Accor Live Limitless Coronavirus (COVID-19) Waiver & Cancellation Update

Accor has now updated (March 19, 2020) its waiver and cancellation policy in the wake of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Accor allows guests to modify their reservations for stays until April 30, 2020, a date that is almost around the corner. Refunds are only granted in specific regions and countries, which are not disclosed.

You can access their page for coronavirus policies here.

Here's the relevant part:

Travel with Peace of Mind

In this context, Accor has adopted flexible conditions for travelers worldwide. More specifically, to provide our guests with additional peace of mind, we have made the following changes to booking policies:

* Guests who booked a non-flexible rate with Accor prior to today and with a stay planned between March 1 and April 30, 2020, may modify without penalty. For a list of hotels, please click here.

* In regions or countries affected by government-issued travel restrictions, guests may cancel their reservation without penalty by contacting the hotel directly. Please click here for details.

* For reservations made via other travel sites or services, please contact them directly for assistance.

Accor will regularly update our policy as the situation evolves. We advise guests that wish to receive regular updates on the situation and our policies can do so: by clicking here, via the Alert Bar on the top of our homepage all.accor.com or via our Twitter feed.

This is better than the previous policy (read more about it here) but still leaves many questions unanswered.

Who decides what are these "regions or countries affected by government-issued travel restrictions" that allow members to cancel without penalty and to have their prepayment refunded?

Most countries and regions now have travel restrictions in place that won't allow non-residents and non-citizens to arrive for an undisclosed period, it is likely that these will be extended every 30 days.

What about reservations in countries that yet don't have restrictions in place, but where guests cannot arrive because of lack of flights and government-issued exit restrictions?

UPDATE: Here's the refund & cancellation policy

Global Policy for Existing reservations for upcoming travel through April 30, 2020:

* Guests who booked a non-flexible rate with Accor, may modify their reservation for future travel through April 30, 2021 without penalty by contacting the hotel directly. For a list of hotels, please refer to https://all.accor.com/gb/world/hotels-accor-monde.shtml Note: changes to existing reservations will be subject to availability and any rate differences

In regions affected by government-issued travel restrictions, the following applies:For hotels in Europe and the United Kingdom:

* Guests who booked a non-flexible rate with Accor for travel between March 17, 2020 and April 1, 2020, may cancel their reservation and be refunded without penalty.

For hotels in Australia, Cambodia, Greater China (including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan, China), Fiji, French Polynesia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, The Philippines and Vietnam:

* Guests scheduled to arrive prior to April 30, 2020 may cancel their reservation and be refunded without penalty.

For hotel in the Middle East and Africa:

* Guests scheduled to arrive prior to April 30, 2020 may cancel their reservation and be refunded without penalty.

For guests who booked through a travel agent, online booking platform or other third parties, please contact your booking provider directly for assistance.

This update (got their website to finally show it) gives more clarity, but April 1st is only ten days away and truly doubt that the situation much changes before May or June at the earliest. The refund policy with all most other chains is already through April 30.

This policy change is messy and leaves many things to be decided by individual properties. Accor also won't process refunds centrally through its customer service. Affected guests with bookings need to contact individual hotels that may interpret the rules in the most beneficial way for them to conserve cash.

We published a piece yesterday (read more here) advising our readers to settle for cash rather than credits or re-bookings for some later time.

This policy won't encourage members to make new reservations for later in the year that would be flexible regardless of the rate type booked, like many other chains already have.