tangey

wow IHG are really bending over on this one. If the room presented when the dates are input, then surely the room must have been available. So now the hotel is offering you a lower category room and STILL insisting that you pay upfront for it. could it be they have someone who has phoned and asked for the room directly,likely a previous guest, someone who will actually pay ?

And there is that "technical giltch again"

Have you had any previous emails from the hotel. How long has passed between doing the original booking and getting this latest email ? And although the email states that they are unable to confirm, you might remind them that you already HAVE a confirmed booking, which has been verifiied previously by IHG's best rate dept.


This is no longer anything to do with the best price promise. You have a confirmed booking for a penthouse. The hotel can not provide it.IMO you have a number of options at your disposal.

You might consider invoking the booking guarantee, and ask them to put you in a penthouse suite in an alternative 5 star hotel in central Rome. Possibly do homework first and suggest alternative hotels.I wonder do you do this thru IHG or the hotel ?

your other option might be to reply to the hotel and suggest you will accept the offer on the condition that they gift the difference in points and/or agree to comply with the best price guarantee and not charge you for the room.

Another option, if it suits your plans, would be to ask them to change he booking for the next night, or the previous night, a quick check shows that the penthouse is available on both nights. YOU MUST BE CAREFUL with this one, as you would have to ensure in advance that IHG would continue to honour the BRG claim.

aldemar

This sucks.
Called customer relations today about a BRG-claim I made some days ago via their web-claim-form. Firstly I was told they have not received it and now it is too late. (Thank God it was a fully refundable reservation.)
Further I was told that the extra person charge for kids above a certain age at some properties on ihg.com (charge) vs. expedia (no charge) is NOT covered by the BRG and I should contact the hotel directly.

spankytoes

Tom-Schmidtt:

Wow...

Then you might be interested in my email...

Greetings from IHG’s Best Price Guarantee Support Desk. Please accept our apologies, but due to some technical difficulty, we were unable to adjust your reservation to reflect your free night on 13 APRIL 2012 at the InterContinental De La Ville Roma..
.
In order to fulfill the BPG promise of providing the first night free for reservation number xxxxxx we will reimburse the amount you paid via check which you can expect to receive in 4 - 6 weeks. Please provide us your complete mailing address where you would like your check to be sent. Again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause you.

I'm the person keeping you from the penthouse that night and got the same email. I made my booking and claim on 9/28/11.

At least you got offered a discount

limelight

quick data point....

as i mentioned a few thread pages ago, i had a brg for le grand approved by ihg, refused by the hotel. i stayed about three weeks ago, paid up front - and ihg have reimbursed me as promised, without me having to even send in receipts and such.

for those outside the states: they normally issue checks in us dollars, & dispatch them from america. so the process is a little trickier (+ you have to rely on airmail, so i'm guessing more drawn-out) from other countries.

so irritating though the reimbursement process is, it does seem to be working - & when they say you'll get your money back, you can be pretty sure you will. (in my case, at least.)

tangey

An IHG rep here stated that refunds will be paid in local currency where necessary. Its going to be hard enough dealing with the fact that I'll be using a sterling credit card and paying a euro balance and thus thus be hit with around £100 in cc currency fees. IHG said they'll cover the fees. If they also have to then add in ANOTHER currency conversion to allow for a dollar cheque to be converted into sterling, well its getting ridiculous !

bsb21

We have two BRG's for the Penthouse on the same night?

WOW! True FT spirit!

spankytoes

We're a determined bunch!

Oh, and we have the PH suite on the next night too. Same issue for my friend. That's odd that it is showing as available.

At this point, I'd be willing to settle up for a heavily discounted standard room. If they want to reimburse me for that afterwards, we're square. It's better than paying $4K upfront. I don't need the PH anyway.

bsb21

Its still showing up as available on Ihg.com?

If thats the case, I am inclined to say that it is indeed available, as the online reservation systems are highly in-sync with the hotel availability.

btw, as I said before, Rome IC has TWO Penthouse suites.

robertwcook16

Just had a claim approved for the Intercontinental Boston for Thanksgiving night. They said they would contact the hotel to adjust the rate. Have called since and they say that they are still waiting for the hotel to get back to them. Since the reservation is next week I would like this handled asap. I have the option to cancel up until Wednesday as iit was a flexible rate. What takes so long for the hotel to deal with this or is it PC doing the stalling....

tangey

Simply answer is, some hotels don't want to know.

mabramovich

My friend in Philly also had the same issue. The BRG desk said they were still waiting to hear back. We eventually showed up to the hotel and they had adjusted the rate. So it's possible it's adjusted even if you don't hear back.

Try checking your reservation online.

robertwcook16

On priorityclub.com it is still showing with the $259.00 rate. no adjustments there. I was thinking of actually calling the hotel to check, but didnt know if that would be a good idea or not...

htb

To me this sounds like you should naively contact Priority Club (or Ambassador Service) and inform them that for "some" reason your confirmed reservation made on PC.com cannot be honored and that you would like to be accommodated in the Penhouse suite of <make your research>, and if they would be so kind as to make the necessary arrangements as per the T&Cs.

You might also want to ask about what kind of additional compensation would be appropriate considering that the first night was already supposed to be free under the BRG and that you would gladly accept 40000 points.

HTB.

htb

I have the following situation for an IC in Japan.

Let's say the rate on IHG is 20000 JPY plus 10000 JPY for the second person.
I found a rate on a third party website for 25000 JPY for two persons.

However, since I'm an Ambassador, the second person charge is waived and I only have to pay 20000 JPY, making a BRG impossible.

Should I book without my PC number and later inform the hotel that I am an Ambassador?

Another problem I could see with the third party website is that in order to allow "on site payment" I will have to become a member of that page. Without signing up they only offer prepayment. Of course, you can sign up while making the reservation... Any experience with this?

HTB.

kaka

dont say you're ambassador. no reason to. adding it later will still get you those benefits. is your 20000 rate flexible? if not you dont have to compare with a flexible rate. if it is just tell the agent you're a member and if you book it it's a flex rate (make sure you call and not use the online form. it's give you much faster response and you can "bargain" with the agent if sth goes wrong)... dont hang up until it's settled. tell the person you can wait on hold while he/she checks with the hotel or whatever.