New IHG Best Rate Guarantee - Discussion & Feedback
 

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/...e/lowguar.html

snippet:

Example of a resolution to a valid Best Price Guarantee claim:

A guest books a two night stay at the lowest available price through the Best Available Rate search for a hotel in Atlanta, GA, (USA) on an IHG site for a price of $200.00.

Within 24 hours, that same guest finds a price of $190.00 on a competing Web site for the same hotel, same night, with the same rate restrictions(refundable or non-refundable) and same room type (same number and type of bed(s)).

The guest contacts IHG to claim the Best Price Guarantee either by phone or by filling out the online form.

Once the Guest Relations team confirms that the Best Price Guarantee claim filed is valid, they will modify the guest’s reservation with the first night free and the second night at $190.00.

For multiple nights >2 it would appear that there is no further benefit but for stays of 2-9 nights its better than 10% off the matched rate, so I suppose that will benefit the majority of claims.And 1 night stays are free.

This seems like a really bad idea. They either hired a new marketing intern or must be very confident in their ability to deny claims. If they're reasonably honest to their guarantee, we'll see this reversed in a couple of months, once the bloggers have descended on it. After spending about half an hour searching, I found cheaper rates for three one-night stays, at Montelucia, CP Seattle, and IC GS HK. We'll see how my claims go. ;)

I wonder if a 1 night $0 reservation will be credited as a qualifying night/stay and get 2000 points at an IC (and 0 points at other brands but +1 to the nights count)

Care to share last one? Looking to book a couple nights there soon :-).

I've found cheaper rates for a UK hotel.

One thing that bothers me though is that

Which means the Non-refundable rate, (unless I'm mistaken) therefore if you lose the Best Price Guarantee claim you can't cancel the Holiday Inn.

The cheaper night I've found is non refundable on the HI site and refundable (10% fee) on the 3rd party web-site. So not exactly the same :confused:

Got my 1st BRG approval ^^. Didn't notice this in the Ts+Cs :td::td:

I had 2 bookings at the IC Budapest with a 3 day break between the stays - teething problems :cool:

So my approval included the following:

So did you book the non refundable rate?

That is the really bad part of the IHG BRG - having to book the lowest rate when that is often non-refundable/non-cancellable.

The Ts + Cs are a bit ambiguous but if the competing rate includes breakfast then you can book the lowest rate on IHG that also includes breakfast even if it is not the absolute lowest rate available. Sometimes (as in my claim) the lowest rate with b/f on IHG was Best Flexible Rate with Breakfast. There was no Advance Purchase with Breakfast

Good point

The competing rate I have found is refundable (10% fee) but includes Bkfst..

I may book the IHG flex rate with Bkfst and see if they comp it. If not then I've not lost anything.

Not sure if the 10% fee will alter anything-but I could always then book the IHG non ref Bkfst rate and compare that.

Hmmmmmmmm..

Where did you find a rate to beat IHG's? Wherever I look the "with breakfast" rates to beat IHG's Best Flex with Breakfast show as "sold out".

I stay at this property frequently and would love to partake in a few BRGs!

Thanks in advance.

PM'ed you the actual website but www.hotelscombined is your friend - that's all I ever search on for a better competing rate.

Of course this new BRG policy is just about giving us a bigger carrot so that IHG can bash non-complying hotels with a bigger stick.They are hoping that in the long run this will decrease the number of carrots that they have to hand out to us bunnies.

I've had a reply from IHG.

They are comparing a NON refundable IHG rate against a REFUNDABLE one I found!

Can't see that being rught

Email tennis has begun.

If IHG's non-refundable rate is lower than the refundable rate you have found then your claim won't be valid, unless there is some other inclusion eg breakfast that allows you to ignore IHG's lower rate.

That's excatly what they are saying, which IMHO is totally unfair:confused:

On one hand they seem to say you can't compare a refundable rate on IHG with a non refundable one on a third party web-site.

But then they say they CAN do that if the IHG rate is lower despite it being Non refundable :confused:

Anyhow I got a screen shot of the rate being lower, so I've sent that.