I am Canadian and thus use Canadian sites to book hotels most of the time. I found a hotel on Travelocity.ca which is a full $30 a night cheaper than what was booked on ihg.com, because it is an extended stays, the difference is actually quite substantial plus the first night free offer. I made a best price claim, after a few exchange the final verdict is:

Thank you for your email and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

We certainly recognize your view regarding this matter and we understand where you are coming from however, please know that there are Terms and Conditions governing a specific program/promotion. Much as we want to validate your claim, the result of verification prevents us from doing so. At the time of verification, travelocity.ca charges in CAD while your reservation is quoted under USD. The rate available on travelocity.com is the same as the best available rate on IHG website, thus claim won’t qualify for the Guarantee.

Per Terms and Conditions,

6. b. Matching Prices - Currency Requirements. The currency of the hotel controls the comparison with the room price and the total room cost on the non-IHG website, and the room price and the total room cost on the non-IHG website must be available, viewable, quoted, booked, and paid for in the currency of the hotel.

11. Verification of Claims. All claims are subject to verification by IHG. IHG must be able to verify all elements of the claim and the required terms found on the non-IHG website at the time the claim is processed and verify that both the room price and the total room cost at the time of verification are lower than those found on the IHG website. IHG does not accept screen shots of imagery of lower prices provided by guests due to the ease of modification or alteration of such imagery.

We know that this will be frustrating on your part but please be informed that the outcome of this validation we made was attained from an appropriate premise. Thus, we stand with the result of our verification.

Rest assured that as long as the conditions of the Guarantee are met, we keep our promise of providing you with a free night. However, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced as a result of this concern.

Should you have further questions regarding the specific terms and conditions of the program you may visit www.ihg.com/bestprice.

We value your business and look forward to accommodating your upcoming reservation. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Instead of comparing igh.com rates to travelocity.ca, they compare it to travelocity.com; name is similar but different site, grossly different rates. As for US$ vs. CAD$, IHG only allows bookings in US$ (you can view rates in CAD$ but it gets converted back to US$ when booked), you are pretty much out of luck anywhere else in the world. I cannot believe that ihg can call itself a global organization. As a result, pulling ALL future business from IHG. Even thought I am just a lowly gold member and my business probably means nothing to ihg, but in principle, I can no longer deal with an organization which hide behind words as oppose to believe in the substance of its own policies.

PS: the travelocity.com US$ rate is still lower than igh.com's rates but the difference is small enough that they don't consider it necessary to honor the guarantee either.