Guessing PC just lost further ground to Hyatt as a UR transfer partner? Their reward chart is starting to look like HH, but unbonused spend is only earning you 1pt/$ vs 3 for HH.
Company Representative - Priority Club Rewards by InterContinental Hotel Group
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Atlanta, GA
Programs: Priority Club Rewards & InterContinental Ambassador
Posts: 51
Hi Everyone -
I hope that you enjoyed ringing in the New Year! I wanted to chime in and provide some more clarity for the changes that were just made to the Reward Night structure. We've updated the structure to a "category" format similar to other hotel loyalty programs, which will allow us to better match the value of the Reward Night with the point cost.
-Carolyn
Below is a letter written to you all from John Muehlbauer, Director of Priority Club Rewards regarding these changes:
Hello members,
I wanted to send a personal note to let you be among the first to know that we are making a change to Reward Nights soon. As we’re announcing to all of our members today, on January 18th, Priority Club will introduce a new Reward Night chart and changes to the points required for a Reward Night at some of our hotels.
The new Reward Night chart is located on the Priority Club Rewards website. You can see that we’ve introduced Reward Night categories that stretch across our IHG brand family and that we’ve retired our brand-specific chart. We believe that categories will allow us to better match Reward Night value to the points required.
As you can imagine, this new chart will mean some hotels will be changing the number of points required for a Reward Night. Less than 30% of our hotels will be increasing with this change. But this also means that we can lower the points required at some hotels; more hotels, in fact, than we’ll be increasing. Not only will we be lowering points required at more than 30% of our hotels, we will now have more than 500 properties available at our lowest category – 10,000 points.
If you have a current Reward Night reservation we will not be changing the points required and any new Reward Night reservations you book before January 18th will be at the current price point. And, because we want this change to be as easy as possible, we’re honoring the old points required for any new Reward Night reservations made through March 18th. Our Priority Club Rewards Service Center agents are trained to help; just call and ask for the old price.
We’re working to make Rewards simpler and easier to understand. By more closely reflecting the value of the night - you’ll see Reward Night pricing reflect location, brand, amenities, demand, etc. just like paid rates - we think it'll be easier for you, our member, to plan and book your Reward Nights. And we are keeping what makes us an award-winning program: no blackout dates, no point expiration, no “seasonal surcharges”, access to over 4,500 hotels through our portfolio of world-class brands, and a wide array of Reward options including Reward Nights, Brand-name merchandise, or redeem for flights, hotels, and cars with our Anywhere Rewards.
Carolyn will be monitoring this thread and will help answer any questions you may have regarding this change.
We’re working to make Rewards simpler and easier to understand. By more closely reflecting the value of the night - you’ll see Reward Night pricing reflect location, brand, amenities, demand, etc. just like paid rates
Thank you for the message, Carolyn!
Regarding the above quote, can you please clarify whether a hotel will be set at a certain category, meaning it will always be a certain number of points for a reward night, or whether pricing will be dynamic, with more points required depending on the hotel occupancy level on any given night? The fact that "demand" is a factor is a bit confusing. I was just trying to understand whether you're considering the overall demand for the hotel as a general matter or the specific demand on a given night.
Even if some hotels become better deals I don't like the more complicated format. One of the reasons I "have been" using IHG as my preferred hotel chain was the simplicity of the reward night structure. Now it will be a devalued complicated version of Marriott Hilton etc.
Location: Baltimore USA / Germany - Ich spreche deutsch
Programs: LH FT, BA Silver, SWA A+, *W Plat, HH Silver, HY Plat, PC Plat Amb, CC Gold, MR Gold, AMEX Plat
Posts: 2,193
Quote:
Originally Posted by PriorityClubRewards
Below is a letter written to you all from John Muehlbauer, Director of Priority Club Rewards regarding these changes:
As you can imagine, this new chart will mean some hotels will be changing the number of points required for a Reward Night. Less than 30% of our hotels will be increasing with this change. But this also means that we can lower the points required at some hotels; more hotels, in fact, than we’ll be increasing. Not only will we be lowering points required at more than 30% of our hotels, we will now have more than 500 properties available at our lowest category – 10,000 points.
