The_Bouncer

I repeat, I am not after more compensation. I just want the issue addressed.

As for the accusation of hyperbole, the temperature in the room was sweat-inducing, and yes the food was "inedible". The cheese was literally curling at the edges, and the eggs were starting to congeal. Would you eat that?

Out of interest, I thought I would try a little test. I wrote a gushing 5* review of another IHG property, deliberately and blatantly violating all three of the conditions on which my Salzburg review was rejected. This review was accepted first time. QED?

FlyerTalker688786

When this happens, leave a review with a three star and saying: this a wonderful hotel that should be avoided.

Then, go to tripadvisor to write the full review.

IAN-UK

OK, fair enough. But how do you want it addressing? It's always a good idea to let a company know exactly what action you were seeking. If you'd like a refund for your mum's room: tell them. If you'll be happy with an assurance that the hotel is addressing the issue and working towards ensuring that it does not happen again, then tell them that.

Bt digging up the food, the parking and the aircon again isn't going to help. They've addressed those issues. Time to move on.

By the way, I note that hotels are increasingly overriding the aircon settings, particularly at night. Drives me nuts.

scubaccr

I have had lovely stays where being RA, a manager has asked me to either leave IHG report or complete the follow up emailed surey if provided.

Because I see IHG hotel feedback as substantially onesided and unreliably false, with only positive or neutral feedback being allowed (negative gets blocked) i long ago made personal decision to neither contribute or read the IHG hotel feedback

BRAISKI

Its very rare to read a bad/negative review on a company's own website.

When I put a review on IHG I would be "neutral" but then the highlight of the bad review will be at TripAdvisor.

FlyerTalker688786

Not quite.

Everyone complain about IHG censoring reviews should read reviews on Holiday Inn Beijing Airport Zone. It will be a fun reading. Cheers.

The_Bouncer

Now that I have proven how they work - negative review censored, but positive review accepted, despite blatantly contravening the same conditions - I will never again contribute a review to the IHG site, which is a shame because the vast majority of my IHG stays have been very positive and I never had cause to write a negative review in the past. This type of censorship, however, is totally disingenuous. I would rather they just came out and said they didn't like what I wrote.

nvoi

i stayed there recently - actually don't have anything negative to say for my 9hr stay except for the smell of stale smoke...

The_Bouncer

I have now submitted a greatly trimmed down version:

My mother's room was entered by an unknown person, late at night whilst she was asleep. Management later attempted to deny that the room intrusion had occurred, by providing the keylock records. Unfortunately they did this for the wrong room. My request for the records of my mother's room has been ignored.

There were other issues during the stay, for which compensation has been received.

However, after 3 weeks, the hotel has still failed to acknowledge the safety and security issue.

I will not return to this hotel.

Let's see what they come up with to kick this one out.

All I actually want now is for the hotel to admit that this actually happened, give me some explanation why, and actually address the issue. I can't help feeling they are being obtuse by providing the records for the wrong room.

FlyerTalker688786

Did you get the free shuttle?

Were you met on arrival?

Was there any English speaking TV channel?

Did you find any coffee bag, milk or sugar in your tea bags?

darthbimmer

It was obvious to me by simple thought experiment in my childhood that reviews by a company about itself will be lopsidedly positive. As such I do not waste time writing reviews for companies to use in self promotion unless my experience was truly positive and I want to help them advertise. I also put no value in reading such reviews except in the limited circumstance where I am choosing between two properties in the same brand portfolio in the same local market.

The_Bouncer

Well, they kicked out the trimmed down version due to "specific references to other hotel brands" (Where?)

However, I am happy to say that the review has caught the attention of an IHG Guest Relations Manager, who has intervened (unsolicited) and swiftly and satisfactorily brought the matter to a conclusion. The issues have been satisfactorily addressed and an apology has been received.

They have also credited my card with €62 - how they arrived at that figure I don't know, but I don't really care. It wasn't about that.

It took them a while, but IHG Guest Relations have actually done very well in the end.

wlau

Lucky for you... I understand your pain. I wrote a negative review and was censored and I am a Spire level member! IHG is such a large chain, it's not difficult to have a few terrible hotels and IHG is known is an average chain at best, so they should expect some report of issues. I am not being petty and I talking about broken lights, flooding toilet, broken locks, etc.... I travel so much, almost nothing frazzles me unless extremely bad.

I didn't use any "bad" language and it was censored without explanation. I didn't want compensation and just want the issue to be known to other travelers. The censorship was so upsetting, I complained to guest relations. After a long drawn out ordeal, they essentially told they don't want poor reviews on their site and my triggering item is that I mentioned the hotel's building door with key card reader was not working and you don't need a card to get in. They deemed it "safety" violation... whatever that means. The property has an unsecured door and a guest wrote about it and it then is my fault...

Rule of thumb:
1) IHG rating system is gamed and just marketing tool - DO NOT BELIEVE THE RATINGS and do not waste your time writing reviews on it
2) Only (mostly) unbiased system is TripAdvisor - POST your reviews there, good or bad.

KMPete

I've left several bad reviews at IHG, mostly for various Holiday Inn properties which seem to have become really lousy, and they've all been accepted. I usually try to temper the bad by throwing in something that is good, though sometimes even that hasn't been possible. I've even left a 1* review and that got published. However, I do think that IHG might do a bit of astroturfing to remove bad reviews from the first page. Each time I've left a really bad review it has quickly been followed up with enough super positive reviews to bump my bad one to at least the second page. It's usually not hard to pick out the suspicious reviews - like they mention amenities that aren't actually present at the hotel or when there's an unusually high number of reviews that come all at the same time (not related to an actual holiday period).

In any case, reviews on IHG should be read with a pinch of salt. I now leave the exact same review at IHG, Google, and TripAdvisor, and recently I've started placing reviews at Kayak too. Plus, I email it to myself so I'll have a record, especially of the really lousy places and make sure to not return. If you cut and paste it doesn't take all that long even.

FFlash

I am now done with IHG reviews, I will stop writing them. Second time now I was censored away my review, again without reason. I wrote a correct, polite review about my last visit at Indigo Berlin but they rejected it. I only pointed out the fact that the check-in guy was overly nice and promising big words about offering me the best room in the house which turned out the be the worst room in the hotel, which I made a comment in review, otherwise giving a 4/5 correct review with no blackmailing.

So bad of IHG, total lost of trust here now. With this, I cannot even rely reading other posters reviews anymore. I think the best peer remains my own long history with IHG(know what to expect) and comments here on FT.