PES_B1

Enhancement is an one way word

sfozrhfco

….and once one hotel gets away with it, others follow soon thereafter…just like the proliferation of punitive amenity fees.

beachmouse

Hyatt’s footprint issues are a deal breaker for me. They just don’t have properties in so many places we end up abs when they do, it’s often a Hyatt Place that’s more expensive than a brand new HIX.

craigthemif

If a hotel offers a full buffet breakfast but merely charges extra for made-to-order Eggs Benedict, mimosas, etc. that's hardly a reason to get out the pitchforks.

It's when "elite breakfast" is defined as something much worse than "breakfast-included" room rates that people should be concerned.

PES_B1

Are there any particular terms for IHG breakfast? For example, the Marriott plat Above free breakfast is technically for continental breakfast, and the hotel is totally free to not offer hot food.

HadesNL

at IHG T&C concerning Diamond welcome amenity breakfast
https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/cu...er-tc/2nd-page

Diamond Elite Members’ Welcome Amenity choice also includes Free Breakfast at full-service and select-service brands (REGENT, InterContinental, Vignette, Hualuxe, Hotel Indigo, voco, Crowne Plaza, Even, Holiday Inn, and Kimpton

• Available for Member and one guest registered to the same room for each night of stay
• Includes one main menu item with unlimited non-alcoholic beverages or full buffet with unlimited non-alcoholic beverages per person
  • Select Breakfast menu items may be excluded (such as specialty/local-themed items)
• Alcoholic beverages and certain specialty drinks excluded
• Not available for In-Room dining or at specialty restaurants

one must keep in perpective that the ability to deliver breakfast, the palate and taste of local breakfast varies from hotel to hotel and within the brand....
example: IC PL has a breakfast buffet + à la carte with touch of Theo Randall X Qatar, an Indigo in Bali will have a buffet with fried rice and noodles, the Crowne Plaza Nottingham does a full English per buffet, Crowne Plaza Hiroshima provides Japanese set Bento.......

GUWonder

So it’s safe to assume that IHG was eating the costs of Diamond breakfasts and the customers paying for Ambassador membership to retain Diamond status have not been deemed to be sufficiently valuable for IHG to keep this game going any longer?

Too bad, as in some ways this was getting IHG hotels some business that they wouldn’t otherwise get.

dw

Not necessarily the entire cost of the breakfast, but in other programs it’s pretty standard that the loyalty program reimburses the property a set amount for each breakfast. Before last year’s changes, there wasn’t much of an on property cost for Diamonds to the loyalty program, but that’s changed now.

HadesNL

to be fair, in perspective and with timeline in mind:


Extending Spire via AMB has been since 2015
Spire had kinda no benefits but the points earning rate 100% was excellent
IHGrewards always was an earn & burn program to just get free rooms
For status & benefits you'd go to the competition
This business model suited IHG for a long time because most of its brands are lower & midscale with a small upper segment IC
A polar opposite of Starwood & Hyatt whom in the past only had hotels in the upper segments luxury class
AMB program is to drive members from the lower & midscale properties to IC

New Diamond status arrived in 2022 with a guaranteed breakfast
So now in 2023, over a period of a year, corporate must have crunched the numbers,

Wheras in the past Spire extension via AMB would drive business to IC only
Now in the present, Diamond extension via AMB would generate cost of breakfast at ALL IHG brands: IC, Kimpton, Regent, etc ....

Hence the laissez faire AMB-trick by IHG (looking the other way)
turned from an incentive
into an exploitation marketed & pumped by blogs which must have generated a higher influx of Diamond,
larger retaining bloated Diamond elite pool and causing strain
instead of the organic growing / diminishing of diamonds by EQN/EQP

Most similair example is the easy signup US creditcard Hilton Aspire :
which grants so many uncontrolled hoards of Hilton diamond members
that instead of free breakfast in USA, it has been toned down to a breakfast credit for USA (and slowely moving to other brands *Motto)
(you would have think Hilton would manage Hilton Diamond influx by creditcards but i bet they have become dependant on the revenue generated and as such forsaken the need for quality benefits being delivered: Marriott & Hyatt going the same route)

I bet IHG as a laggard in loyalty & IT, has spotted that horrible development (and just like the shrewd 40/70N milestone award for lounge access) is implementing a floodgate measure by closing the AMB-trick to keep Diamond ranks managable and let ranks rise diminish naturally via EQP/EQN

Ah, well at least everyone got a year's worth out of it!
[apologies, rant over]

beachfan

My free ride has ended. Still Ambassador but lost Diamond. No more breakfast.

was hoping it would extend another week as I check into the IC Wellington Monday.

do hotel systems get your current status updated automatically?

Smythmeister

Yes, they'll see the status your account is at the time you check in.

Had your diamond been extended by the ambassador renewal trick last year and has now gone down to platinum?

beachfan

yes, but Dec 22, not last year.