No more IHG Rewards Club points on food and drink on Expedia stays

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The major hotel chains are involved in a minor war with the online third-party booking sites such as Expedia. They don’t like the commission these sites take, which is not surprising when Expedia is known to keep up to 25% of your purchase when you book an ‘Expedia Special Rate’ hotel.

Last week I wrote about how Starwood and Marriott have discovered a new trick. From February, you will receive free internet when you stay with these chains – but ONLY if you book directly. Anyone booking via Expedia etc will still need to pay.

The major hotels chains already refuse to give stay credit or points in their own loyalty schemes when you book via a third party. What differs between the chains is:

whether your status benefits are acknowledged – Hyatt, Marriott and (in my experience) Hilton are OK for this

whether you earn points for your food and drink spending – all chains except Hilton have historically allowed you to do this

View From The Wing notes that IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn / Crowne Plaza / InterContinental etc scheme, has changed its rules.

Take a look at the new point 12 of the IHG Rewards Club terms here:

IHG Rewards Club: OTA Earn Restriction. IHG Rewards Club members will not earn points during a stay or retroactively on any reservations booked through Online Travel Agencies (OTA). This restriction includes but is not limited to: earning points on food and beverage purchases, parking, in room dining, movies, and any other incidental charges incurred during the member’s length of stay.

The lines are being drawn. On one hand, hotel chains want you to book direct and get stay credit, points for incidental spend, points for your room rate spend and elite benefits. On the other, the online travel agents offer you their own rewards scheme (eg Welcome Rewards from Hotels.com) and cashback via TopCashback etc. The choice is up to you.

IHG Rewards update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

New to IHG Rewards? Read our overview of IHG Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

IHG Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

jonboy says:

1 Jan1 January 04:56

since I discovered the hotels.com rewards (thanks to you) I haven’t looked back.

Hilton gold card still works at Hiltons for me too, all over the world and most recently Bangkok where I got a whopping size suite room. shame it comes to an end soon. I got the aussie visa card trick one, we need something like that again!
Lady London says:

1 Jan1 January 04:59

fair enough.

I just think fast wifi should be like electricity… available everywhere and within every room rate.
Jason says:

1 Jan1 January 07:08

The free wifi at the Times Square intercontinental, was so slow, it wasn’t worth using anyway!
Flieduk says:

1 Jan1 January 08:08

My understanding was when you booked via Hilton.com the property (i.e. the company running the actual hotel you are going to rather than Hilton Worldwide LLC or the relevant chain brand) had to pay the chain (i.e. Hilton Worldwide LLC) a commission PLUS had to pay for all the points that you are credited with.

Therefore, surely the PROPERTY would still be quite happy to give you free wifi if you book via Expedia, etc? Also, why would it be of any concern to the chain how much commission sites like Expedia take when it is the property that has to pay them out?
Max says:

1 Jan1 January 08:25

Sofitel have always offered me Platinum upgrade privileges when I have booked via a third party, though not the loyalty points.
- Jenni says:
  
  1 Jan1 January 10:40
  
  Same here, last time at T5 for a stay booked through lastminute.com got a double upgrade on the room and also a free drinks voucher for one drink for both of us staying in the room. Couldn’t really complain since i paid <£80 for the room.
Max says:

1 Jan1 January 08:29

With regard to Wi-Fi, I often find a 4G data package from my supplier is cheaper and faster than hotel W-Fi packages anyway!
- Stuart says:
  
  1 Jan1 January 09:14
  
  Same here, my last stay I just abandoned the WiFi after I tested it to be 0.4 Mbps which is barely better than dial up and I was getting 10 Mbps on my 4G. More power intensive sure but when you’re in a hotel room it really doesn’t matter that much.
  
  I would be disappointed to loose WiFi (even slow WiFi) at a foreign hotel though.
  - Jason says:
    
    1 Jan1 January 10:09
    
    Lady London’s comment above is spot on, wifi is a utility and should be treated like one.
    It’s frustrating when a hotel wants to charge you for something virtually everywhere in the western world takes for granted.
- Fenny says:
  
  1 Jan1 January 10:24
  
  I think I may start asking hotels that don’t offer free wifi where the nearest McDeadthings is. If they ask why, I shall say it’s so I can use the free wifi that I would expect to get in the hotel.
  - Nick says:
    
    1 Jan1 January 18:12
    
    Yes, I.,m sure the. 24year old at the checkout in Budapest or Bangkok would be devastated to hear that 🙂
    - Fenny says:
      
      1 Jan1 January 19:25
      
      Probably more so than the 35 yr old on reception at Milan. But I’m more likely to be in Milan than Bangkok.
Andrew says:

1 Jan1 January 13:52

Of course it would be much easier if the chains simply had the same price as the discounters… or didn’t find every excuse under the sun to refuse the “BEST RATE GUARANTEE”
- Fenny says:
  
  1 Jan1 January 19:27
  
  Yes, I got exactly the same offer via Bookings.com as the room I’d booked via Best Western’s site at at least 20% less. When I challenged their guarantee, they said it didn’t refer to third party sites. So I cancelled and booked elsewhere. Still got free wifi and breakfast, but no points.
N says:

1 Jan1 January 15:12

The hotel only lose if you are savvy enough to book elsewhere. Plus if they dropped the headline rate they’d be at risk of entering a price war with the OTAs