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Can You Beat IHG's Best Price (Guaranteed)?

September 22, 2011 at 8:45 AM | by | Comments (2)

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) would appreciate it if you didn't find any lower rates on third-party booking sites for any of their eight hotel brands (InterContinental Hotels, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites, and Candlewood Suites). But if you do, according to their new Best Price Guarantee (BPG) initiative, you will earn yourself a free night.

Why are they so confident? Well, the multinational hotel mega-group has put some serious time and money into making it more appealing for guests to book directly on the IHG brand website. So for example, if you are normally an Expedia booker (and why wouldn't you be?), and you want to book yourself three nights at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins, you have two options: either pay slightly more than what's available directly on the hotel's website, or find a lower rate, and get your first night free (plus the other two nights at the lower rate)!

Apparently, IHG's Vice President, Michael Menis, "understands how much price influences a guest's booking decision." Well, thank goodness for that.

Other features of the new booking system include: no hidden booking fees; secure transactions; Priority Club reward points, and the hope that hotel employees will "cater to [guests'] specific requests." Well, we're not sure about that last one, but we can't blame 'em for trying.

A while back, we said that booking directly through hotel websites was a safe bet, since not only do you see all available rates, but you can also become privy to any current promotions or deals. Now, plenty of other sites offer similar "Best Rate Guarantees," but IHG is setting itself apart by giving you a whole night for free.

Of course, Wyhdham tried this same service a few years ago, and promptly shut it down. Which leaves us wondering, how many of you will be taking advantage of the current IHG BPG challenge? If you think of it like a gameshow, it becomes way more fun.

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No PC Points

If your rate ends up being too low, recently at least, you will not get P points. You wont find this out until you go searching for your points credit.
eagertraveler on September 22, 2011 at 5:13 PM #Permalink

Not that great...

On first test of this, IHG was offering a rate that was exactly one cent cheaper than what Expedia was offering. What kind of incentive is that? This falls under the category of typical cheeseball business games.
tromboned on September 23, 2011 at 2:00 PM #Permalink

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