scubaccr

I hardly think IHG are worried about losing you as a guest on those 7x nights that you'll only have stayed if you had won BRG claim to stay foc

patgarrett

Quite the job title

mitpat474

He is just a regular agent, cringe how they put those titles in to show some form of heirachy

kauppias

Thats 7 STAYS not nights not everyone stays only for one night for what its worth nor is everyone only looking for a free night but the best price...

Perhaps if IHG did away with the free night and only had free points or a discount then they could offer a HONEST BPG program!

BillyBaloney

They really should change the name. It's not a Best Rate Guarantee.

It's an Advance Purchase Rate Guarantee. They apply the program (incorrectly, IMHO) only to the Advance Purchase Rate. And who would ever trust them on that? It's a damn shame. I wonder how long they have been up to this?

patgarrett

.....

BillyBaloney

Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure we can. When Advance Purchase disappears the day before --- I'm sure IHG is going to get right back to me with my claim for Best Available (and too late to cancel it as well)!

Like I said, it's an Advance Purchase Rate Guarantee, nothing more. They apply the program incorrectly,

ssyjh

Hi, I just posted a claim but rejected by IHG and have a question. The third web-site I found was easytobook.com, and I want to book a hotel in China. IHG said it cannot check out with CNY (chinese yuan) and I have checked CNY cannot be chosen manually.

But I found, for us Chinese, when I open the website, it will show the price in CNY, though no CNY option for the currency. So I made a screen video record and sent it to IHG and still be rejected.

After that, I found the FAQ of that website said, 'The prices are usually based on the local currency – even when you book in your own currency, payment is in the local currency of the accommodation', and replied to IHG, while they still think CNY cannot be the billing currency.

I'm quite confused by that, since it is clearly stated the billing currency will be local currency. In such case, how can I persuade IHG?

tangey

For serveral years, the BRG worked that you could match any room, cancellation, with or without breakfast, to the exact same booking on the 3rd party. It had to be in the same currency, and cheaper by 1% or more. As long as, for example the cancellation cut off was the same or better on the 3rd party site, your BRG would be accepted.

So if you found a 1-bed suite with breakfast flexible that was cheaper on a 3rd party site than on IHG, you had a win. This is what most people would determine to be a fair understanding of a BRG, i.e. another site is undercutting IHG for the room that I want to book.

Now it appears to apply only to the cheapest room that is available, adv purchase only, and no breakfast. It's a major devaluation of the guarantee. So if there is 1 basic room available in a hotel, all higher category rooms in that hotel are automatically excluded from BRG. Many people want a breakfast inclusive rate, as it's cheaper than buying breakfast once there. That's another substantial block of potential rooms excluded The result is the vast majority of rooms in IHGs 4700+ hotels are excluded from the BRG at any one time. likely driven by some decision from above to get BRGs down to 10% or so of the previous volume.

It all stems from the sizeable carrot of offering the 1st night free. I think it is getting close to the time that this will be re-assessed.

BillyBaloney

What you are describing is what I believe to be the correct interpretation of the terms. I've even landed a few of them with that interpretation. This new "Advance Rate" interpretation is total BS, and I think that the people on IHG's end are getting paid extra for denials. Of course, I could never prove it.

Furthermore, the terms themselves state that the comparisons must be of the same rate type:

Matching Terms. All terms of the comparison room reservation, including, but not limited to pre-payment, deposit, number of guests, or other requirements must be equal in all respects to the terms found on an IHG website for your claim to be valid. For example, when you book a room that may be cancelled without penalty on an IHG website, you may not compare it to a room with a pre-paid or non-refundable price on a non-IHG website. At all IHG hotels globally, pre-paid rates on non-IHG sites will be compared with the IHG hotel's lowest available rate on IHG websites. The Guarantee is not available for bookings on websites where the booking details are unknown until after purchase. Sites that do not reveal the hotel brand name until after the payment has been completed (including bidding sites) do not qualify for this Guarantee.

This little section (section 5) speaks volumes. It also implies that it is the rate "that you book." In other words, you have the choice of booking an Advance Purchase, Best Available (a room that may be cancelled without penalty on an IHG website), etc., then you must make the comparison from that point. The terms themselves clearly imply that it is possible to BRG with Best Available rate type.

Our space ailien friends at IHG don't see it this way. It is total BS what they are doing to us.

https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/cus...rms-conditions

BorussiaMG

This is incorrect. You are still able to claim highend rooms successfully.

BillyBaloney

Are you simply trolling? Have you read what people are saying here? Let us know how you are getting BRGs on these "high-end" rooms. Can you provide at least one example? There has been more than enough people here posting to the contrary (including me).


I find that impossible to believe, since Advance Rate lasts until a day before and then they call it "Special Rate."

frogzombies

I got denied because the room I booked was a refundable rate and the lower rate I compared it to was also a refundable rate. They insisted that there was a lower rate on IHG and when I pointed out to them that that was a non refundable rate and their terms clearly state that the terms need to "match" they said that they can compare it to the lowest available rate regardless rate period. I then went back at them with the fact that I had found a lower non refundable rate than theirs, by $5 on the same site so I should be able to count that regardless of the type of room I've booked if they can simply ignore the matching criteria. They didn't care and stood by their ridiculous comparison of non refundable to refundable. I canceled my reservation, thank goodness I booked a refundable room.

From my exchange two things seem clear: 1 You will only ever be able to get a claim approved if you can beat IHG's lower non-refundable rate, with a match of your reservation for rate type etc... needing to occur on the competitors site and IHG using whatever terms gives them the lowest rate and 2. They have no intention of honoring this guarantee.

They really should just get rid of it if they won't honor it. I for one won't be booking with them again.

htb

I must have missed all of that. People said they were denied because there was a lower rate for the room they wanted to reserve -- either because there was a cheaper pre-paid rate, or because there was a cheaper rate for the same room without breakfast.

Some manager must be earning a nice bonus: statistics clearly show that the number of successful BRG claims have plummeted since he took over. He must be doing something right getting all those OTAs and individual hotels under control!

HTB.

BorussiaMG

You should work on your cognitive skills before accusing others of trolling.

Unfortunatelly at the moment you have to claim the cheapest rate available for a specific room category. So mostlikely your claim does not include breakfast or even halfboard. Nevertheless it is possible to claim a suite with club access successfully while standard rooms are available. This has been confirmed by more than enough people posting here. I scored myself a "1 King Bed Executive Suite" lately.

Howsoever it is getting a lot tougher and I moved a few claims to Hilton.