You are correct. Ebates does not have the reservation (order) number until IHG pays the commission. When you book through Ebates, they assign the transaction a 'Shopping trip' number which is the booking.

When the purchase/stay is finalized, the 'shopping trip' number is associated with the 'order' number and posted with the rebate to the account. I have had to follow-up on many transactions which did not post correctly. I had to provide the 'shopping trip number', merchant and copies of the hotel bill for them to investigate.

In most cases, they reconciled the rebate, but on a few occasions, IHG did not pay the commission and none was posted to the account.

mxm135