Tokyoite

see this:
https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/glo...ber-tc#general

14. Limits on Points for Stays.
-------- You must have stayed in the room and paid for it in full to receive IHG� Rewards Club points. ---------

MXM135

As a former employee, you should know better. The authorization form is to authorize a charge to your credit card and has nothing to do with qualifying points/nights awarded to members who do not stay at the hotel. The T&Cs are clear as pointed out.

Staff are supposed to remove the IHG member number so that the property owners do not have to pay for these points. It also gives qualifying nights to a member and in some cases a higher elite status (depending on misuse) and possibly unearned promotional bonus points.

I know many on this forum take advantage of this but I personally do not condone it.

mxm135

htb

YMBAL (you may be a lawyer), but this doesn't make sense. There's a comment field and it's easy to write "reservation is for xyz" into it. In some countries identities are checked anyway when checking in.

Modified to add:

I've just checked one of the reservations I made for myself and it had the following note in the reservation details:

I think that settles the discussion on whether it's OK to use one's account to book rooms for others. IHG clearly encourages this practice.

HTB.

htb

Why would that have any bearing to the OP's ability to make reservations for others and sign a credit card authorization form? Why is every second poster confounding "making a reservation" and "receiving points"?

HTB.

scubaccr

What utter drivel. IHG are not encouraging, it is OP that is being deceitful

I normally ignore poor posts but can't on this occasion ! It is definitely not OK to use ones account to book stays for another party in an attempt to
a)get unentitled benefits for other person
b)obtain qual night and qual points
c)obtain bonus points
d)obtain nights towards promo bonus targets such as Accelerator

Using ones CC to guarantee/pay A N Others reservation is totally distinct and separate and allowed compared to using ones own signed in Elite (or non-Elite) IHG @Rewards account to book room for another party

OP could and should have booked the room for that other person, "In other persons own name" without first signing onto their own @rewards account and either paid the night (ADR booking) or guaranteed (Flex booking) with their CC

Numerous times I have both booked and paid hotel nights for parents, relations, friends, colleagues, and done so using brands (HH/IHG/Marriott) website without signing in first and thus booked in Name of guest who is actually staying in a room.

You can't do what OP wants to do as a fiddle with flights so why should you be able to with hotel rooms. Booking name should match the guest.

Only time I break from the above is booking 2x rooms under a single reservation when I am also staying in hotel the same night(s) knowing that quite a few hotels happily extend partial elite benefits to second room, but I don't push the hotel for such extras.

Qwkynuf

You seem to feel very strongly about this, but I don't think that you are correct.

Last fall, my daughter and her fiancee wanted to visit San Francisco. Since I had a couple hundred thousand points at the time, I called IHG reservations and asked if there was a way that I could use some of my points to pay for their room. IHG said "Sure, just make the reservation that you want, using Reward Nights, then call us and we will add your daughter's name to the reservation as an additional guest."

I asked if it would be a problem that I wouldn't be there, and that they wouldn't be using a credit card in my name for their incidentals, and they said that it would be no problem at all, as long as they were listed as additional guests.

Not only was it seamless for my daughter, they posted 500 Welcome Points to my account.

Since then, I have done the same thing for my wife, when she visited her friend in Missouri for a week - got the 500 points that time, too, and took a trip to Las Vegas - where I paid with points for 2 rooms at one HIX for 2 couples who were traveling with us, and a 3rd room at a different HIX for my wife and I. Again with no problems from IHG reservations, and full disclosure as to how I was using the reservations. And, got the 500 points for all 3 of those rooms, too.

scubaccr

That is totally different. To use your points to gift someone a room, if you do not wish to take the extra time to ring IHG helpdesk you have to sign on to your IHG Account.
To book a 'paid' room for someone else you do not need to logon and do not have to deceive IHG and the hotel to both earn credits/points when not staying and provide unearned benefits to your 'friend'

1. To use your points online you have to sign onto your account , book as 2persons and add family member, fiend etc as the "additional guest". Unlike OPs case there is no possibility to book online for A N Other with own points unlike when actually paying ADR/Flex for A N Other

2. In fact the correct method to use ones own points to book fo A N Other is to ring IHG Helpdesk who will take your IHG acct number, do an account security check AND then book an award actually in A N Other's own name, deducting points from your account. They will even add other persons IHG matching member number to the booking if you can provide it.

nb
I am sure a high 90%+ og IHGers for booking award nights for others take the easier and quicker way out and book online, adding an additional name. It is kind of accepted now, and not just with IHG but other chains like HH

htb

I'm not sure why you come up with this accusations. I have read the OPs post twice and I don't think he was trying to do any of this. He ended up with points because the hotel made a mistake.

I can only repeat: IHG clearly encourages to make reservations for third parties even when logged in. Why else would I get the message under one of the reservations that I made for myself that I should sign a credit card authorization form in case I have made the reservation for someone else? If "encourage" is too strong a word for you, think of it as "has provisions for".

Just because you don't use your account for third party reservations doesn't mean that IHG does not allow these kind of bookings.

If you believe this is "utter drivel" and that you should "ignore 'poor' posts", then please do. I don't enjoy discussing with people who start out with insults anyway.

HTB.

StevensFirstPrints

I really don't get what the big deal is.


I made a reservation with my account for my brother. I told the hotel my brother was checking in and I wanted to pay for the room. I filled out a CC authorization form and named him the guest on the form. I got points from the booking. If my brother had made an account he would have got the points. He asked me to do it because ive booked so many rooms and he doesn't care to have an account.


Anyway, im over it and if I could delete this thread I would.