Complaint Review: IHG Intercontinental Hotel Group Rewards Program

Do not under any circumstances expect this hotel chain to honor their contracts.  I used the IHG Hotel, the Holiday Inn in Florida for a professional sporting event at which I paid $32, 177.75 for an entire soccer team and its administration to stay at.  Part of my agreement with the Sales Manager at the time was that I would be given 10 points for each dollar I spent at their hotel.

I called regarding the points not being posted upon completing our contract and was told they took several weeks to post.  I then called about 6 months later again when I again was told they had to post them because for some reason the system must not have updated them.  I then called another 6 months again after that- this time to their corporate office because I was tired of being told the same thing by the Sales Manager who incompetent about everything in general, not just this.  I was told to call the hotel to fix the problem, so I did and I was assured the points were posted.  I called back and spoke again with the Sales Manager and I was told they did in fact post the points so I believed her.  I checked a few weeks ago because I have a long trip I am going on and there were no points posted from the contract in my account.  I asked to speak with someone in the Corporate Office because I plan Professional Sporting Events and have gotten nothing but a run around from the customer service relations department and talked to people who provide the worst customer service I have ever had in my life.

I was sent a letter stating they would not be crediting me because since then that specific hotel went out of business- big surprise they sucked!!!  Never mind the fact that IHG has records of both the contract and the reservations- they still refuse to credit it because the hotel is no longer in business.

I spend about $250,000 per year for rentals with Sporting Events for professional teams.  I WILL NEVER WORK WITH THIS GROUP EVER AGAIN.  The fact I have already given them and have the potential to give them this much business and they have treated me so unbelievably badly, I absolutely will NOT ever use their hotel chain again and I highly recommend that no one else does!  Upon being thoroughly annoyed that I couldn't even speak with anyone in the Corporate Office I spoke to my friend who works in the same industry and had the SAME problem with them!  Their points program is a huge scam!

When I finally threatened to sue them, they then said they were escalating my case and I would get a call back from a Customer Retention Specialist in 48 hours.  48 hours!!!!  that's at least 2 days and I have been trying for 2 weeks to talk to anyone who should be handling the level of account for the business I give them.  WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE IMAGINABLE!!!!

CC:

Katie Jolley
Case Manager
Guest Relations
IHG

Elizabeth Thornson