Robbyb03

As a Spire Ambassador I've never asked or had breakfast comped. IC Chicago did give me multiple vouchers at Starbucks for my wife and I being loyal to IHG along with some free drink vouchers at the MJ bar or whatever it is called. I don't know if this is normal or not, but it was a very nice gesture. I'd rather the room rate be lower and pay extra for breakfast, when I want it, than have to pay a higher rate which includes breakfast. I don't travel for business so all of my trips are for leisure activities and maybe that makes my perspective different than the OP's. I've also only gotten club access once, when I booked it at IC Buckhead, to see what all the hype was about. Frankly, it did nothing for me at all. Reminded me of club access at the airport which also isn't important to me because 99.9% of my flights out of Atlanta are non stop.

scubaccr

For IHG branded hotels that do not currently have an inclusive breakfast offering (HIE, SBS) , introduction of a new benefit of free b/f for Spire Elites woud need to be "revenue neutral"

To be revenue neutral incentive, hotels woud need to fill 'unsold rooms' with Spires that otherwise would stay elsewhere for roomrate $$$'s to offset cost of both providing free b/f to 'won Spire nights' (minimal cost of extra raw ingredients, easily covered by room rate profit) and higher loss of paid b/f $$$'s of those Spires who already stay (and being Spires, probably stay many IHG nights already w/o a free b/f carrott)

The 2013 free internet benefit was not revenue neutral, far from it, I just don't see hotels where b/f income is substantial, ie major city, high occupancy hotels going for free b/f if their is no gain.

techoin

Maybe IHG is seeing enough demand that they do not think comp breakfast is required

To me breakfast cost does add up specifically when you have few people staying with you..I myself have been staying more and more at Hilton and Hyatt's after all the status matches...in few cases I really preferred at staying ICs but they were not even ready to provide breakfast at incremental price listed on website when I am staying with points so decision has been pretty simple

I have stopped chasing hotel loyalty and choose which offers best bang for buck

vexorg

Oddly, free internet for all kind of devalued the program for me. It was a real benefit when traveling in asia and some places would charge $20-$30 a day for internet. Giving it away to all for free did make me wonder then what the point of the reward club was.

As said before, it would be a minimal cost to offer breakfast to elite members, even offer it at cost, something like 75% discount and people would start to think that it's worthwhile being loyal.

Other than collecting points for the odd free night for personal use, I really don't see the incentive. Most don't allow club lounge access, if the brand was not so convenient for me (as it there are everywhere I travel) then I'd have no real reason to use them. Mixing brands of marriot, hilton, etc doesn't work unless you can stay consistently enough to get a benefit.

sdsearch

How would they detect it? When I drastically decreased my number of stays/nights at IHG properties some years ago, they never asked me why. Also, unlike some other programs, they don't seem to send me surveys which ask, among other things, how many nights a year do I spend at IHG family hotels vs at all hotels.

So how would they know why elites "left" (or drastically decreased their stays), if they never ask?

htb

They also don't detect how many elites they don't have because of not providing breakfast.

HTB.

chrism20

Do you get post stay questionnaires? Most of the ones I receive have a few questions at the end asking how many nights I stay in hotels per year and if this has changed in the last year. I'm sure it also asks if I expect it to change in the coming year. From that figure they can work out how many nights I'm spending elsewhere as they have my IHG night count already.

Like you I drastically cut back IHG nights a few years back and didn't receive any follow up asking why.

vexorg

There is almost always a survey email on the hotel performance and comments where you can express an opinion of what was wrong.

Usually I don't bother unless it was exceptionally bad.

Baze

All the programs know how many elites they have and what level they are. If they detected a large drop in the number of elites you can be sure they would want to know why and if it was because of breakfast they would probably start offering it. But they probably aren't see a big drop in the number of elites so they don't ask why a few may leave.

rebadc

Bingo,

They are also good at getting you to believe the bonus point promotions are good for you. You put the nights in, you get your extra points, you keep your status at Plat or Spire, and then by the time you go to redeem, the devaluation wipes away any gains you thought you had.

These guys know what they are doing, don't think otherwise.

Without the mega bonus point promotions they might loose a large amount of elites.