with access included for both the Gold member and any guests registered in the same room.

Slip into luxury at the Sofitel Darling Harbour.

While it depends on the specific hotel, Executive Lounges typically offer breakfast, snacks throughout the day and evening drinks and canapés.

Unlike Gold, Platinum members can settle in their rooms before the published check-in time, and can also take a late check-out – so you won't have to decide between one or the other if both are available during your stay.

Also included with Platinum status are two Suite Night Upgrade certificates – each redeemable for a one-night suite upgrade – upon reaching 14,000 Status credits, plus an additional certificate with every 4,000 Status points earned thereafter.

Finally, while Gold members earn 12 more points on hotel stays compared to regular members, for Platinum Elites, that number increases to 19 more points, resulting in a total of 44 Status points per 10€ spent.

Accor Live Limitless Diamond benefits

At the very top of the ALL ladder, Diamond members enjoy all of the aforementioned benefits plus complimentary breakfast on weekends at any of the brand’s hotels worldwide – except in Asia Pacific where that’s increased to every day.

Also included are €100 worth of dining and spa rewards and a complimentary Gold status to gift a family member or a friend.

Why not book in for a restorative treatment at Raffles London at The Owo?

How do I earn ALL Reward Points?

While Accor transfer partners are not as extensive as those of other hotel loyalty programs, there are still plenty of ways to load up on them.

Earn Accor Reward points on hotels

Staying at hotels within the Accor brand is the main way to earn points and with more than 400 hotels in Australasia alone, there are plenty of opportunities for Australia-based travellers to grow their points balance.

At 25 points per 10€, an overnight stay with a AUD$200 room rate and $25 spent on room service would earn around 307 points at most brands including Sofitel, Novotel and Pullman, based on the exchange rate at time of writing.

Points can then be redeemed on dining, entertainment and shopping.

On that same spend, Silver members pocket 381 points, Gold members pick up 455 points, and Platinum/Diamond-grade travellers amass an impressive 541 points.

Silver is earned via 2,000 Status Points or 10 Status Nights, which means that at an AUD$200 room rate, the quickest way for an entry-level member to achieve Silver status would be via Status Points, as it would only require seven nights to meet the required number of points.

Earn Accor Reward points with Qantas

Accor Live Limitless partners with Qantas to offer members the possibility of earning both Qantas Points and Reward Points whenever flying with Qantas or staying at an Accor property – just make sure your accounts are linked.

Members holding Accor ALL Gold, Platinum or Diamond status, in addition to Qantas Gold, Platinum or Platinum One, earn one ALL Reward Point per $2 spent on eligible Qantas flights.

Earn points whenever you fly.

Although supercharging your ALL Reward Points balance is great, earning goes the other way too. Members also receive three Qantas Points per $1 spent on eligible Accor hotel stays in Australia and across Asia Pacific. This includes spend on rooms, as well as dining and room service. 

Earn Accor Reward points on car hire, dining…

Travelling locally instead? All members will also earn three Reward Points per 1€ spent (or the equivalent in the local currency) with Hertz car rentals and up to 1,000 points for every rental with Europcar, along with one Reward point per 1€ spent in eligible restaurants and bars.

How do I spend and redeem ALL Reward Points?

As with many loyalty programs, most of the methods used to earn those ALL points are also ways to use them. However, not all of them offer the same value for your points.
Spend Accor Reward points on hotel stays

Points in the Accor Live Limitless program are best traded for discounts on hotel stays, with 2,000 Rewards points giving you €40 (AUD$65) of credit to spend.

Raffles Boston is one of 17 Raffles Hotels around the globe, all part of Accor.

Running short on points? You can choose how many points you’d like to use and settle the remainder with cash. For example, to pay for a 100€ stay, you can use 4,000 Reward points and top up the rest of the room rate with 20€.

Spend Accor Reward points in the air

After piling up 2,000 Reward Points, you can swap your hard-earned bounty for Qantas Frequent Flyer points on a 1:1 basis. Those aiming for Virgin Australia Velocity Points can kick-start their journey with 4,000 ALL points – also at a 1:1 transfer rate.

Accor members can also transfer points to the likes of Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Etihad, but ALL points funnel across on a 2:1 basis to these airlines, which presents less value.

If you normally redeem Qantas Points for business or first class travel, you’re better off shipping Accor points straight across to Qantas or Virgin Australia.

On the other hand, redeeming Qantas Points for economy flights already represents relatively poor value, in which case you’re best to use ALL points for discounts with Accor.

Spend Accor Reward points on shopping, experiences, car hire…

At Limitless Experiences online shopping portal, members can spend their Reward points online on a wide range of experiences and products, from tickets for sporting events to home appliances and electronic devices.

For example, a 128 GB iPhone 12 costs 87,245 ALL points. However, if you redeem those points for a hotel stay, you would receive over AUD$2,800 worth of award nights, while buying the iPhone directly from Apple costs under AUD$1,200.

Similarly, by using your Accor points, you can avail a €20 discount on car rentals with Europcar for every 2,000 Reward points, which once again, is only half of what you would get for booking a hotel.

Do Accor Reward Points expire?

No, as long as you book a night at an Accor participating hotel – or spend with any of the program's available partners worldwide – at least once every 12 months, your points will never expire.

What is Accor Plus?

Accor Plus is the Asia-Pacific loyalty program of Accor, and unlike Accor Live Limitless, membership comes at a fee, offering those who travel less frequently a way of leveraging more value from their hotel stays.

At $399 for a standard one-year Accor Plus membership, you’ll get access to exclusive benefits across 20 countries, 1,000 hotels and 1,400 restaurants in Asia-Pacific, including a complimentary hotel night every year, up to 50% off your restaurant bills and Silver status in the Accor Live Limitless scheme.