Originally Posted by
Lionheart
But the hotel will know I've booked in US Dollars? Which would be incredibly odd if they know me very well and I'm a U.K citizen with no travels/family in the U.S. I also need the bill to be under a certain amount of GBP Sterling for work purposes, and currency fluctuations could tip it over that amount. It all seems reasonably feasible but just multiple points of inconvenience. If it was 15% HIX U.S (i.e double) then I'd be tempted, otherwise not worth the aggro for me personally.
Hotels in the UK charge in GBP only, and hotels in the eurozone charge in EUR only, unless they are taking part in the
DCC scam.
If you use a GBP card at a UK IHG hotel, there is no way you could be charged in US dollars.
If you click through US topcashback, your cashback will be in USD. If you click through UK topcashback, your cashback will be in GBP. Either way, the default is for the hotel to charge in its base currency.
Both cashback sites will send you to the same IHG site. You can get the IHG site to do approximate currency conversions, but it clearly tells you that they are approximate and that the actual rates are in the hotel's currency. The IHG website itself doesn't process payments, information is sent to the hotel and they do it.
Not sure what your citizenship has to do with any of this, and your travel history and family situation is none of a hotel's business.
It is possible to book a UK hotel with a GBP card and pay in USD if you use a website like hotels.com, which does process payments itself (if you choose not to pay at check-out), and hotels.com appears to be able to charge in a wide range of currencies of the customer's choice.