IHG Rewards Club

I am an IHG rewards member. A huge issue for me is the customer service. Each time I call there seems to be a rude woman waiting to answer. For instance, I called to make reservation and the woman I spoke with curtly hung up after booking my stay. She didn’t bother to confirm details and she also didn’t inform me if she sent a conformation email or not. It really doesn’t hurt anyone to have some manner; especially with the amount of money people pay to stay.

Such Garbage! Go to Starwood!
I registered for the IHG hotel MasterCard «Priceless Surprises» promotion and not only stayed at their hotels a couple of times, but also sent in the entries (94 of them!). I never received the promotion emails/​points. I called and spent an hour on the phone with the representative, but to no avail, they did not help! Not only did I spend $ 100’s of dollars, but 6 – 7 hours of wasted time on this terrible program.
Their rewards are also much more poor, with more stays per reward required, and overall low hotel quality.
Do not recommend these guys, every other chain has a better program.

It might be a minus to be a platinum member in this program. The perks you receive are small like 500 points or trail mix per stay. However the drawback is their aggressive time share sales people will target you as it happened with me today.
I received a call from IHG. The caller said that because I am a platinum member they want to survey how I felt about my last stay. That is a bit intrusive, but not a huge deal. I gave them the answer after which they said that because I am a platinum member and I answered the survey they want to give me a free stay. Then they redirected the call to another person who said that they are offering 3 night stay at one of several locations. I picked the location I would like to stay at. Then the caller said that I would have to pay $ 250 dollars! and they accept credit cards So much for the free stay! He then added that money would be refunded to me after the presentation. Wait, so their offer is for me to pay $ 250 and much more for arifare to fly and listen to their presentation after which they may refund $ 250. Brilliant! I said that I will take on the offer without the presentation. Then the sales person became more aggressive and said that this is a unique offer only for me. Then just a few minutes later he said that if I pass it up there are millions of people in line for this offer which of course contradicts the first statement. I told him multiple times that I am not interested in listening to any presentation, but he continues trying to sell me on it with various excuses.
I will certainly be avoiding this hotel chain in the future whenever possible.

Be ready for spam spam spam, They will NEVER stop emailing you. If you try to unsubscribe the system is always it’s «down» for a multitude of reasons.
I have tried about 10 times with different emails they send out and they won’t let you unsubscribe from their junk emails/​sales.
I called in to customer service and went through the 20 questions to get them to take me off the list and they still come all the time!!!
I will NEVER STAY AT IHG AGAIN.

I made the mistake of staying in one of their partner hotels in August and provided my email address. I guess the hotel signed me up for an account even though I have no use for a rewards club. Every since staying there I kept getting promotional emails and when I clicked the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email it would tell me I was unsubscribed and I would stop getting emails in 10 days. 5 months later I’m still getting emails… Finally I decided to call the number and get my email removed from their mail list, but why should I have to. I didn’t sign up and I clicked their provided link to unsubscribe. I had no pin to verify my settings because I didn’t personally sign up for anything.
If they can’t even give a proper unsubscribe method then the rest of their customer service must really suck too.
*** Two days after writing this I got another promotional email from them. Since I used a custom email address that is specific for the hotel I stayed at it will be easy enough to just delete the address. Problem solved but this qualifies them as email spammers.

Horrible customer service right from the start. I joined the rewards club on December 30, stayed in one of their hotels Jan. 1 – 3 and they are refusing to give me points because I book on a «group rate» — but still paid. I have never had issues with the Marriot or Hilton rewards clubs regarding points and stays. I called customer Service and they could not «see» past all of their policies to actually offer good customer servce. I will be canceling my rewards club membership with them as it is apparent it’s not worth the hassel — They have lost a customer.
The good companies out there realize… happy paying customers make loyal paying customers. IHG should get past their «policies» and focus on customer service.

After trying to book a rewards night and receiving practically no help from Customer Service I will no longer be an IHG member. I am very disappoint with the experience I had when trying to redeem my points for a stay. Do not be fooled by the cancelation policy on your reservation, they have their own cancelation policy for rewards and points nights. I am very disappointed I spent so much time accumulating points with this brand for nothing.

Booked our honeymoon in Bora Bora with an agent online. With all our points we were able to get 6 nights free and pay $ 150 for the overwater bungalow. Well, the IDIOT agent booked us at the WRONG hotel and put us at the intercom in Tahiti at the airport! When I called back to have her change this, obviously all reward nights were booked and there was «nothing she could do». This was booked 8 months in advanced and it escalated to the senior case manager who told me, sorry no more room… well guess what, now suing them for our non-​refundable airplane tickets. SO so unprofessional on their part and they have absolutely no power what so ever to do anything.

