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Has IHG backtracked on its ‘free internet for all’ promise?

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When Priority Club – the Holiday Inn, HI Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc  reward scheme – was relaunched as IHG Rewards Club last year, the biggest change was the provision of free internet.

From last July, all Gold and Platinum members of Priority Club / IHG Rewards Club got free internet access on their stays.

The long-term plan was more ambitious, though.  From January 1st 2014, ALL IHG Rewards Club members were to receive free internet.  Since IHG Rewards Club is free to join, this effectively meant that everyone in the hotel would get free internet.

(Not necessarily high speed internet, though.  I expect a lot of properties to offer a slow speed for free but still require payment if you want something fast enough for video.)

There was no doubt about this – free internet for all in 2014 was the stated policy.

And yet, this is what the terms and conditions on the IHG website actually say:

Internet Access for Members: Beginning January 2014, standard internet access will be available to all IHG® Rewards Club members at no additional cost at all IHG hotels located in the Americas, Greater China, Asia, Middle East and Africa with or without a hotel reservation and/or qualifying stay. Furthermore, IHG® Rewards Club Elite members will be provided standard internet access at no additional cost at all IHG hotels in Europe. Internet availability and accessibility in common areas vary by hotel. Internet accessibility, speed, and connectivity in common areas and guest rooms vary by hotel. Details regarding a property’s internet accessibility will be available at the hotel’s registration desk. Please note that The Venetian® and The Palazzo®, an InterContinental Alliance® Resort, do not offer the Free Internet Access benefit, which is instead included in the daily resort fee.

So …. if you are at a hotel in Europe, you will NOT be getting free internet unless you are Gold or Platinum.

This is not a typo.  If you look at this page on the IHG site, there is a tiny mark next to the line “All members will be able to stay connected at no charge” and in the small print at the bottom it says “May not be available in all regions”.

Well, call me fussy, but excluding THE WHOLE OF EUROPE from something you are advertising deserves a little more than a tiny footnote.  Heaven knows how many people will book rooms on the back of this and then find out that they aren’t getting free internet after all.

What is IHG playing at?  How can you spend 8 months saying you going to bring in global free internet, and then decide at the last minute to exclude a huge chunk of your hotels?

I don’t know at the moment if European hotels have been given a short-term temporary reprieve or whether this will be the permanent position.  IHG may be getting a visit from the advertising standards people sooner rather than later, however.


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Comments (21)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Exitcontrol says:

    The lack of free internet is something that really annoys me ( this is all hotels ) why not just bundle it in the price of the room and up the price of the room if they have to. Making another transaction doesn’t do anything to improve the goodwill I have towards the hotel / brand .

    On another note I’m note worried about the trend of offer codes disappearing and ‘the big win’ now being the only show in town ? Is this right or does this happen every new calendar year . My
    Offers page is almost empty !

    • Jlev1986 says:

      Stayed in Crowne Plaza Bucharest Monday, free internet was indeed for Elite only. I wasn’t happy.

    • Rob says:

      Despite My Offers being empty, points are still posting for people. Seems more like an IT error on the My Offers page.

      That said, we are only 11 days into January and as stays take 5 days to post, we don’t have many data points yet.

  • Alan M says:

    I’ve recently been travelling in Australia and New Zealand. Both my wife and I are Platinum members. Whilst we received free internet at all of the different IHG hotels we stayed in, we found that there was a download limit. Speed very much depended on usage. For example, if the limit was 500MB then the first 50MB was a decent speed, but after that we received a message saying that the speed would be slowed between 51-500MB. To continue with the speed we had been used to, we’d have to upgrade to a premium package. Pretty poor IMHO.

  • olybeast says:

    Holiday inn express in Manchester East. Normal member, free internet 4th jan

  • Kelly says:

    Interesting piece, I’m a platinum ambassador and have ways gotten free wifi however have to stay the free wifi at the Intercontinental Westminster was bloody slow however they did extend all my ambassador benefits to my parents room when we stayed so can’t complain. Its a shame if they are excluding Europe as ALL travellers now expect free wifi, you get it in campsites and hostels so why isn’t it free in hotels especially the luxury ones for all customers! Loving your website xx

  • Rob says:

    Technically not, but I think if you showed your IHG card they would probably do it. Put yourself down as 2nd Guest in the booking so you are named on it, that might help.

  • Ed E says:

    This has now been clarified and the free internet for all rolls out across Europe from July 2014.

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