All guides Hotels & Stays
Hotel programs, status, points and the booking choice that decides whether any of it counts.
28 articles, each checked against an official source and dated.
Asia
Join ALL Accor+ Explorer by 31 October 2026 and get 3,000 Reward Points, worth about USD 65. Who qualifies, what the points are worth where you live, and whether to bother.
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Asia
On most Booking.com stays the property charges your card and sets the cancellation and no-show fees. Free cancellation ends at a stated date and time, usually hotel time, and flat taxes such as Kyoto's 200 to 10,000 yen a night are paid at the desk.
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Asia
Genius Level 2 takes 5 bookings in 2 years and Level 3 takes 15, however long each stay is. The discount comes off the price before taxes, a level is never taken away, and at a chain hotel the booking usually earns no hotel points.
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Asia
From 1 October 2026, ALL Accor+ Explorer benefits reach hotels in ten more countries across the Middle East and Pakistan. Accor's own rules exclude Sofitel, MGallery and Emblems in all ten, and every hotel in Makkah.
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Asia
The new ALL Accor+ Explorer fees took effect on 1 October 2026. Here are the old and new figures for every market, who kept the old price, what happened to Japan, India and Korea, and the points price that went up too.
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Asia
30% off food for up to ten diners is the benefit that sells the membership. Accor publishes the venues it excludes and the dates it does not apply, and in Asia they land on the meals you would plan a trip around.
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Asia
Booking both with one airline feels like one trip from one company. AirAsia's own hotel terms say in writing that it is two, and what that costs when the flight moves.
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China
A hotel registers your stay with the local police and faces a fine of up to 5,000 yuan for not submitting it. Stay anywhere that is not a hotel and the duty moves to you, within 24 hours, with a fine of up to 2,000 yuan.
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Hong Kong
The Hotel Accommodation Tax came back on 1 January 2025 at 3%. A stay of 28 consecutive nights in the same hotel is not subject to it at all, and the 10% service charge is not part of what the 3% is calculated on.
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Korea
The refund Korea Customs publishes requires the purchased goods themselves, unopened and unused, confirmed out of the country at departure. A separate accommodation refund is widely promoted and no official page we could reach states whether it is currently in force.
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Japan
The tax is a flat amount per person per night, set by the room-only rate, and the top band went from 1,000 yen to 10,000. The property collects it, though the city says a booking site's price may already include it.
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Malaysia
The rate was re-gazetted in December 2025 at ten ringgit per room per night, including bookings made through online platforms. It is charged per room rather than per guest, and the Act does not define the word that decides whether you owe it.
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Singapore
No accommodation levy, a 10% service charge, 9% GST charged on top of it, and an explicit exemption letting hotels quote prices without either, which most Singapore businesses do not get.
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Thailand
Section 38 of the Immigration Act puts the 24-hour notification on the house owner, landlord or hotel manager, in every case, including a private rental. The English version of the rule is shorter than the Thai one, and what it leaves out is the practical part.
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Global
The base earn rate is the same at every tier, the better member discount applies to a much smaller pool of hotels, and the programme's own FAQ gets one of its multipliers wrong.
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Asia
The programme behind Anantara, Kempinski and 53 other brands has no points and no award chart. It gives you dollars back that you spend against your own hotel bill.
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Asia
IHG publishes a benefit-by-tier table, and two lines in it matter more than the rest: base members' points expire, and free breakfast waits until the top tier.
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Asia
Six big programmes work in three ways: points, a cash rebate, or a discount you buy outright. One question about your own nights settles which suits you.
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Asia
Hyatt publishes a nights number and a points number for every tier, and the choice between them decides whether the programme suits how you travel in Asia.
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Asia
What the paid membership includes, and the arithmetic that decides whether it is worth buying for your travel
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Asia
What you give up on a third-party booking, when the OTA is still right, and the rebooking problem
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Asia
Why these two decide whether hotel status is worth anything, and how they vary across Asia
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Asia
How matching works, why chains offer it, and the trap in the challenge that usually follows
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Asia
The one calculation that settles it, and why the answer in Asia differs from the answer at home
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Asia
The legitimate accelerators, cards, promotions, pooling and paid nights, and when each stops making sense
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Asia
One tick at check-in decides whether the night counts toward lifetime status
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Global
What the program's own terms guarantee about stays, nights, spend, and points
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Global
What the program's own terms guarantee about status nights and point expiry
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