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The current IHG offer of £75 back on £300 cumulative spend includes the term “Offer valid on checkout spend only.” I think the view was that advance charges of pre-paid rates should be ok, and certainly that has been my experience previously with IHG.
However, at least one Holiday Inn property (Regents Park, London) now has a policy that all Advance rates have to be paid via a securelink they email to you. This is using an intermediary called Prommt.
The hotel have assured me that the charge will still appear on my Amex as if it had been billed directly by them. I am not convinced.
Has anyone been through this process and can confirm whether it affects eligibility for Amex cashback? (I had to pay Hyatt using a securelink a few years ago, and that did still trigger cashback, but it wasn’t via Prommt.)
To answer my own question for the benefit of others…
The advance payment via Prommt appeared on my Amex identically to how charges made at the front desk appeared, but did NOT trigger cashback.
After discussion with the front desk manager at the HI Regent’s Park, I paid a second time at checkout and they raised an equivalent credit via Prommt. The £75 cashback then posted immediately.
That was over four weeks ago, so I think it’s safe to conclude that pre-paying when sent a Prommt link should be avoided. For two future pre-paid stays at this hotel (on a different Amex card with the same cashback offer), when I received the email asking me to pay via the Prommt link, I instead went in and paid over the counter. Of course, that’s only worthwhile if you’re already planning to be in that area.
It’s also worth noting that there is no advance warning on ihg.com when you book a pre-paid rate which hotels will then use a secure link via a third-party intermediary to take payment.
That’s because IHG doesn’t know/care how individual hotels take payment
I had a problem with HIExpress T5 spend not being recognised even though was paid at hotel (on arrival – as many hotels do now). Raised a query with Amex – after 3 weeks of chasing got a manual credit!
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