Originally Posted by
Jaimito Cartero
It pays to research your hotels. I probably prepay 5 nights a year (out of 180), since I know that plans can always change.
Just taking whatever rate a hotel throws at you is a bit foolish. I book as far out as possible, but also, within a month of my stay, recheck the rates to see if they've gone down. I find I save some money about 20% of the time.
+1. I've done this a lot at Hilton and found rates to go down, so keep checking. Great tip.
While I will admit the "final price" for the IHG website is often hidden (you have to click on the estimated final price or something like that) and somewhat tricky, it is pretty clear that there will be additional fees. Not sure if this was the OP's situation or not, so let it be a lesson to us all that we lest not click fast away. In some circumstances the credit card refund guarantee doesn't exist, AP's being one of them.