kentishtraveller

Is it just me thats been experiencing this of late? Just about every HI/CP Ive stayed at over the past three months, I am yet to receive a complimentary room upgrade (even when the rooms are available).
Now dont get me wrong, the points are great with Priority Club but the room upgrades are getting few and far between which sort of undervalues the Platinum status.
Now I generally stay at IHG hotels for nearly 200 days of the year (yes really!) but, most of the places now offer very little to the priority club member (points aside).
This ranges from discount on food and drinks vanishing (10%) to be replaced by a 20% service charge on everything at some places (Ive only noticed this on checkout).
Complimentary newspapers (gone)
Free drink at check in (offered by some but now gone)
The Priority check in has also lost its charm as a few of the hotels recently have removed the Priority check in sign so you queue with everyone else to sign in.
Am I expecting too much or just generally being a bit of a moaner?

mnredfox

200 nights are you aren't a RA?

boar

I think you should join the Ambassador program, take advantage of the 241 deals at the IC's in Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest and Malta and get yourself promoted to Royal Ambassador. Use the BOGO at the London IC.

I think you will find you receive far better treatment as a RA Platinum as opposed to a mere Platinum at many ICHG hotels, mainly CP's, across the UK.

ag51

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8520/4.6.1.314 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/125)

HI Birmingham gave me an exec upgrade, free drinks voucher and were offering free Independents last weekend - and the weekend before, CP Manchester Airport gave me my usual Club room and club access - although they have told me in the past that is more to do with being an RA than a Plat

ag51

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8520/4.6.1.314 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/125)

I used to do over 100 nights at UK HIs and had never heard of Ambassador - many people will never use an IHG property outside the UK, and we currently only have one IC so not much opportunity to earn RA.

Motors

Do you have a list of the properties? May as well name and shame them!

britbronco22

Where do you mainly stay? Considering the number of nights, there are other programs that offer more status benefits for that level of stays, such as Marriott, Hilton, but obviously you need properties to stay at! ICHG tends to be more common outside of city centres than those two

boar

That's true but given how cheap budget air travel is within Europe it's definitely worth taking advantage of the 241 deal's at IC's to make sure
you get RA. It does appear that many UK CP's look after RA's. Maybe we should list them. In additon to Manchester & Birmingham, Heathrow, Gatwick and London Shoreditch all seem to give preferential treatment to RA's.

midnight

The OP has a good point.

Motors has asked for an example, so here's one from me.

Holiday Inn Reading M4 Junction 10, United Kingdom.

The hotel has a formal policy of refusing upgrades to executive rooms, instead they offer a standard room on the 5th floor (they have six floors but the top floor is smoking)

The hotel formally defends it's policy here: (read Management responses)
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_R...e_England.html

Sorry for any pop ups, but this is a great site.

docklander

The response is so entirely ignorant and/or full of sh*t , that i thought worthy of a copy/paste to save the bother

Quote:

Dear Guest

Thank you for your comments.

We are however disappointed by some of your ratings which are clearly motivated by your having demanded a free upgrade to an executive room on arrival, which you are aware you are not entlted to as a Platinum Priority Club member in a Holiday Inn. This entitlement to a free room upgrade only applies when you stay at an Intercontinental Hotel which is the 5 star brand within our chain. As you will appreciate , this was explained to you by both the duty manager on arrival and our guest relations department, but regretably motivated your review without any valid reason.
I would also note for the record that our new hotel is a Four Star property having recently been awarded AA 4 star status whilst the other Holiday Inn you refer to in Reading has a 3 star classification.
Regards

:unquote

...in fact looking at the reviews it wouldn't be at all surprising if they wrote a few themselves.Some are a little OTT .....even for a ' boutique ' HI

Amyrlin

I have also stayed at Reading, junction 10, they were not very good, they wanted to charge me for a room I had already paid for, and ignored requests.


Conversely, I got good treatment with upgrade and drinks etc from Stratford on Avon last week,

camsean

I'd be sending this cr8p through to IHG corporate. The tone is incredibly condescending for somebody that doesn't even know the rules of their own programme.

ag51

Poor customer relations on the part of the hotel, but they do know the rules of the program. There is no requirement to upgrade to Executive Rooms; the hotel is fulfilling it's obligations by giving PC members rooms on a higher floor, as stated in the T&Cs. While many hotels obviously think that they will generate more loyalty and repeat business by offering better than the minimum required, some will stick to the letter of the rules.

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/.../0/en/ptc.html

PixieStyx

If they know the rules then why are they quoting that room upgrades are only for Intercontinental Hotels and not Holiday Inns for Plat? I was under the impression that IC didnt recognize Plats at all and only reward AMB status.

ag51

I was only talking about the upgrades for Plats at HIs - you're right that the bit about ICs is drivel (unless the person who complained was a Plat Amb or RA)