IHG Hotels - Friends and Family Promotion [updated Jan 2014]
 

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Friends & Family Terms and Conditions
 

HOW TO BOOK

All bookings must now be made online. You can no longer book over the phone. Please follow the instructions below:

1. You will need to obtain a special personalised URL (web link) through your friend or family contact who works for IHG. Through this you will be given access to our best hotel rates reserved for our favourite people – you!


2. Simply follow the link provided to you, select your chosen destination and view the savings you will make


3. Book your stay online


4. Don’t forget to take with you your voucher to present at check in. You will be able to view and download the voucher during the booking process


Friends & Family Terms and Conditions

The Friends and Family Room Benefit Programme is applicable for only non-business-related travel and is available for room only bookings, at all participating InterContinental Hotels Group hotels (“IHG”) including Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge, Indigo and InterContinental across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. The Friends and Family rate for each hotel will be determined locally and will range with hotel locations/occupancy and blackout dates. Rates may change without prior notice. Availability may be greater on weekend nights. Advance reservations must be made for the room benefit to be given.

Reservations at hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa can be cancelled or modified before 4.00PM 1 day prior to arrival. Cancelling your reservation after this time, or failing to arrive, will result in a charge of 1 night per room to your credit card at the agreed rate. Reservations at hotels in Asia Pacific are subject to hotel and standard room cancellation policies which will be advised at the time of booking.

All bookings can be made via Central Reservations, via the dedicated website www.ihg.com/friendsandfamily, or via the hotel direct. The telephone numbers are not toll-free. Calls will be charged at international rates when dialled from overseas. Calls to 0871 numbers will be charged at 10 ppm when dialled from a BT landline within the UK. The hotel is not obligated to confirm reservations made more than ninety (90) days in advance. Friends and Family rates are non-commissionable to travel agents and do not qualify for Priority Club® points. All Friends and Family bookings will be subject to applicable taxes and regular service charges and are the responsibility of the traveling party. A maximum of two (2) guest rooms per night may be booked per hotel visit. Friends and Family may stay no more than seven (7) nights per stay. The Friends or Family must be in the travelling party for the room benefit to apply. Once a guest receives a confirmation number for a reservation at the Friends and Family discount rate, that rate may not be rescinded by the hotel, regardless of any change in anticipated occupancy. The Friends or Family whose name appears on the reservation must present a valid promotion voucher at check-in including the name, location, email address and phone number of the employee they know at IHG. This voucher must be completed by the friends or family using the voucher. The Friends and Family Benefit voucher is not reusable. A separate voucher must be completed for each booking. The guest must present the current valid form of the benefit voucher at check-in, as this will be changed periodically to reduce the chance of misuse. The voucher can be downloaded from www.ihg.com/friendsandfamily.

Caveat, the discounts vary a lot - some are useless - a 10 to 15% discount is not worth it to make a prepaid reservation vs a flexible one for example.

AVAILABLE ROOM RATES

IC SIN
Starts: SGD$168.75

IC HKG
Starts: HKD$1,674.00

IC BKK
Starts: THB$3,375.00

IC TOKYO
Starts: JPY$28,730

IC THE STRINGS TOKYO
Starts: JPY$23,205

IC BALI
Starts: USD$124.32

IC SHANGHAI PUDONG
Starts: CNY$708.00

IC BEIJING FINANCIAL STREET
Starts: CNY$720.00

I've only checked one property so far (a HI Express in an obscure location without my usual brands), and it gave a discount of about 25% off of the regular Advance Purchase rate and 30% off of BAR for that night. So while this might not represent all cases, I see value in it.

However, these rates "do not qualify to earn Priority Club® Reward points."

Reference:
Intercontinental Hotels locations
Crowne Plaza locations

Yes, the most issue for a points collector/ to remain PC membership

IHG hotels rates are very buyers beware rates - i.e. the Friend and Family Rates may or may not be your best choice - Take the IC SIN rate posted, on the IHG forum someone posted he stayed at IC SIN just last week, and the rate was SGD 138 - that was 30 SGD cheaper than the Friend and Family rate which does not earn points nor stay credit.

You may want to watch for their 72 hours sale for various regions. Australia and New Zealand had some very good rates last month during the 72 hours sale. The just finished Japan 72 hours had mixed bag - 2 outlying ICs in Tokyo had true sale while the other 2 ICs in closer locations jacked up their rates for the discount, made them worse than regular rates! ANA Sapporo did not even participate in the sale. The repeated Asia Sale (on going till April 17) has some better rates than the Asia Sale held in Feb, but some weekend specials that were really good before the sale were taken down!

So you really have to monitor your locations and have a basic idea of what are true bargains and what are just Come On's.

Here's an example:

** INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS RESPONSE **
IC0018587 INTERCONTINENTAL SINGAPORE
29MAY2009-30MAY2009
TAXES - 7.70PCT/SVC10PCT

1 ASIA ON SALE 3 DAY 196.00 SGD DPST /CNOR
1 KING DELUXE 38 SQM NONSMOKING VICTORIAN INSPIRED 38 SQM
NON SMOKING RM KING BED DESIGNED FOR THE COMFORT AND

2 BEST FLEXIBLE RATE 240.00 SGD 4PM GUAR /C-2D
1 KING DELUXE 38 SQM NONSMOKING VICTORIAN INSPIRED 38 SQM
NON SMOKING RM KING BED DESIGNED FOR THE COMFORT AND

3 BEST FLEX W BKFST 260.00 SGD 4PM GUAR /C-2D
BEST FLEXIBLE RATE WITH BREAKFAST. INCLUDES
1 KING DELUXE 38 SQM NONSMOKING VICTORIAN INSPIRED 38 SQM
NON SMOKING RM KING BED DESIGNED FOR THE COMFORT AND

4 ADVANCE PURCHASE 144.00 SGD DPST /CNOR
1 KING DELUXE 38 SQM NONSMOKING VICTORIAN INSPIRED 38 SQM
NON SMOKING RM KING BED DESIGNED FOR THE COMFORT AND

Pay attention in every rate you quote in IC website and compare again! :)

I have tried to follow the links and find the rates for BKK but it is giving me double the cost of what's listed above??? Am I missing something?

the F&F promotion rates are not necessarily the cheapest. Some properties have decent F&F rates but they may not be better than their internet only rates. Good luck using this promotion to your advantage.

My untrained eyes said they are of the same room, same advance purchase, but one is being put on top under the Asia Sale to lure folks and I think someone on PC forum just reported he was taken!

I tried BKK too and was told "rate not available"

Would have been nice if Ambassador/Royal Ambassador upgrade and BOGO applied.

The F&F rate has been discussed in this thread in the IC Forum.

I had five stays on this rate over the past month, and all of them posted as qualifying (i.e., points and stay credit were awarded), and RA benefits applied. YMMV, though.

Hotels specific. It is very YMMV.