eethan

I booked a 3 night stay that cost 15000 points per night. When I try to change my reservation by removing the first night, the award is re-priced to the current 20000 per night rate.

Are the IHG phone agents technically able to remove 1 night from my reservation while keeping the original 15000 per night rate? If they have to call the hotel to make this change, is there anything I should be aware of?

somedudefromFLa

Generally they can only rebook at the current rate, very unlikely that you'll be able to do what asking.

skywalkerLAX

It's not possible. Reservations are always rebooked based on current rates.

eethan

Is the best practice, then, to always split your multi-night stays into several 1-night bookings?

Is there a downside to this, other than time wasted and having to remind the hotel clerk to combine your bookings?

UKtravelbear

I asked this a while ago

I tried it on the website and it simply would not give me the option to change the dates for a points stay so I had to cancel and rebook at whatver the rate applicable for the dates I wanted was.

Even when I tried it with a cash booking it was repriced to the current rates for the new dates.

You can see why. People would just book for cheap dates then try and rebook to dates that were more expensive.

IAN-UK

Yup

Not that I'm aware of

And beware of agents telling you they can change shorten your stay without losing your promotional points rate. They can't. I, and a helpful agent, found out the hard way.

rdh0924

Well if you have the IHG Premier card, the fourth night is free on award stays. So you'd need to keep it all on one reservation for that.

Super Mario

Are you trying to get the price per night of a 4th night free offer without doing a 4th night?

Kagehitokiri

even when paying cash this is a problem, at properties with good service especially if they are upscale managers may 'make exception' and override manually

has nothing to do with 4th night free fraud etc

sometimes have to eat cost of unused nights when cost to change is astronomical (say drop from 10 nights to 1 night but new rate is 20X, as reference hypothetical)

all thanks to dynamic cash / award rates

eethan

Thanks all for the info. I trust you guys more than the IHG phone line.

bob12403

In my experience, splitting multi-night stays into several one-nighters is the better way to go. It gives you a lot more flexibility if you want to change an arrival or departure date, as you are discovering. It also allows you to take advantage of any rate drops on one or more of the nights you've already booked. And it gives you the option of booking a low-priced night for cash (often a Sunday) while using points for nights where that would be the most cost-effective form of payment.

Yes, it can be a bit of a nuisance, but nothing terrible. Book, then check the rates periodically to see if you benefit from a rate drop. Make whatever changes you need to make on a night-by-night basis. Then several weeks before your arrival, drop a note to the hotel, tell them you have three nights booked as individual reservations and you would like the hotel to treat them as a single stay. I've never had a problem doing that.

demue

+1 on splitting reservations into 1 nighters, especially when unsure about exact stay duration. This goes for both points and cash bookings though the trouble is less so with cash ones in my case as I usually use our corp rates for paid stays which has often last to availability.

wmz

As a data point, I was able to shorten a 2-night Candlewood Suites stay to 1 night. It's over Labor Day weekend, and the hotel is sold out. I was worried that they wouldn't be able do it, but an effortless DM to the Twitter team resulted in a quick change and point refund for the 1 night.

pazza2000

In this case of IHG, and sometimes Hilton with their ‘dynamic’ pricing, I’ll book back-to-back single nights for the flexibility! This of course takes time and can throw up some issues at check in however.

I’m all for the ‘dynamic’ award pricing model being scrapped! Here is hoping Marriott and Hyatt continue to hold out

DavidDTW

So what would happen if you booked 3 nights on points, did not adjust the reservation, and advised the hotel after arrival and check-in that you need to shorten the stay? If the room is used for just two nights, do you get points credited back for the third night? Or no refund since it was a points booking?

Asking because I have never attempted to do so with IHG, but Le Meridian in Shanghai did that for me a few years ago. I had booked 4 nights and ended up needing only two. I could not rebook at all either online or by phone agent. The point nights were no longer available. When I checked in, the front desk agent had to call someone, but was able to revise my booking and the points were credited back to my SPG account. (No status with them either.)