A sneaky 50% IHG Rewards Club price rise is hopefully not a new trend

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• Gary says:

  11 Jun11 June 03:29

  Do you think this change seasonal?

  • Daleroxxu says:

    11 Jun11 June 06:01

    This is the off-peak season in Thailand.

• m says:

  11 Jun11 June 03:50

  Same thing happened last year with IC Da Nang.

• Bob says:

  11 Jun11 June 04:48

  IC Tokyo Bay also increased from 35 to 50…

• Sandgrounder says:

  11 Jun11 June 05:02

  They could always make reward bookings non-refundable to stop people blocking off rooms in this way.

  • John says:

    11 Jun11 June 06:02

    Some reward bookings already have different cancellation policies (i.e. not always refundable until a cut off time on the day of check in)

• James67 says:

  11 Jun11 June 06:20

  It makes even less sense when considering that it is someplace in Asia where competition between hotels is fierce. Why would I even want to spend 50, 000 points per night on this when I can get comparable or better hotels for less money than I value those 50k points? I think IHG is losing the plot somwhat, I have stayed with them only once this year because they are generally offering poor value for money on rates and failing to recognise and reward my spire elite status. It has become so bad that not even acellerate interests me. The best benefit if spire was status matching to diamond with hilton to whom IHG has lost five of my stays already this year. Diamond recognitiin at Hilton has beeb great and with a few new hotels under hilton brand plus a lot of DT, hamptons and garden inn hotels the miserable days of hilton in UK are over. I am about to write hilton to see if they will honour my diamond status through 2018, if they do it is highly unlikely I will be avpayibg customer at IHG again, and they have only themselves to blame. By contrast, Hilton got smart. They realised it made more sense to offer guests food that would otherwise mostly go to waste anyway, and offer them a better room that might otherwise sit emty. I suspect this in cinjunction with their status match has won them a lot of new and potebtially loyal customers in the past year.

  • Neil says:

    11 Jun11 June 07:44

    Have to agree. Since going Spire, 3 Accelerates in a row have been ridiculous for me.

    I don’t have enough travel to maintain Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond and IHG Spire and it’s a no brainer to drop IHG.

  • Craig says:

    11 Jun11 June 08:05

    Yep agree…..I’ve ditched ihg too

  • Jon says:

    11 Jun11 June 09:51

    Hi James67, re Hilton honouring Diamond through 2018 – they did for me. Took me too emails as they initially refused, but then relented after I explained that I was only asking for what I would have been offered had I not already been Diamond (I met the status match requirements). Granted I already had quite a few past and forward bookings, but it sounds like you do too. I echo your sentiments re IHG.

    • Janes67 says:

      11 Jun11 June 14:43

      Thanks Jon, will show them my 5 IHG cancellations in relating to my Hiton stays as a carrot, ad point out the obvious to them as you did in your second email.

      • Liz says:

        11 Jun11 June 18:44

        JAmes, I emailed them too telling them I wanted to use them for my Route 66 trip and my Diamond status expired just before we travelled. They extended my status to March 18 within 5 minutes of sending the email!

      • CV3V says:

        11 Jun11 June 19:58

        If Hilton prove stubborn, just set up a new account and status match. Just watch your points balance in original account.

        Agreed, Spire status of little use and because of this and the useless Accelerate promos i have been given IHG is now used for reward points bookings only. Also, after doing a few Travelodge bookings lately i would chose that over Holiday Inn Express (at least while awaiting the room renovations).

        • James67 says:

          11 Jun11 June 20:47

          Thanks Liz and CV, I will email them Monday morning. My partner and I stayed in the Travelodgd Perth Centre a coupld of times. Nice old building and homely rooms, not travelidge style at all. Hope they have not changed it with the recent brand makeover. If you are in the area and rates work then consider giving it a go.

• Danksy says:

  11 Jun11 June 07:25

  As we speak in making my speculative bookings NOW!

• Trickster says:

  11 Jun11 June 08:22

  On the subject of IHG, I have a phantom booking in my account that I definitely didn’t make for the HI in Wembley last night. Award wallet tipped me off in an email, no emails from IHG.

  Currently on hold on the phone trying to get to the bottom of this. Thought I’d post this in case it’s a wider issue.

  • Rob says:

    11 Jun11 June 08:39

    This happens with typos. No worry, you get the points from someone else’s stay!

    • Trickster says:

      11 Jun11 June 09:02

      Yep, cleared that up now, unfortunately, shot myself in the foot! Better to be safe than sorry I guess.

    • D says:

      11 Jun11 June 09:57

      You get the points until the other person who makes the booking realises they didn’t get stay credit/points, contacts customer services, and you get your account closed down because somebody thought you were using your account fraudulently. This happened to me last year. It is a real rigmarole having to get a new account set up as they won’t re-instate your old one.

• Anthony says:

  11 Jun11 June 08:25

  I’ve noticed that the IC Miami has increased from 35k to 50k since I made my booking for Nov back in Feb. I didn’t notice the increase mentioned anywhere

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