I tried to submit a BRG over the past day - is it a generally bad process with all hotels? This is my first time submitting one for any hotel. I thought it was worth it because I saw what seemed to be the same room for the same dates for about half price at a HICV property on a sketchy website called Traveluro. It seems straightforward to me, so that's why I went through with submitting. IHG claims they are seeing a different price for the room and can't accept screenshots (while the price I saw is still there) and also say it's a different room. I told them that even if they think it's a different room, I'd like to book whatever room they have at the Traveluro rate. Waiting on a response - it seems like you can't call to follow-up on this kind of issue and have to correspond with the BRG team via email.
Another thing I don't like is that you have to book the room to submit the BRG. I booked the cheapest rate for the room (with a prepaid deposit of a day) to ensure that the IHG terms would be more restrictive than the rate I saw on Traveluro. I know, I know, you shouldn't do any prepay on hotel reservations, but I was booking specifically for the BRG. So now I am really committed to this hotel stay, I guess, even though I wanted to book it at the BRG rate. I'm sure I can get that deposit back by calling the hotel directly, but the moral of the story is that this BRG isn't a very useful guarantee if it's just lots of hoops and ladders.