Showing posts with label BRG IHG Priority Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BRG IHG Priority Club. Show all posts
Friday, March 9, 2012
250 Free Priority Club points
Priority Club has got to be one of the easiest ways of obtaining a no cost hotel stay and this promotion continues in that tradition. Through the end of March they are offering 250 points for taking a short survey on travel habits and brand perceptions, link here. It is not a secret, I and probably every other Priority Club member received an email selling the virtues of the program including the link. It is just quite easy for these nuggets to get lost in the spam of dining updates for every program under the sun and all the other email that comes in. Posting time was about a week in my case so this is not a magic fix for rounding up to redemption levels.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Backyard BRG
My dabbling in Best Rate Guarantees perked up my interest in seeing how easy it really was to claim in each of the chains. IHG/Priority Club offers a first night free guarantee, meaning that if you find a lower rate on a one night stay the stay is free. Sounds too good to be true right?
One of the airline websites seems to have about a 50% success rate in advertising lower hotel rates than the hotel directly so last weekend I found a property in my backyard ($67 vs $99). I make my booking on priorityclub.com and immediately phoned the BRG hotline based out of the Phillipines. 20 minutes later, mostly on hold while the rep was verifying the rate I had a claim to a free hotel Saturday night.
I was told that they would contact the hotel to adjust the rate to complimentary and email me a confirmation. Three days go by and it is getting close to the cancellation deadline and i have no email. I call the claim hotline again and am toldthey are still waiting to hear from the hotel. The following morning I receive an email stating that the hotel is challenging the rate and that I will have to pay for the stay and corporate would reimburse me in 4-6 weeks.
Well this isn't how I planned it. I pondered cancelling the reservation as I did not really want to be without my $100 for 4-6 weeks for a hotel stay I had no need for and on the promise of an already shaky organization. I decided to go through with it even after a strong series of doubts in the last hour of no penalty cancellation. At minimum I am going to pickup 2200 Priority Club points thanks to a double point promotion and my lowly gold status, that is progress toward Grand Slam '12. I also get the experience under my belt and if it is a positive one, I can repeat the experience. More details of the actual stay soon.
One of the airline websites seems to have about a 50% success rate in advertising lower hotel rates than the hotel directly so last weekend I found a property in my backyard ($67 vs $99). I make my booking on priorityclub.com and immediately phoned the BRG hotline based out of the Phillipines. 20 minutes later, mostly on hold while the rep was verifying the rate I had a claim to a free hotel Saturday night.
I was told that they would contact the hotel to adjust the rate to complimentary and email me a confirmation. Three days go by and it is getting close to the cancellation deadline and i have no email. I call the claim hotline again and am toldthey are still waiting to hear from the hotel. The following morning I receive an email stating that the hotel is challenging the rate and that I will have to pay for the stay and corporate would reimburse me in 4-6 weeks.
Well this isn't how I planned it. I pondered cancelling the reservation as I did not really want to be without my $100 for 4-6 weeks for a hotel stay I had no need for and on the promise of an already shaky organization. I decided to go through with it even after a strong series of doubts in the last hour of no penalty cancellation. At minimum I am going to pickup 2200 Priority Club points thanks to a double point promotion and my lowly gold status, that is progress toward Grand Slam '12. I also get the experience under my belt and if it is a positive one, I can repeat the experience. More details of the actual stay soon.
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