We just failed with a BRG claim in Japan: we booked on ichotels.com and found a lower rate. Our claim was rejected because

"the lower rate is available on another IHG website" (the Japanese ANA website)

On ichotels.com this rate is not available.

This is a poor attempt to wiggle out of the BRG and blatantly against the rules -- I couldn't find a clause that required me to check ALL IHG booking sites. It just says "book on an IHG site", but I remember that IHG Japan tried this stunt already a couple of years ago until I asked Ambassador service to step in, upon which they made a "one time exception".

I've committed the claim again by web this time instead of talking to a Japanese agent. Let's see what happens.

HTB.