This reward program is about as unfriendly as it gets. I booked due to a special promotion they had for extra points; did not get them credited. Asked about it, they said they had a computer glitch. Yes, their fault; and no, they were not gonna credit the extra points since «I was not registered.» Last time I am using them.

I was just told by IHG front desk staff that I will NOT get the points for my recent business trip because the stay was paid by another credit card (the company I’m working for). This is contrary to every other hotel chain where I’ve stayed, but I suppose is up to the individual company… another reason why I dislike IHG hotels and will never stay there unless there’s no other option.

Have 22,000 point. Hotel has 6 rooms available. Called to get a room using my points. Told the hotel was sold out, and those 6 rooms where for credit card and cash customers only. F U IGH REWARDS!!!

I have been a IHG rewards Platinum for at least two years and until now all had been well. Having just completed a stay in a miserable non air conditioned hotel in Blois France, my mind has changed. The hotel did nothing to fix the AC., free parking was full and no effort made to help us park and finally the hair dryer did not work. On complaining to IHG Rewards Customer Care, they offered 3000 points, WHOPPEE.
They will not refund the points used to stay in this property, they apologize and I have found that I am lucky they apologized. Goodbye to IHG rewards and affiliated credit card. Don’t bother with this useless Rewards? Club. It is is terrible.

I had one or two trips to an IHG hotel about a year ago. I was underwhelmed with the hotel and switched to a nearby Hilton for subsequent trips. At first I didn’t bother canceling my IHG Rewards membership in case I decided to stay there again, but when I started receiving more than one email a week I decided to cancel. There was no option to cancel online, so I sent an email to customer service requesting a cancellation FROM THE EMAIL ADDRESS THEY HAVE ON FILE AND GIVING THEM MY IHG PIN CODE. I received an email back saying they would not cancel my account without additional information. A total waste of time, no benefits from the program, no way to limit or stop the marketing emails (one a month is fine and two a month would be pushing it, but weekly emails is a nuisance), and difficult to stop. Do not join this program unless you are sure you will get a benefit.

These points are worthless. No one stays in hotels as long as it takes to build up points to stay in a room.

IHG membership program was hardly worth the time to begin with. But now they sent out emails about their new «changes» that are going to make them that much more useless. For example a couple new «benefits?» include.
1. Your points now expire. If you don’t acquire more or spend what you have in a 12 a month period, you LOSE ALL YOU HAD SAVED UP.
2. On May 1, 2015 they will increase the amount of points it takes to redeem a free stay by 5,000−10,000 points (Yes that’s DOUBLE the amount) at 300 of their locations.
And the funniest part is they try to make it sound like they are doing US a FAVOR!
They have now officially aligned themselves with all the other low budget, take more-​give less crappy membership clubs.
I’ve been a gold/​platinum member for years, and can tell you all the negative reviews of the incompetent customer service that doesn’t care, is spot on. I have had to have many dealings with them over the years and only ONE time out of all of them did they
1. Not hang up on me
2. Be helpful
3. Pretend to even care, much less solve the problem
If your considering joining, consider against it.

Great info, Thomas G. Been a member of IHG Rewards since April, I believe– so far, great experience, not encountered any issues some reviewers have shared. Very surprising to hear, as we’ve been treated really well on our stays, benefited from way early check-​in or extra late check-​out a time or two, and are racking up bonus points like crazy, already with enough points to cover spring/​summer 2015 vacation. Annual fee for the rewards club? Not heard of that one before…
Also have IHG MasterCard, and earning points with it as well– great program for us. Yes, some stays have been promotional rates that cannot be canceled or refunded, but that happens often in travel industry (Hotwire, Priceline, etc), and with THOSE sites, you don’t even know what property you’re getting until it’s too late. The properties we’ve seen and visited have been great, and seem more than willing to work with you in the event you ever have to cancel– we were told we could use those funds for a future stay.
I rarely call customer service– maybe booking online and using chat services makes for a better experience.

IHG Rewards Club is so dysfunctional in recent years that it offers no benefits at all. I make travel arrangements for a man who travels frequently and stays in a Crowne Plaza Hotel. In the last two or three years i have NEVER been able to log in to the IHG Rewards Club website. I’ve visited it more than ten times and have always been told that it is currently unavailable. Or else I log in and it just returns me back to the blank login screen once again to enter the numbers and type in the visual code.
When I’ve reported these problems by phone, I’ve received only vague expressions of regret and no concrete help. Today I asked by phone how many rewards point the traveler has earned and was told that they had no record of the account, even though I have emails in my hands that welcome him to the Rewards Club and state the account number and I have his paid hotel bills. When I press, they have searched his email account and have come up, at different times, with four different account numbers, none of which seem to have any specific travel information on them, so it’s impossible to tell if he is getting credit for recent travel. When I pushed further by phone today, they transferred me to the «IHG Rewards specialist» where I was put on hold for a few minutes and then hung up on.
I don’t want to accuse them of fraud – it could just be incompetence. Either way, the rewards club is a waste of time. However, the Crowne Plaza Hotel Fudan in Shanghai is actually a great hotel and worth paying for, so I’m not criticizing their hotels, just their Potemkin village of a rewards club.

