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IHG - how evil are you to devalue overnight during the pandemic!

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Old Apr 10, 2021, 11:33 am
  #46  
 
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Originally Posted by demue
For folks willing to put in work for planning, monitoring and who have the ability to be somewhat flexible in the dates and hotels, I agree that there can be still decent value.

However, that will be more work in my book than what has been required until now so for "normal" members / users of the program this will be turn off and make IHG Rewards more unattractive (and it is not like it is a program with stellar benefits to start with).
What's the extra work required? Seeing if a hotel point redemption is a good value for when you are planning a trip? There's plenty of reasons today why people don't use their points that also include the "planning, monitoring, and flexibility". That's reaching hard to justify that you don't like the change.

At the end of the day, people are far more concerned about value. Can you get solid redemptions or are they zimbabwe dollars? The rest is noise.
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Old Apr 10, 2021, 2:05 pm
  #47  
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Originally Posted by christianj
I get the analogy you are trying to make but in my opinion it doesn’t fly. The “currency” we have (in this case IHG PC points) can only be used at IHG so it indeed is a devaluation of what the currency gets you. If you could use the currency elsewhere and chose not to pay the higher cost I could see your argument. Also in your example there are two separate institutions..... the supermarket and the bank were one issues the currency and one sets a price....here there’s one that issues the currency AND sets the price....IHG.
Devaluation is where a currency is devalued in relation to another currency. e.g. 100 of currency A is worth 100 of currency B - then currency A value is set that 1000 of currency A is worth 100 of currency B
There is no 2nd currency here - this is simply that the number of points in the IHG bank needed for a night at a hotel is higher - it is also not the case (from what I can see ) is that all rates have gone up - this is just a pricing change, not a devaluation - just seems to wanting to make a sensasionalist type of headline to call it such

It also doesn't seem to be the case that all redemptions have gone up in price and by the same amount
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Last edited by Dave Noble; Apr 10, 2021 at 2:11 pm
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Old Apr 10, 2021, 4:48 pm
  #48  
soy
 
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
Devaluation is where a currency is devalued in relation to another currency. e.g. 100 of currency A is worth 100 of currency B - then currency A value is set that 1000 of currency A is worth 100 of currency B
There is no 2nd currency here
There is a second currency - Cash
The cash rate did not change, just the points cost. So it is a devaluation by the bank of IHG

It would be more understandable if the points costs were higher on nights where the cash costs were high, but that does not seem to be the case (granted some of this has since been reversed.....for now)
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Old Apr 10, 2021, 10:29 pm
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by Super Mario
What's the extra work required? Seeing if a hotel point redemption is a good value for when you are planning a trip? There's plenty of reasons today why people don't use their points that also include the "planning, monitoring, and flexibility". That's reaching hard to justify that you don't like the change.

At the end of the day, people are far more concerned about value. Can you get solid redemptions or are they zimbabwe dollars? The rest is noise.
Sorry, I don't get the point your are driving at? What is this quote supposed to mean "That's reaching hard to justify that you don't like the change."?

Maybe my English isn't as good, but this sentence makes no sense to me.

Firstly, everyone is entitled to their opinion around here. Secondly, in the main thread about these recent observed changes, I quite clearly expressed that personally I don't necessarily think this is all bad as some other posters viewed it, as the "pendulum" can swing both ways with points rates going up or down.

What is more work in this entire scheme in my book is that with frequently, really dynamic repricing of reward nights one who is keen on getting best value for a specific property redemption will have to monitor points rates rather regularly and rebook if desired, e.g. when rates have dropped.

Along the same lines, you need to keep checking if you want to book a stay that maybe you don't have enough points for under the latest mechanism while under the previous iteration of this with property points caps in place you knew what the max points would be and could save for that.

Of course, no one is forced to do all that and can just book and forget, whatever floats one's boat so to say. Just that this increased level of unpredictability regarding what your earned points will be worth is probably not so appealing to many folks, especially after the latest round of tweaks IHG which seems to have introduced a level of unpredictability we hadn't quite seen before to that degree. YMMV.

Last edited by demue; Apr 10, 2021 at 10:39 pm
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Old Apr 11, 2021, 4:28 am
  #50  
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
If the price of milk goes up at the supermarket, would you class that as a devaluation of your money by the bank. Putting prices up is not the same as the devaluation of a currency
If only the price of milk goes up, but the price of lox, broccoli, bread, tissues and what not stays the same, that is not a devaluation of the currency. But what we're talking about in the case of IHG is the vast majority of redemption prices creeping up. That is a devaluation.

---

I noticed that strangely enough, some bloggers have reversed course. They claim IHG has pulled back the devaluation. I don't see it and I am following redemption rates at around a dozen of properties. Relatively diverse list, too, so I'm not just following rates in London or LA.
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Old Apr 11, 2021, 7:53 am
  #51  
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This single-minded focus on devaluation as a currency-related phenomenon is an odd way of looking at the many ways the value held in any endeavour can be depleted.

Fiddling around with redemption rates in an erratic way destabilises the programme, erodes our trust in it and devalues it for many of us. Simple.
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Old Apr 11, 2021, 3:32 pm
  #52  
 
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In Japan case, maximum 40% point devaluation has been done. Some of hotels adjusted again on April 8th. (Nearly back to before April 1st, but not small number of cases, still 5% devaluation) In addition, generally 20% cash rate increases compared to last two years too, despite of under this COVID-19 era’s low demand and limited services situation. How people justify this cost increase?? How we justify to purchase the points?

Simply say, “Hey IHG, have you lost your mind !?”.

IHG, and especially leading person of this stupid devaluation definitely will pay the price.
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