Originally Posted by
IAN-UK
I can usually manage to see the reasoning behind rules of this nature - but I'm lost finding any rationale behind imposing a hefty financial penalty (fully flexible room rate) rather than just grabbing the miles as payment.
Just a thought...
Maybe IHG won't compensate the hotels for no-shows. Since compensation can be up to the average daily rate, best flex is understandable. The damage done to the hotel by your no-show is an unsold room at the daily rate, i.e. best flex.
Moreover, a reward night is a fully flexible night and you (usually) can cancel without penalty. Standard best flex bookings (usually) also have a one night penalty for no-shows. Same procedure, hence.
However, since the first point (fully booked hotel) isn't really often the case, it is indeed a bit hard to follow the logic. Sidenote, some hotel chains had the ambition to charge rack-rate in these cases; not for long, though...