IHG / hotel have changed cancellation terms after booking made

[Magarathea]

I booked a number of reward nights at the IHG Staybridge suites in Yas Island in Abu Dhabi in December 2022 for November 2023. These were not at the time of the Grand prix. As usual these reward nights are flexible for cancellation until 24 hours before and this was confirmed in each of the email confirmations. For various reasons I have had to cancel this trip and I proceeded to cancel each of these bookings as allowed for in the T&Cs. As I was about to cancel one of these bookings, I noticed that the cancellation terms looked different and they read “Canceling your reservation or failing to arrive will result in forfeiture of your deposit.” It would appear that IHG or perhaps more likely the hotel has changed the cancellation terms without reference to me. Surely, they can’t unilaterally do this. I had no problems cancelling the remaining bookings for a full refund of IHG points. I have phoned and now emailed IHG Rewards team and have made little progress yet. They have said they need to speak to the hotel to ask for their permission to cancel without the loss of deposit but I have not heard back yet. My comment to them is that I have a flexible booking until 24 hours before and that IHG / the hotel cannot change this. The hotel is currently selling only non-refundable bookings both reward and member discounts for this particular night. Anyone had something like this before?

[Dace]

I have had this happen a few times. When I have challenged it, I have sent a screenshot of the terms of my booking when made – normally the email – highlighting the terms. I then state that was the agreement I made at booking and that it isn’t legal for changes to be made post booking, and if they are, can they provide me with the legal terms that such amendments can be made.

This has worked around 3 times for me. That said I am a Diamond Ambassador so I am not sure if this helps me.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

What matters is what the T&Cs were when you booked and they should be on the email.

But at times I’ve also noticed that the T&Cs aren’t always the same especially when big events are on or they expect it to be busy.

[JDB]

It’s always quite difficult dealing with hotel contractual rights, particularly as you are going via IHG central reservations which is really just acting as a travel agent in this situation. They don’t have control but are certainly your best initial route to ensure you get your money back, failing which you can try a chargeback and/or s75 if you paid by credit card. The latter can be complicated with IHG interposed in the transaction but while this is not insurmountable, it’s another good reason for making cash bookings directly with the hotel when it will probably be cheaper as well.

[meandthekids]

This happened to me in Milan where we had long cancelled a duplicate booking but at checkin and the day before, the cancelled booking even showed up on my app. They said the terms are non refundable but my terms were al ays fully refundable and we had cancelled months before arrival. Hotel said they would sort it but I subsequently saw the charge on Amex. We queried it first and the hotel sent the revised cancellation terms and the charge was held. We then queried again and Amex asked me to send the original booking confirmation with the cancellation terms which seemed to then work and the charge was taken off. I was actually quite disappointed with how ihg did that

[bigsi]

@Magarathea I had this exact issue with the Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi – Yas Island. I had booked for the Grand Prix weekend on points but the booking was cancellable. About a month ago I went to cancel the booking and the T&C’s had changed the same as yours. I was also told they need to speak to the property and eventually the booking was cancelled after numerous calls and emails. I was Diamond Elite and found the support I got very poor from IHG and the property. I eventually got 35,000 IHG points as compensation for the issue after I threatened to take legal action. I actually do not think this was satisfactory and never received a proper apology. They stressed this was a one-off issue but doesn’t look like it. I copied below one of the emails I received from the property which doesn’t make much sense! They also own the hotel you mention see – https://www.yasplazahotels.com/.

Greetings from Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi Yas Island.

First of all, I would like to extend my apologies along with my colleague from IHG corporate office for the inconvenience caused to you in the past few days.

Please know that as a hotel management, we did not intend to alter the cancellation policy of your reservation. After reviewing your case, we found that your reservation with the Rewards Nights was made on December 14, 2022. During this time our website captured the standard cancellation policy for a Reward Night reservation in the UAE region which is the same day of arrival before 6:00 PM (local hotel time). However, due to the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix event, the hotel updated the cancellation policy to ensure that the reservations during the event are guaranteed. These changes overrode your booking as our IHG system and App is having direct interface with our operating system, but they were not done to cause you any inconvenience or to try any kind of manipulation .

Again, apologies for any inconvenience that happened and , I assure you that changing T&C of the booking was not intentionally done to your booking, but it is Terms & Conditions that have direct interface with IHG website and APP.

[Julia]

Magarathea wrote:

The hotel is currently selling only non-refundable bookings both reward and member discounts for this particular night.

I booked ours 1st August and the email received says it’s not refundable. I can’t remember the cancelation terms as I’m so used to assuming points bookings are fully refundable. Perhaps this is just something IHG does???? Paid 30,000 points per night so can’t complain but will have to be more careful in future. Not nice though as you can’t chase it down if the price drops.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Points bookings are generally but not always fully refundable. There are events and times of the year when they aren’t which is why people need to check before they confirm the booking.

Points bookings also aren’t always cancellable until the day / day before of the stay.

Earlier I booked a Kimpton for what was the August Bank holiday. It was Thurs – Tues. Thurs / Mon nights were both cancelable until the day before. The Fri/Sat/Sun separate booking was cancel 2 months before but I was fully aware of that when I booked.

[Magarathea]

Thanks for your comments bigsi. I was aware that these hotels are jointly owned and I have previously used the lovely Crowne Plaza pool facilities when staying at the Staybridge next door. Great location to stay if you are going to the Grand Prix with 10 – 15 minute walk to the track entrances. The hotels seem to be quite slow to apply peak GP level pricing to the room rates over the GP weekend for both cash or points stays and I’m guessing they eventually pressed the “Make bookings uncancellable button” for new bookings and this was then retrospectively applied to existing bookings in error. I eventually got my uncancellable booking refunded after sending increasingly grumpy emails to IHG over a period of 5-6 days and just before I was about to challenge the hotel on this. No apology for me either despite being Plat elite.

[zbenye]

This happened to me a few years ago at the Holiday Inn Krakow, where my confirmation email showed cancellable until 4 PM day of arrival, but when I actually wanted to cancel at noon (hotel time) that day, the policy on the reservation had already changed to indicate that the booking was not cancellable without penalty. Called IHG in the US, they called the hotel and got it cancelled without charge.

I am currently staying at the Holiday Inn Manila Galleria, using points. Since I have the Chase IHG card (4th night free), and like flexibility, I made consecutive bookings of 4 nights each. I happened to notice early on that the cancellation policy has been changing on my bookings, and I have now documented (printouts with timestamps from the IHG website) how every time, two days before a reservation’s check-in date, the policy changes from cancellable until 6 PM day of arrival, to cancellations will be charged for the first night. The changes seem to happen around 6 PM on day -2. This hasn’t caused me grief yet, but it’s completely inappropriate and takes away the flexibility that I’m counting on.

I would like to take it up with IHG and send them the evidence. What email address did y’all use? And what if they won’t respond, do I submit a complaint to FTC or BBB etc.?