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Hi – a question about a change to an IHG reward booking at IC.
I have a reward stay coming up in June. As IHG obviously have dynamic reward pricing, the cost for the same night is now 14000 points lower than when I booked it, so I’m looking to take advantage of the lower rate.
Can I get the new lower price through an online modification of the current booking, getting it to re-price the same night, or do I need to cancel and start again with a new booking? If cancelling and rebooking, how long does it take for the points to refund?
I would prefer to just amend the existing booking, because the hotel had already agreed to a day rate for an evening check-out the following day so it would save me an email or two to the hotel to explain my booking has changed. Many thanks for any help.
You cannot amend it. Cancel and rebook. After you rebook, just email the hotel with the new booking id, saying no changes.
Btw, thanks for highlighting this. Saved 30k points on a stay by rebooking.
My suggestion is to always have some points, so that you can book first and then cancel the old booking. Not possible every time, obviously.
Unfortunately you have to cancel and start again because the points bookings are with IHG not the hotel.
Use the duplicate booking button on your current reservation if you have enough in your account to create a second, then cancel the original. If you don’t have enough points, you’ll need to cancel 1st and wait for them to come back,
Then just email the hotel and explain new conf number replaces old conf number.
Sadly unlike a cash booking you can’t force a a reward booking to recalculate existing days / rates. You can amend it to a different date then amend it back to the original date(s), which will get you the current rate (presumably with a small risk of something changing in the small window in between, but I’ve done it many times without a problem). Whether that would still confuse your existing arrangement in this case I can’t say.
If it’s a multi-night stay and only some nights have come down, you can play around with the date change to keep the days you want and only change the others. Some people advocate always booking consecutive single night stays, but I personally I find that more convoluted.
Cancelling a reward booking should return the points immediately, but that has failed for me once and took several painful phone calls to resolve.
Thanks all – very clear and fast advice. Unfortunately not enough points in my tiny balance to book the new rate before cancellation, so I’ll have to hope for a swift redeposit.
Some people advocate always booking consecutive single night stays,
That’ll be a nightmare for the hotel staff. Everything from billing, room key, deposits, charges needs to be modified.
2 or 3 days per booking is the minimum I would recommend.
Some people advocate always booking consecutive single night stays,
That’ll be a nightmare for the hotel staff. Everything from billing, room key, deposits, charges needs to be modified.
2 or 3 days per booking is the minimum I would recommend.
That’s the price of the dynamic pricing game though. IHG knew it would happen. It just means getting an invoice per night rather than for the duration of the stay when you check out.
Thanks all – very clear and fast advice. Unfortunately not enough points in my tiny balance to book the new rate before cancellation, so I’ll have to hope for a swift redeposit.
If there are multiple room types still available on points, I’ve sometimes managed to amend an existing booking to another room type (e.g. twin beds to king) and then amend again back to the original room (e.g. king back to twin beds). The points difference gets refunded.
Did a straight cancellation and the points were instantly returned. Rebooked and 14000 points saved 🙂
Did a straight cancellation and the points were instantly returned. Rebooked and 14000 points saved 🙂
Glad to hear that.
Saved another 5k today for a stay next month. On top of 30k saved last week by rebooking.
If you have any hotel company shares, sell them now!
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