rdh0924

I’m working to snag four reward nights at the IC Le Moana in Bora Bora from May 18-22. Reward nights there are only released four months out, so today is the first day that I could feasibly book all four on reward nights.

There’s been very little to no availability in May over the past few months, but I had a backup revenue booking for my dates in the lowest-level room, a beach bungalow. I also secured a reward night for May 18 the other day. Since there’s been no availability for my dates showing the past two days, and reward nights weren’t available until this week, I figured at least one beach bungalow room would need to be made available by the hotel - if there is inventory.

So today I canceled my backup revenue booking hoping the nights would go into inventory, becoming available both as a paid stay and a reward stay. (Or worst-case scenario, I would rebook the three nights I needed to get back with a revenue booking, since the first night I also had secured with a reward night.) It’s been a few hours and the hotel is showing no availability for any of the nights! I’ve tried any combination of searches (single nights, the full four nights, etc.) and it doesn’t show anything available.

I also canceled my May 18 reward night as a test (because I now have a backup reservation at IC Moorea for those nights, which we’re fine with) and even May 18 shows no availability despite the fact that I released two rooms (one revenue, one reward night).

Has anyone run into this issue elsewhere? Seems to be some sort of manipulation going on or perhaps they were overbooked? It’s head-scratching at the very least.

(Note: Mods, feel free to move to IC Le Moana thread, but I’m curious if this has been encountered at other IC properties as well, hence leaving it in the broader IHG forum.)

wharvey

There are many data points of cancelled rooms not going back into inventory immediately on Flyertalk. I am not surprised properties do not do this... as it minimizes game playing that people may try in blocking rooms. There is never a guarantee that a room will go back into inventory as a cash or award room. The hotel could be oversold... or near capacity... or any other reason.

Often1

This is the case, not only with hotels, but air carriers, car rentals and other assets which are subject to cancellation. There are more reasons than the following, but these are just a few:

1. It puts the boots to people playing inventory scams by booking at one rate, cancelling and then attempting a different (lower or award) rate.
2. The property might be overbooked and now the RM/IM equation is more clear and the property has simply not offered the room at all.
3. Time for repairs / renovation and with the cancellation, the room can be fixed up.

Glad you had an acceptable backup because sophisticated RM/IM systems are better at this than you or I.

rdh0924

Thanks for the replies. I inquired with the resort and got a very ambiguous non-answer. We’re looking forward to Moorea, though I’ll keep an eye out for reward nights at Le Moana mainly out of curiosity.

Mad Oh

Sounds like the calculated optimism we're used to from Silicon Valley and such. Real life is different, revenue management being as much an art as a science.

rdh0924

Tonight all four dates became available - three on points. The other one, May 19, has four of five room times available! Here’s a screenshot showing the significant availability.




Seems incredibly disingenuous, but we’d rather be here than the IC Moorea so I took the three reward nights and booked one paid night. What is frustrating is that if I can get the fourth night on points, because it’ll be on three reservations, I won’t be able to get the fourth night free via my IHG Premier card. Oh well.

Hawkeyefan

Wondering, regarding this resort and the Thalasso....I'm only seeing pts nights out to the beginning of Feb 2021. Is it a rule that award availability only stretches out 4 months from the current date? When are nights released to be used?