About Time: You Discovered Accor’s Loyalty ProgrammeBy Iona Goulder

Having a membership for everything feels like a (somewhat annoying) necessity when it comes to life nowadays. You can’t do a weekly food shop for under £200 without a Tesco Clubcard, lunch at Pret is unaffordable without their ridiculous subscription, and I don’t think I’ve been able to cash in my Boots advantage points in over a decade. In short, I’m a bit fed up with feeling like a data farm in exchange for a slightly cheaper meal deal.

In order to make a membership worthwhile in 2024 you need more bang for your buck, which is where ALL (Accor Live Limitless), the scheme from hotel giant Accor, piqued our interest. Free to join, ALL gives you an immediate discount on all brands of hotels in their portfolio (from Raffles to Ibis Budget so all bases are covered), and loads you up with points every time you stay somewhere (which is a great bonus). Once you have enough, you rise through the tiers and are welcomed with late checkouts, early check-ins, free drinks, upgrades and the lot, but what intrigued us most was the money can’t buy experiences you can use your points for.

To see how the points-people live, we were invited to The Pullman London St Pancras for “A Night With The Stars” to celebrate The Oscars 2024. After checking in, we claimed our free welcome drink at GA (the effortlessly chic restaurant and cocktail bar within the hotel), before going up to our deluxe room.

With views across the capital (side note: we did not know The British Library next door was shaped like a boat), the rooms in The Pullman are spacious and premium, featuring huge walk-in showers, Nespresso Machines, a chaise longue comfier than our sofas at home and most importantly – a massive bed so luxurious you can feel yourself sinking into it. Honestly, we could have easily slept for 15 hours, but fortunately, we had the biggest night in cinema to attend.

Held in The Shaw Theatre (which we’re told has hosted historic shows from the likes of Elton John and Queen in the past), guests were welcomed with cocktails, Prosecco and enough popcorn to sink a ship to watch all the red carpet action, before moving into the theatre itself for the main event. Held in association with ITVX, who are the streaming partner for the ceremony this year, it was refreshing to watch The Oscars in a somewhat ceremonious environment with people dressed to the nines, rather than trying to stay awake on the sofa like every other year. The mood was casual, guests cheered for their favourites, jaws dropped when Al Pacino delivered Best Picture and hearts swelled at Ryan Gosling’s career-defining performance of ‘I’m Just Ken’ from Barbie.

With the crowd a mix of media types and other ALL Members, it was an overwhelmingly unique experience – and an infinitely more poignant benefit to what seems like a well-curated membership program. As the ceremony ended and we retired upstairs to our rooms, it left us with the idea that maybe one more membership card in the wallet isn’t bad after all.

Note: stay was provided by Accor at The Pullman London St Pancras.

For more information on ALL, see here.