Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.
Part Two of an (updated) series exploring some of the best features of a seriously underrated loyalty programme.
Accor Hotels ‘Le Club’, doesn’t seem to get a lot of love in the travel/points/miles blogosphere. I think this is probably because of a lack of properties in the US (where a lot of the big bloggers are based), but whatever the reason – it’s a real shame.
For those of us in the UK (and much of the rest of Europe too), ‘Le Club’ can be a great programme, if you know how to make the most of it…
We’re going to help you do exactly that with this series of posts:
Part One: Cashback – the most generous in the UK?
Part Two: “Happy Mondays” – hotels in the UK from £25.00
Part Two: Accor ‘Happy Mondays’ – hotels in the UK from £25.00
What is it?
Accor’s “Happy Mondays” promotion is the most generous regular hotel discount around – offering hotel rooms in the UK for as little as £25.00.
Every Monday and Tuesday, you can make bookings for dates from the Friday later that same week until the Monday a week later.
So, for example, the next Happy Mondays sale is live on 12th-13th December and you will be able to book dates between 16th-26th December.
Ibis Hotels outside of central London are just £25.00, while a stay at a Novotel or Mercure outside London will set you back £40.00.
In central London, Ibis Budget hotels are £25.00, Ibis hotels £40.00, and Mercure + Novotel hotels are £60.00.
Why is it worth knowing about?
Accor has hotels all over the UK. Being able to book a city centre hotel in places like Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh etc, on a Saturday night for £25.00-£40.00 (when it can often be difficult to find anything central for less than £100.00) is seriously good value.The London deals are obviously excellent too.
Tell me more…
Availability for these rates is hugely dependent on how busy a hotel is, with Fridays and Sundays tending to offer more options than Saturdays, for example – but it can be surprising, so always check!
It is also worth pointing out that availability can change, so take a first look after midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning (if you’re still up!), and if there’s nothing suitable, keep checking back later on Monday and Tuesday as well. I once managed to book the Leeds Novotel on a Tuesday, when only the Ibis had been available earlier, and have seen availability improve quite a few times.
What’s the catch?
Bookings are non-refundable, but apart from that there’s nothing I can think of!
The most significant potential drawback with ‘Happy Mondays’ is that many people do not have the flexibility to book so late, particularly when there is no guarantee the rate will be available for the hotel you want.
The solution is simply to book another hotel in advance – but either pay the extra for a flexible rate, or use any hotel points you might have (which you can almost always cancel for free). The week before your stay, check to see if there is a suitable ‘Happy Mondays’ rate, and if there is, book it and just cancel your other reservation!
How do I book?
It has to be a Monday or Tuesday, and you’re supposed to use Accor’s specific ‘Happy Mondays’ booking page here. Sometimes it doesn’t work very well though – particularly if you’re trying immediately after Midnight on a Sunday night/Monday morning, attempting to ensure you get first dibs. Getting cashback to track can prove more difficult booking through that page too.
A better idea is to just to click through to the normal Accor homepage from TopCashback/Quidco, and enter the city and dates you’re looking for. Underneath the “Loyalty Card Number” section, you will notice something that says “Additional Criteria”. Click on it, and then type MONDAY into the “Preferential Code” box in the bottom left.
As long as you are making your booking on a Monday or Tuesday for an eligible date, the ‘Happy Mondays’ rates should come up (if available).
Conclusion:
Knowing about ‘Happy Mondays’ has saved me a lot of money, and hopefully it can do the same for you too.
It would be one of my favourite ongoing hotel promotions anyway, but when you factor in Accor’s generous cashback, and that Accor Points (including Bonus Points) are earned on ‘Happy Mondays’ bookings – it’s more or less unbeatable.
Since living at Sofitel Plaza Hanoi for two years where I negotiated the receipt of loyalty points, I have become hooked on this brand. We have a number of Sofitels in the US in desirable cities and now between LeClub Platinum and my personal relationships with hotels, my wife and I always get upgrades, sometimes all the way to huge suites, for the price of the cheapest room. The thing about the rewards are, they are always 40E rather than points that can be devalued or the price for award stay inflated. We have stayed in about 20 different Sofitels and, if showing the Platinum doesn’t always help, there is always a GM who knows the GM where I hope to stay. Sometimes I don’t benefit from double or triple points but the rates I get from booking direct more than make up for it.
Nice to see another Accor fan!
Some Sofitels really are fantastic, and now that Platinum status (usually!) guarantees Lounge access, they can work out relatively good value (particularly when you factor in cashback, sales rates and bonus points – or if you can negotiate a rate like you did). I’ll be writing more about Accor later this week, which hopefully you’ll enjoy!
The Happy Monday sale page has all the dates greyed out today. Have they suspended it? I hope not!
I see the National Express page for 20% off doesn’t work anymore either. Not my day today.
Fortunately it still seems to be working as normal is you type MONDAY into the preferential code box. They always seem to mess around with the sites and page addresses etc – it’s really quite irritating!
Current dates are up to and including Monday 16th Jan
I’ve been trying that all morning to no avail. Will try again… hang on…
Typical, despite trying that exact method all day it’s suddenly working.
Thanks Joe 🙂 Now can you work you magic on National Express please? 🙂
One other question – a little bird tells me the taxes on the Aer Lingus DUB->BOS route are still £75 return if you phone the BA call centre, and not the much larger amount if you book via Avios.com… any thoughts?
Haha – always the way!
I’ve heard similar rumblings, but haven’t looked into it personally yet. Phoning BAEC is one of my least favourite things (though someone told me recently that they always phone the Hong Kong office instead and it’s much better – might be something I should look into!), Certainly worth a try if you’re looking to make a booking anyway, though I took my own advice recently and booked Iberia from Madrid (off-peak) instead.
What are the taxes on that, £160?
The allure of the Dublin option is that I can hop over from Manchester in half an hour, very cheaply. Madrid, while tempting, is a tad further for me!
Thanks for the HK suggestion, will have a look…
£100 ish I think. These days Ryanair and Iberia Express (maybe others?) both fly Direct from Manchester to Madrid for (usually) not much – I’m paying £25 on Ryanair – not quite as cheap as Dublin but not bad!
This looks very useful:
http://app1-baft.rhcloud.com/finder.php
Also need to find out if you can still avoid the phone booking fee. Was OK when you couldn’t book Aer Lingus redemptions online, but now you can!