The latest chapter in the Accor – Ibis Calais billing saga

A few weeks ago I wrote about a billing issue I experienced at the and how Accor had failed to rectify the situation. They kept giving me reference numbers and saying somebody would follow up. Or they would forward my inquiry to the hotel, after which the manager would refuse all responsibility.

I ended up filing a dispute with my credit card company, though that still hasn’t bene resolved. Anyway, since it had been a good 3 months, I figured Accor had washed their hands of it completely. That is, until I got a message the other day from Accor’s customer service department:

Dear Ms. Arghandewal,

Thank you for taking the time to share your observations with our Customer Service, following your stay at the ibis Calais Hotel.

We have taken note of your comments, and we can assure that we have paid particular attention to them.

We regret that the first answer of our Customer Care service, didn’t entirely satisfy you, and we are really sorry about the impressions left by your stay.

We’d like to stress on the fact that we attach a great importance to the comfort, the well-being and the satisfaction of all our guests.

Indeed, given the inconvenience encountered during your stay and the resolving of your request, we are pleased to offer you 2500 Le Club AccorHotels points that have been credited to your account.

Your current Le Club AccorHotels account balance is now 2927 points, entitling you to the Silver status. With this new status, you are now awarded with exclusive benefits when you stay at participating hotels. You will also benefit from a more generous earn of points when you will book in any one of our participating AccorHotels hotels.

For more information please visit AccorHotels.com, and select the Le Club AccorHotels section.

The satisfaction of our clients is of paramount importance and we hope for an opportunity to demonstrate this in the near future.

So to recap, they gave me 2,500 Le Club AccorHotels points, worth 40 Euro towards hotel charges. They also threw in a worthless elite status upgrade. All of this in exchange for the hotel overcharging me $95.87, refusing to reverse the charges, the manager losing her sh** over a negative TripAdvisor review I left the hotel, and nobody taking any steps to rectify the situation.

I find it equally odd that this email comes nearly three months after the fact. Anyway, I’ve moved on from this fiasco and won’t be devoting any more time to it than I already have. At least I know what I’m dealing with the next time I book an Accor hotel. And I’ll likely avoid the chain whenever possible. 

In any case, I thought I’d provide an update for the few folks who wondered how this whole thing turned out.