Originally Posted by
samwkchan
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.
I agree with what you are saying. For example IHG seems to quote price in native currency (i.e. a UK hotel will be in Sterling), but many sites quote prices that are based on the buyers local country. Now the next thing is, when I access a 3rd party site from the UK, it might automatically quote sterling, but when IHG accesses it from the USA it might automatically quote dollars, so does this make this comparision a fail ? Are you allowed to tell IHG to switch the site to the corresponding correct currency ?
I understand however why they have a problem with the currency thing. I am guessing here, but I had a competing rate that was quoted in dollars on the 3rd party site, quoted in euros on IHG, and when I asked IHG to give me a dollar equivalent, it worked out about $8 more expensive. But I'm pretty sure this was because the 3rd party site had the same price in euros but was using a different exchange rate to work out the displayed dollar value. It was a high value room ($750) so even a small difference in exchange rate was enought to get me beyond $5. Perhaps the 3rd party site only adjusts its rate every night, whereas IHG adjusts throughout the day, or IHG was using an average, but the 3rd party was using a max ?