Holiday Inn - cancelled hotel booking!! Poor customer service

kawoh

Hi - i'm a Gold Priority Club member from the Hilton HHonors Diamond promotion, i've booked two IHG properties since this and i've been massively let down both instances

1/ Stayed at the Crowne Plaza Venice - hotel room was in a state, pieces from the roof paint falling on face for the first two nights (i didn't realise it until i saw all these white flecks and paint all over the floor and glanced up to the ceiling, jogger not operating/health risk - it was snapped in two - hotel said they'd fixed, never did in the 5 days i was there, bathroom shower full of mildew, toilet seat falling off not repaired, TV channels not operating properly, soiling over all the walls in the upper ceiling in the room. I contacted IHG about this and they offered nothing in return, yes I was on the 2c error rate, but how can a hotel get away with this? Also my initial room was not what I had booked either. They then claimed the room was unavailable.

2/ Booked the Holiday Inn Male for December, booked on the 8 November, public knowledge which i'm sure IHG would have known that this hotel was leaving and going to Shangri La Group (Traders Hotel) on a press release issued 4 November. I didn't know this upon booking. IHG charged me for a cash + points award of $60 + 5,000 points. The conditions of the booking said to the effect that consideration had been paid. In my eyes this is a valid binding contract, in fact my card has been charged, albeit for the points I still feel my clear expectation in the booking process was I was booking this hotel. Get an email from a reservation person at the Holiday Inn Male, saying they are no longer from 22 November part of IHG and they are CANCELLING my reservation and for me to rebook. I can't see how they can do this, but I decided to call the reservation line at IHG, escalations were unhelpful and just suggested I emailed them. I now have 10,000 IHG points which I didn't want, no reservation even though I had made a valid booking and the hotel trying to extort me to pay a small fortune to stay there. I just think this is:

a) really poor tier member customer service from IHG, all the mean time pay 10p a minute for the privilege of being able to speak to them. In fact it's shocking they can treat members so badly. I get great service from the hilton diamond desk, light years apart.

b) that the IHG group can still sell the hotel branded as theirs (it's still even bookable on their site with no notice that it is no longer a holiday inn property from 22 November).

I'm just really annoyed with IHG Priority Club, it has to be the worst loyalty program and customer service i've ever experienced. Shocking.

Am I just huffing and puffing or do u think it's a little crazy?

spheric

IHG use a high number of self-managed properties, which can lead to some inconsistency - more than you tend to see at Hilton and Starwood properties.

If the CP in venice downgraded you to a lower room type than the one you paid for (note that status upgrades in general aren't guaranteed), then you might be able to persuade priorityclub to do something about that stay.

As for the hotel leaving the group, I suspect that they've honoured all the cash-only bookings, and cancelled all the point-paid bookings because IHG pay the hotel after the stay is complete (and at a very low rate, I've heard several say that managers consider it below cost), and if they've left the group, they won't get their money back. I can't be sure without a very close look at the booking terms and conditions whether you have a case, but if you do it will be against IHG/Priorityclub rather than the individual hotel, I suspect.

I'm afraid that this forum is probably not the best place for advice that needs such detailed knowlege of the priorityclub T&Cs - and in the inner workings of IHG... So if it isn't considered spamming, may I suggest that you take a look over at flyertalk? - they have dedicated priorityclub forum - they even have some royal ambassadors there (mega big cheeses who stay at IHG hotels almost weekly and have massive status) who I suspect will be in a better position to help.