Originally Posted by
stimpy
As someone who's been with IC since before IHG existed, I can say that it was a very short period where they published any stay count minimum. That period coincided with the global economic crisis and I think it was a temporary reaction to try and drive business. But stay totals were never there before and perhaps they no longer exist now. And as I've stated before, revenue was previously a component and may very well be in fashion again.
I agree it can be annoying for people who are trying to maintain status in multiple programs and the agents on the phone are no help. But I guess that IHG just doesn't care about people who are trying to maintain status in multiple programs. They probably don't amount to a hill of beans from where the CFO sits.
Look at this another way.
What is the purpose of a frequent guest scheme? Is it to reward past loyalty or encourage future stays? The typical view is that it is the latter, if it is to be bestowed as a backslap for past patronage that would be unusual.
So assuming the purpose of any "loyalty" scheme is not to reward loyalty but to encourage future business and particularly push marginal business that would never have come the businesses way, how does having opaque qualification criteria fit this goal? Doesn't it undermine that very goal?
Multiple chain status is especially important with chains like IHG because the vast bulk of the portfolio is crap. I like IC's, I am loyal to IC's, I like a few CP's but some of them are shockingly bad so I gravitate to known properties and am cautious about the chain. I quite like Indigos and Staybridge but the footprint is too small to be reliable and I would really prefer IC type properties always.
Are typical IC guests really going to do a truckload of HI stays to gain status? I think not. I cannot make IHG my main chain because I have little interest in staying in low end properties in low rent locations and the IC and decent CP portfolio does not extend far enough to be useful by itself.
Thus if I want a decent full service property in many locations I need to look beyond IHG. This is a huge market for IHG if tapped properly, it should not be an insignificant speck on the CFO's spreadsheet it should be the core demographic he is chasing.
The real answer is for IHG to be acquired by another hotel company where IC's could be folded into a higher end full service brand offer which has the footprint to be viable.