IHG Best Price Guarantee – my experience

[davefl]

Ok, thought I’d done it all correctly, booked identical non-member pricing and got this back –

– The reservation is not booked under the lowest priced rate for the room type you booked.

o Rate Booked: USD 189.00 average nightly rate plus tax and service charge under Best Flexible Rate.
o Lowest Priced Rate: USD 179.55 average nightly rate plus tax and service charge listed under Best Flexible Member Exclusive Rate.

The Ts&Cs don’t say you have to book a member rate it says:

Here are the things we’ll verify when we process your claim. The non-IHG website rate must be:

5. Book. To be eligible for the Program, you must have a confirmed reservation made through an IHG direct channel, such as an IHG website, call center or the mobile app. The reservation must be booked using the “Best Available” search feature to find the lowest rate available for the chosen room type.

(no mention above of it having to be member rate, just BAR)

7.a. In the same currency as the rate you booked through an IHG channel;
7.b. Available to the general public – in other words, you are not required to sign up for any kind of membership or be part of any program, or login to a website, to obtain the rate;
7.c. Available to book at the time of verification;
7.d. Bookable only if you provide a form of payment to complete the booking (rates that do not require a form of payment are ineligible!); and
7.e. At least 1% lower than the current, lowest rate available on the IHG website or mobile app – this accounts for any rounding errors!

So I’ll cancel the booking, give it 48 hours and rebook at the member rate and see if they can wriggle out of it a second time.
The Program applies only to rates found on non-IHG websites that meet all of the above criteria.

[davefl]

Strike 2: (the IHG rate has increased substantially since Wed but the 3rd party rate hasn’t). Now I get this:

After reviewing the details of the reservation submitted, please be advised that your claim has not qualified for the Guarantee because of the following reason:
-     The reservation is not booked under the lowest priced rate for the room type you booked.
o     Rate Booked: USD 231.80 plus tax and service charge per night under the Best Flexible Member Exclusive
o     Lowest Priced Rate: USD 208.62 plus tax per night listed under Book Early and Save Member Exclusive

There is no “Book Early and Save Member Exclusive” available on the website, I’ve sent a screenshot challenging the reply

[Aston100]

IHG BPG is a load of bollox.
I think there is one guy who managed to win, but otherwise everyone else gets fobbed off with all manner of excuses.

[davefl]

I have a bee in my bonnet against fraudulent marketing/advertising more than ever at the moment, that includes the company I work for as well as ones I pay money to.

In this case, they have no leg to stand on. There’s even a book early and save micro site on IHG.com but when you click through to the hotel it only gives the std rates. I’m sure also that BE&S is non-refundable so wouldnt match the Ts&Cs of the 3rd party which is a refundable rate

[davefl]

Ok final decision –
Under the Best Price Guarantee’s FAQs states: “Can I submit screenshot evidence to support the lower rate found? No, IHG will independently determine the validity of any claim and will not review documentation provided in lieu of an online Claim Form or as part of the validation process for a submitted claim.”

The result of the claim will be based on the current availability being offered on both IHG and the third-party website at the time of our verification. Please be informed that rates and availability may change from time to time without prior notice. Hence, it is imperative that we verify the rates directly from the competing website on a real-time basis. We are precluded by our Terms and Conditions from accepting external documentation such as screenshots and links for the purpose of verification for the Guarantee. With this, we stand firm on the verification made.

I submitted a PDF of the entire web page showing that there was no book early and save rate and they refuse to review it. They say it’s available, it’s clearly not. I even tried US pages and it’s not there. So basically they’re stating a rate needs to be used that’s impossible to book.

I asked for it to escalated to IHG corporate and they’ve said that’s been done. More info if I get a reply.

[Aston100]

paging @supersecretsquirrelstuff
Pretty sure he’s got an axe to grind with the BPG too

[gtellez]

That is interesting… as I explained few weeks ago, in the last 3-4 months I have managed to get 4 of them approved (3 of them for Kimpton Clocktower and the other for Crowne Plaza Manchester). The only problem is that after every stay I have had to chase the bonus points (always got them after 1 or 2 emails).
However in my case, all the bookings were made with the cheapest rate (non refundable), not sure if that is the reason.

[davefl]

That’s what they’re claiming each time but fair enough in the 1st one but I would say that the member rate is not the same as a non-member rate so shouldn’t have been declined as the cheapest rate should be bookable by all. The second one they’re claiming an available rate that isn’t possible to book from a UK IP address by the look of it. There are no book early and save rates on my screen.

I can’t claim a non-refundable rate against the competitive site as that wouldn’t match the Ts&Cs. The competitor only has refundable rates.

[davefl]

Next reply from ‘senior management’ is claiming that I needed to book the lowest non-refundable rate. Nothing at all about it being a Book Early and Save rate like the previous muppet. Even sent me screenshots showing no BE&S rate available but coincedentally it was exactly the same screenshot as I sent them (that they refused to look at as per the Ts&Cs)

I replied saying that a non-refundable rate does not conform to their Ts&Cs clause no.4 which states the rate terms must be exactly the same as the competitor. Since the competing website rate is fully refundable he needs to go and read clause 4 again and come back to me.

14 hours later and still waiting on a reply to that.

@gtellez clearly that would get me the rebate here if I did, but that does not mean it’s correct according to the BPG terms. There’s a point of principle and shitty wording here and there’s also an ethical stand that I’m trying to make. Hiding behing failed IT, a head in the sand approach and refusing to comply with their own terms won’t wash with me.

[davefl]

Latest update from the robot on the BPG helpdesk is this:

To answer your concern regarding the cancellation policy stated in Terms and Conditions clause 6, The clause explains the verification of IHG to the competing website that the guest provided and not with booking the Best Available Rate in IHG.

Your claim was not eligible for the Guarantee only because you failed to book the Best Available Rate in IHG. If you only book the Best available rate in IHG your claim might have been eligible since the Best Available Rate in IHG was USD 208.62 per night plus tax while the rate posted on http://www.gosplitty.com is USD 141.00 per night plus tax at the time of our verification.

Now the last set of BPG terms they sent me (3rd different one) contains the following clause:

Find a Lower Rate. If you find a lower rate on an eligible, non-IHG website within 24 hours of making your reservation on the IHG direct channel, and it is more than 24 hours before the standard check-in time for the hotel where you made your reservation, tell us about it by completing and submitting the online claim form (“Claim Form”). We will verify the lower rate by comparing the rate found on the IHG website or mobile app with the rate found on the non-IHG website for the same hotel, room type, stay dates, number of guests, and cancellation policy.

The BAR the robot refers to is non-refundable, I’ve booked the BAR refundable rate which was the same policy as gosplitty’s rate.

So basically he’s lying… and refuses now to answer any more.

IHG have a member of staff whose title is “ethics counsel”. My next step is to refer to that person since the BPG team are just basically lying to customers, and behaving in a completely unethical manner.

Comments welcome.