I think we all know how this is going to pan out based on past experiences. The hotels most people WANT to stay at will be among the 30% to increase and the ones we don't (especially low end properties that need to be renovated) will decrease. At least for NOW the maximum redemption rate has stayed at 50k.
PriorityClubRewards could you please advise when the hotels new Categories will be publically available? Or do we have to wait until Jan. 18 so we are basically out of luck?
I think we all know how this is going to pan out based on past experiences. The hotels most people WANT to stay at will be among the 30% to increase and the ones we don't (especially low end properties that need to be renovated) will decrease. At least for NOW the maximum redemption rate has stayed at 50k.
Exactly, its going to be a terrible deal. The hotels that go down, it will hardly matter. Maybe some overpriced to begin with ICs go from 50K to 45K, big deal.
Or again out of the way or worn out places no one wants to stay out.
While the 30% that go up will be everything in the major cities of the world
and I bet we will see big increases too with at least some CPs hitting the 45 or 50K mark. And hell would not be surprised to see even HI/HIX/ETC in good locations hit that either.
Is a complete list of current properties and their point value available online? If not, how can we make sure that we can still book at the old level between Jan. 18th and Mar. 18th?
You can't win with this arrangement, however it is worked out.
At present, the delta is ALWAYS in your favour. If the points total is too high (ie $100 for a 20,000 pointer) then you pay cash. If the points required are disproportionately low, you use points.
You will now find that the cost per point is roughly the same across the board, which means fewer bargains. Ironically, the best remaining deals are likely to be at the 50,000 point end, eg IC London, Paris which will offer a better '$ per point' ratio than elsewhere.
__________________ www.headforpoints.com, the new daily Avios (and much more) blog which includes the UK's best loyalty credit card guide
So much for providing substantial advance notice to be fair to customers who have been collecting points for way more than ten days to 3 months only to end up getting less than 3 months' advance notice.
Customers are certainly going to lose out in the main.
If PC wants to be more fair to customers, how about allowing date changes without repricing the award even for stays beyond March 18th?
__________________
Like TSA, DL SkyMiles management treats airline customers as if they are the enemy or sheep to be fleeced and it shows.
Of course, we have yet to see the exact details relating to the new redemption values for individual properties but, as stated previously, they are likely to increase significantly at properties in popular/expensive locations.
This, in recent addition to
- relative lack of bonus point earning opportunities
- making it increasingly difficult to maintain elite status by counting only base points
All in all, a triple whammy detrimental to the majority of PC members.
They are going the right way about alienating previously loyal customers.
Perhaps the silver lining will be an improvement in benefits to members but nothing but silence so far on that one.
I don't have any business stays. All are leisure stays and therefore come out of my pocket.
I am seeing less and less value/benefits here.
Radisson is represented in most of the locations I visit.They have had some excellent recent promotions and have a higher points/£ earning ratio than PC.
Quite likely to jump ship unless some positive news emanates from Priority Club as it has all been negative recently.
Company Representative - Priority Club Rewards by InterContinental Hotel Group
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Atlanta, GA
Programs: Priority Club Rewards & InterContinental Ambassador
Posts: 51
Quote:
Originally Posted by crimsonAA
Thank you for the message, Carolyn!
Regarding the above quote, can you please clarify whether a hotel will be set at a certain category, meaning it will always be a certain number of points for a reward night, or whether pricing will be dynamic, with more points required depending on the hotel occupancy level on any given night? The fact that "demand" is a factor is a bit confusing. I was just trying to understand whether you're considering the overall demand for the hotel as a general matter or the specific demand on a given night.
Thank you!
A hotel will be set to one category - pricing is not dynamic as of now. And think of "demand" as total demand for a property, not as nightly demand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by christianj
PriorityClubRewards could you please advise when the hotels new Categories will be publically available? Or do we have to wait until Jan. 18 so we are basically out of luck?
We'll be updating hotels values on January 18th, and the values will be available in search on priorityclub.com, but we will not be providing a full list of the hotels. Keep in mind that you'll be able to book the old point value until March 18th.
And some of them might see price increases of 43% (if CP 35k -> new cat 9 of 50k)
