Travel guides
These short guides answer the questions you have before you book. Start with the hotel brands, from Luxury to Economy: a Novotel on the South Bank has a pool, while the Sofitel in St James's has none.
GuidesAccor's hotel brands explained: which ones are luxury?
Accor sorts its hotels into five segments: Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel and MGallery sit under Luxury, Pullman and Swissôtel under Premium, ibis under Economy.
What do the guides cover?
The guides answer the questions that come before a booking and cut across hotels, starting with how Accor's brands are grouped and what a brand name tells you about a hotel. Each guide works from published facts, names the hotel behind each example and links to the official page the fact comes from.
Accor's hotel brands explained sets out which brands Accor files under Luxury, where MGallery Collection sits, how Pullman differs from Sofitel and which brands bookable on all.accor.com belong to another group. For each segment it gives a hotel as an example, such as Raffles London at The OWO for Luxury, Swissôtel Sydney for Premium and ibis London Blackfriars for Economy, with the facilities and opening hours that hotel publishes. Its examples come from London, Paris, Dubai and Sydney, and its FAQ answers the brand questions travellers ask most often, from the cheapest Accor brands to whether a brand guarantees a pool.
How is a guide different from a list or a review?
A list ranks the hotels of one city for one reason to travel, and a review goes through one hotel from the verdict to the opening hours. A guide takes one question and answers it across many hotels. The brand guide, for instance, sets Sofitel London St James, a Luxury hotel with no pool, beside Novotel London Blackfriars, a Midscale hotel with an indoor heated pool 12 m wide, to show that the segment does not settle the facility list.
Use a guide to decide what to look for, then a list to find the hotels that have it. Once you know you want a pool and a Luxury brand in London, the filters of Best hotels in London bring the choice down to The Savoy, A Fairmont Hotel, Raffles London at The OWO and Sofitel London Heathrow, where the pool is a thermal vitality pool inside the spa. The review of a hotel then gives its hours and its limits.
Which Accor brand names are most often misread?
MGallery Collection is the most common case: Accor files it under Luxury on both of its brand pages, while many third-party lists call it premium. Pullman and Swissôtel go the other way, often described as luxury but placed by Accor under Premium, between Luxury and Midscale. Lifestyle by Ennismore is a heading of its own, set beside Luxury, and carries The Hoxton, SO/, Delano, Hyde, SLS, Mondrian, Mama Shelter, Morgans Originals, 25hours and 21c.
Two more names need care. Rixos appears under Luxury on Accor's brand page and under Lifestyle on the group's corporate portfolio page, so two lists can both quote Accor and disagree. Banyan Tree appears under Luxury and its hotels are bookable on all.accor.com, yet the brand belongs to Banyan Group, and Accor's brand page warns that some hotels in the brand do not take part in the ALL loyalty programme. Banyan Tree Dubai, for example, is co-managed by Banyan Group and Ennismore.
Frequently asked questions
Which Accor brands are luxury?
Accor's brand page lists Raffles, Orient Express, Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, Fairmont, Emblems, Faena, Banyan Tree and MGallery Collection under Luxury. In London, The Savoy, A Fairmont Hotel and Raffles London at The OWO hold three MICHELIN Keys each and Sofitel London St James holds one, though the segment alone does not tell you whether a hotel has a pool.
Which brands does Accor class as Premium?
Accor's brand page files Pullman, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, Peppers, Sebel, Mantis, Art Series, Angsana, Garrya, Adagio Premium and Thalassa under Premium, the segment between Luxury and Midscale. They are mostly full-service city hotels and resorts with restaurants and meeting space, and many have a pool, though Pullman London St Pancras has none.
Which Accor brands are Midscale and which are Economy?
Accor files Novotel, Mercure, TRIBE, Adagio, Mantra and Handwritten Collection under Midscale, and ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget, greet, JO&JOE, BreakFree and hotelF1 under Economy. In London, Novotel London Blackfriars shows how far Midscale can go, with an indoor heated pool, while ibis London Blackfriars has standard rooms of 16 m² and no gym, pool or spa.
Is Ennismore part of Accor?
Yes, Ennismore is Accor's lifestyle arm, and Accor holds the majority stake. Its brands, among them The Hoxton, Hyde, SO/, Mama Shelter and Morgans Originals, appear under Lifestyle by Ennismore on Accor's brand page and are bookable on all.accor.com. In London that covers The Hoxton Southwark, Hyde London City, Sanderson London and St Martins Lane London, none of which has a spa or a pool.