holtju2

And IHG corporate would make this list without requests from the properties?

These hotels can refer to the T&Cs governing the Ambassador program upgrades if they don't want to upgrade you to the long list of suites. Period.

I have been many of these excluded suites. Most recently at the King Australia Suite at the IC Sydney last Friday.

stimpy

Who knows?

What I do know, and what anyone here can do, is speak directly to the hotel in question. As has been repeated several times Century City does not have this exclusion for RA's. It's actually a formal policy they have and you can even get it in writing from them. At that hotel, these exclusions count for AMB's, but not RA's.

IAN-UK

I'd guess the hotel managers are happy to have exclusions as their fallback position, though of course they are able to release rooms as they wish - and are pleased to do so for regular visitors.

Flying Lawyer

Fact of the matter is that it is no longer guaranteed. Several hotels are happy to put you in these suites if they are available but they avoid negative consequences for themselves in case they are booked / will be booked otherwise.

Unterwegs

Two more data points:

IC Frankfurt: got upgrade to Club Suite (size of around 2.5 normal rooms) incl. club access from cheapest. That is better than I had before.

IC Hong Kong: At Check In I still got my usual xx16 Junior suite plus club access from cheapest Harbor view. But they informed me that they changed their policy and provide only a two level upgrade in the future (which means you need to book Superior Harbor view,usually 200-300 HK$ more - or pay a 750 HK$ surcharge)

It really seems to depend on the hotel how they interpret the rules.

turner32

IC Singapore Robertson Quay aren't even open yet, but they've already invented a fake room category that is not even bookable on the website.

These are the categories

STUDIO KING
DELUXE STUDIO KING (Floors 5 to 9)
CLUB INTERCONTINENTAL STUDIO
Club Intercontinental Deluxe Studio (Floor 10) < - - Unbookable category
QUAYSIDE SUITE KING
QUAYSIDE CORNER SUITE KING
EXECUTIVE SUITE KING

I assumed that I could book a Deluxe Studio, and that I would receive a Quayside Suite. How wrong I was.
So, the 2-level RA upgrade in this instance, is to the same room, but possibly only one floor higher.

If these games persist, I'm going to begin looking seriously at SPG.

scubaccr

1. I have 3night September weekend stay booking into Deluxe Studio King at sgd303++/night, booked 2months or more ago

2. Not pre-modified yet, but reservation is flex-corp-rate cancelable until 4pm on day of checkin. So if falsfied upgrade on checkin, by doing checkin prior to 4pm, I have thankfully the option to cancel booking and go elsewhere

3. Checking room sizes
STUDIO KING <= 23m
DELUXE STUDIO KING (Floors 5 to 9) <=29m
CLUB INTERCONTINENTAL STUDIO <= 23m
Club Intercontinental Deluxe Studio (Floor 10) < - - Unbookable category <= Maybe Club Deluxe studio is 29m not 23m so is an upgrade ?
QUAYSIDE SUITE KING <= 36m
QUAYSIDE CORNER SUITE KING <= 41m
EXECUTIVE SUITE KING <= no size provided

turner32

That will put you in the fake room category, not the Suite that you (and I) anticipated.

I've told them that this is a fake room category to satisfy A/RA upgrades. I'll report back what they say.

boekel

good that I have already clocked in SPG Plat until Feb 19. It seems that corporate IHG tolerate those "fake categories", so then it shouldn't come as a surprise to them that loyalty diminishes

turner32

A response from Duty Manager:



Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Firstly I would like to sincerely apologise for the confusion as I understand that my colleague, Ms Lin, has already responded to your initial inquiry.


As we are a new hotel in the pre-opening phase, our room categories are currently being updated in stages. We are currently reviewing the final room categories which includes the Club InterContinental Deluxe King. The IHG booking site should be updated in the coming weeks and will reflect our latest room categories.


In light of the current website situation, I would like to honour the upgrade to our Quayside Suite if you are looking to book for the Deluxe Studio King room.


Please do let me know that dates you are looking to stay with us and I would be happy to assist


Mr ..... again I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused, the team and myself look forward to hosting you at our property later this year.


Warmest Regards,


Eric Foo

Duty Manager


His email is [email protected] if you want him to look at your reservation too, Scubaccr..

^

stimpy

Actually it IS guaranteed. At hotels like Century City, it is the published upgrade for RA's and only RA's. Other hotels are similar, but I can't speak for them all. Clearly the IHG website doesn't speak for them all either. You have to go to the source.

Flying Lawyer

You should go to the source when replying...

The discussion started with excluded suite categories at IC Berlin....

stimpy

No, actually it didn't. You quoted my post talking about Century City and the loyaltylobby post. Nothing to do with Berlin.

MrOscarh

This paranoia over the new rules makes me laugh. The hotels I regularly stay at have continued to look after me. Direct hotel relationships are key. If you only stay so where once a year, who cares?

Kaix

Agree with the above that it really depends on the hotel.

ANA IC Tokyo - no longer get the Jr. Suite from standard/cheapest room, but now get Club access, which is awesome.

IC Tokyo Bay - no changes, except a downgrade in arrival gift (no more cheap wine as a RA gift), but now can get the 600 points at check-in. Although YMMV on room upgrade as I've stayed here over 50+ nights in the past 2 years so I'm curious what other RAs get here. The lounge here is absolutely awful compared to ANA IC, though.