samwkchan

Clear rules are good. However, the current terms and conditions (as of 5 October 2011) becomes a void promise in many cases. In other words, IHG is escaping from promising the lowest rate.

Suppose there is a room available on IHG at USD 1000 and sold at GBP 1 on a third-party website. The current promise cannot help travelers solely because of different currencies used. This hypothetical case may be too extreme, but its analogues are always seen easily. A traveler cannot rest assured unless all websites in other currencies are checked. It is clearly not the original meaning of the promise.

That's why I strongly suggest that the change of currencies must be allowed again without any discretion from the hotel group. (In other words, the hotel group can set clear and rigid rules on how currencies are converted and the required margin, but they must honor claims as long as the thresholds are met.) Otherwise, please abandon the whole best price guarantee claim scheme which is a void promise usually.

Although the current scheme is absolute legal by law, it denies too many normal claims and makes the promise hollow. Using such a void promise as its advertising tool is ethically unacceptable (well, again, it is legally sound). It is just like a supermarket pursuing a best price guarantee but states in the fine print that only prices in Antarctica can be compared.