I went to the Marriott Bonvoy Suite at O2 recently and it was a pleasant experience. This time I’m visiting O2’s counterpart in Paris – Accor Arena – for a tennis day out, spending my Accor points.
I’ve been to the very same venue and tournament in 2018 already, in the Emirates hospitality box. Accor on the other hand, is the most significant sponsor of the arena so I’m expecting much more from this experience.
The closest station to the arena is Bercy, whereas it’s about 10 minutes’ walk from Gare de Lyon. There’s a dedicated entrance for VIP guests, that was open half an hour late – maybe that’s what VIP experience means in France? 😉
Besides sponsors’ hospitality boxes, the venue itself sells many kinds of VIP packages, so the reception are isn’t always this quiet.
All sponsors’ boxes are at level 4 or 5. Accor’s box is level 5.
Unlike O2, the floor isn’t exclusively built for VIP guests and is instead shared by everyone. There’s a window screen in front of the boxes and they’ll inspect your tickets before letting you in.
And here we are inside Accor’s La Suite:
I was pretty underwhelmed at first sight, honestly. The suite’s size and plan is similar to Marriott’s at O2, but I was obviously expecting much more from Accor as the title sponsor. To give them due credit, the decoration is indeed better, which is from the Olympics event a couple of months ago.
The setup however, is totally different to the images I saw online:
Where the heck is the bed? As explained by the staff member onsite, the bed was actually part of the previous design and was removed for the new Olympics theme. They’ll redesign the suite again next year and the theme hasn’t been decided yet.
There’s one employee from Accor who chats with the guests, plus one waiter who serves food and drinks.
Stepping outside the suite and you’ll be entering the actual arena. The suite includes 16 seats.
The height is noticeably lower than the O2 suites, giving the audience a closer and better view of the game. The glass partition however is a very stupid idea – it divides the vision in half making it very awkward to watch from the first row.
As you can see, the seats below us are more preferred, which are probably sold in the arena’s own VIP packages.
These are not comfortable seats and many of us chose to stand in the end. I think Marriott is quite smart coming up with the bar stool ideas in their suite.
This is menu of the day, in French:
They are mostly cold canapes.
The only hot dish is some kind of fish:
Desserts include some cheese and cakes:
According to the ticket conditions, alcoholic drinks are limited to certain quantities per person. From my observation no one is counting though and you can have as much as you want.
Although there’s a good variety of food, portions are too small and I’d rather have a buffet-style serving with fewer options. A few guests ran out in the afternoon to get hotdogs, and I was starving when I left in the evening.
You cannot leave the arena and come back, so I had to remain inside and explore. The stadium is not big, and easily gets overcrowded between games and matches. Queues for toilet can be rather intimidating, and thankfully the suite has its own restroom.
There are some other facilities in the VIP area. This is the Infinite Bar on the ground floor, which is very busy too:
Most of the hospitality tickets don’t have food and drinks included I believe, so people still have to purchase here.
There’s a terrace (smoking area) on the fourth floor:
In a nutshell, Accor’s La Suite in Paris is an okay hospitality experience but nothing really stands out. If you have enough points and live nearby it’s a good thing to try out, but I wouldn’t travel all the way from London next time.
As disclosed by the staff member, Accor is signing a contract with the OVO Arena in Wembley, and the partnership will start from as soon as January 2025. It’s not finalised yet, but I’d be very excited to attend an event at my doorstep!
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