Tiff Y. DOESN’T KNOW WHAT SHE’S TALKING ABOUT!!! READ THIS INSTEAD!
I’m not sure if Tiff is talking about a credit card or the IHG Rewards Club; either way she’s either misinformed or simply lying to trash a company who has displeased her. Plain and simple IHG Rewards is a points system for earning free nights/​upgrades at IHG properties. There is no annual fee. You stay, you get points, one day you have enough points for a free night or two, simple.
There are other benefits upon achieving higher levels with more points or nights stayed. For example, at Platinum level, you are given free upgrades if available, priority check in other small perks. The biggest benefit is probably that your points earn rate is higher.
Tiff’s contention that stays for points are only available in certain hotels and cities is absolutely false. I live in Atlanta and ran a quick search: hotels within 30 miles of downtown Atlanta with rewards night available. The search came up with 45 hotels and rates from 15,000 points at some Holiday Inns to 40,000 at Intercontinental.
I ran another search in Tiff’s area in California; 13 hotels, 15,000 points — 40,000 points per night staying anywhere again, from Holiday Inn to Intercontinental Los Angeles. Yet another falsehood by Tiff. I do agree with Tiff that the points can only be used for basic rooms, not suites and they can sell out. However, that is not a matter of not offering rooms for points, it’s merely being sold out of the cheaper rooms
The ambassador level that Tiff mentioned has a $ 200 annual fee, not $ 500. It is exclusive to Intercontinental properties (not Crowne Plaza as Tif asserts) and has some pretty nice perks (beyond the ass kissing that Tiff mentioned).
You get guaranteed room upgrades (my most recent stay at Intercontinental Buckhead, I reserved the cheapest King room at $ 199 and was upgraded to a high floor with a view superior room, a $ 100 value). You also get complimentary fruit and sparkling water with daily replenishment, a free pay-​per-​view movie and what I consider a huge perk, 4pm checkout which makes the last day of a stay a whole lot less hectic.
Last but certainly not least, you get with ambassador club, a certificate for a free weekend night at Intercontinental with at least one other paid night. This perk alone more than pays for the $ 200 annual fee.
I agree with Tiff, the vast majority of IHG properties by volume are Holiday Inns. However, if your taste runs finer, Intercontinental Hotels can be found in most major cities.

ANYONE CONSIDERING APPLYING FOR IHG READ THIS!
I’m a platinum IHG member and I’m switching to Amex Hilton Honors. Which has no annual fee!
Reasons why I’m SICK of IHG:
1. The hotels under IHG, are pretty much low budget hotels; holiday inn, staybridge, candlewood, etc. Normally when I book a hotel stay it’s because I’m taking friends and family friends on a little staycation or far away vacation. I absolutely LOVE to show a good time and my appreciation, I wish they offered luxury hotels.
2. The $ 45 $ annual fee, please.
3. The pointbreaks (different every month), where they have certain hotels in certain cities, certain states, will cost only 5000 points to spend the night.
That’s a great deal and all, but typically there are only 3 or 5 hotels in your state that offer the pointbreaks, one in a popular city (gone within minutes) then the rest are in cities you would never ever ever visit or have probably never heard of. Otherwise you’re looking at spending 30,000– 50,000 points on a hotel stay (that takes a while to save up, and I spend A LOT of money too). That’s if the hotel is even available.
4. Even if you have INFINITY reward points, you will only be able to use them for a standard room. You CANT use your points to get a suite, junior suite, presidential suite, no just a standard room. C’mon your hotels are already lame enough, at least allow us to use our reward points on an upgrade!
5. The free internet benefit you receive at any of IHG hotel as a platinum or gold member is a joke. You will literally get one bar of signal, do you remember dial up? Yeah it’s slow like dial up.
6. Platinum is the highest you can get, and then there’s Ambassador. You pretty much pay $ 500 a year to get your ass kissed and ego fluffed up at Crowne Plaza. YES, OMG, only at Crowne Plaza, no you won’t be treated like an Ambassador at the holiday inn (what an oxymoron). When I say ass kissed, I mean you walk into the lobby and get a cordial greeting, fruit and water in your room, a handwritten note. It’s safe to say my mommy and daddy loved me enough and I would rather be 500 dollars richer every year.
7. When you’re not using your reward points for a hotel, you would think they would offer a discount on their hotel stays for being a member. WRONG!!! For example through orbitz I could book a hotel stay at the holiday inn for 129 dollars right now, but through IHG it’s 169. It’s like this with ALL their hotels. *SCREENSHOTS PROVIDED TOO*, so you don’t think I’m just a bitter customer tearing them up for no reason.
Ultimately, there are no benefits. You are overcharged to stay in a low budget hotel. You save more money staying at any of their hotels, without being an IHG member. And on top of that there is a stupid annual fee.
IHG where is your sense of loyalty to your members? Amex Hilton Hhonors would never treat me this way, Never.

Reps are unhelpful.
They didn’t have any record of my 30 – 40 minute call with them a month ago
and basically accused me of never calling.
…after having the SAME conversation with them again today (on another 40 – 50 min call)
i gave up.
Oh, and i will not be using the IHG «Rewards» Club, I don’t care about points or getting «rewarded» or reserving any rooms with them at this point. No wonder people do all their booking on
or
–loyalty to customers is dead.
boo.

Horrible Customer Service
This is my 2^nd day calling to resolve a very simple issue. I was promised a follow-​up call yesterday at 6 p.m., never happened.
Called back today and there is no record of my 30 – 40 minute call from yesterday.
I am back on the phone today, I’ve already spoken with two different people and still no resolution. Now, I’ve been placed on hold with a 10 minute wait… UNACCEPTABLE!

We’ve been members of Intercontinental Hotel Group’s Rewards Club program for years.
This FREE program gives us various perks, upgrades, and we earn points for free stays (called reward nights).
When traveling, we want to know what to expect — this group’s hotels (while varying a bit), are always clean, safe, friendly, comfortable and reasonably priced.
I base this on many stays, all across the country.
Before joining IHG Rewards, we tried Choice Hotel’s program — many were fine in most cases — but overall the quality of their hotels was inconsistent, sometimes sketchy areas, and some of the lower end locations (Econolodge specifically) were terrible! — I’m not a Motel 6 type kinda traveller any more (like I was in my early 20’s)
IHG hotel brands include: Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo (boutique hotels), Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express. These hotels range from top of the line properties to motor hotel type, a good range to fit our needs — and available in many locations. Their brand includes Staybridge and Candlewood Suites for extended stays — didn’t care for them the one time we stayed there — many people were cooking — too many unpleasant odors!
IHG is a world wide chain — with customer service numbers for various parts of the globe.
Their website and mobile app are valuable tools for planning and making reservations. Have never had and issue regarding rooms booked unlike what I have heard and read about discount sites.
Automatic member perks vary by location — some we have experienced include — early check in and extended check out times, complimentary bottles of water/​snacks, special check in window, free paper delivered to room, club members only floors of rooms, free wine tasting and cocktail hours, free drinks or drink certificates.
In passing I’ve heard housekeeping staff saying to each other (as we walk by) «this is a Priority guest room.»
Additionally, we’ve gotten upgraded several times, to suites, view rooms, and complimentary meals — in some cases I inquired about available upgrades — other times they were volunteered.
All of this at no cost — some of the upgrades were of substantial value — and none of these items involved earning points — just for being a member!
The program offers 3 levels of membership, Club, Gold and Platinum — we have held each level at various times and are currently Platinum Elite members — you earn these through points earned, and nights stayed per year — you can also purchase Gold status — however I wouldn’t — we have had status upgrades twice for nothing — once it was offered, once I asked while planning a vacation — no problem — automatic upgrade!
The way it works is you earn points for each dollar spent in their hotels — this includes at their bars and restaurants as long as you have it put on your bill — they offer several bonuses as well, some are as easy to get as just booking via their website. There are many ways to get points — I’ve converted Coke rewards points, e-​rewards points and they have partner programs — Priority Shopping (points for many online retailers) and Rewards Dining Network. I’m an Elite member of the Dining program– it’s free and easy also — just register your CC’s and when you use them at a participating restaurant you automatically get points for every dollar spent which goes to your hotel account. They have «search by location» and reviews like Unilocal does — However, the review/​ratings are pretty soft — I have found that the participating places are mostly 3 stars on Unilocal,— although there are a few 4’s! The dining site has a mobile app also.
After you earn points, you can spend them on free or discounted rooms — the amount you need to spend varies per hotel/​location.
Options for to convert to frequent flyer miles programs are available, can’t comment — we aren’t in any of those.
If you aren’t into points programs — the free sign up, and free basic member perks make this a no brainer, even for a one time stay!
Highly recommend you check it out. Feel free to send my any questions!