[Anonymous]

[GarethForster1]

As a Platinum member I am totally shocked by the dreadful customer service I’m receiving from Priority club. They don’t appear to even slightly value their top tier members.

I’ve recently had a lot of qualifying hotel stays that have either posted on my account as unqualifying stays or not posted at all!

When I email Priority club I simply receive an auto response stating I will receive a reply within five working days, no response is ever received. When I phone I just appear to get through to a call centre in the USA where the staff are unable to understand or deal with the issue.

This experience is so different from Hilton who have a separate desk and number for their top tier members.

As a result of this I’ve now decided to take all my business away from IHG hotels so its ultimately their loss, though I’d be very interested to hear if other business travellers have encountered similar issues with Priority Club?

[prosborn]

The reaon you get no service from PC (Plat) service centre is because they are too busy giving no service to me. They are awful.

The call centre tends to be in Philippines, mainly Metro Manila. The staff there are canny, until they have to perform like dumb robots as they are trained and expected to do by PC.

[GarethForster1]

Thanks for that prosborn

[prosborn]

Service centres, we agree, do not always reflect the product.

I am writing from the Exec floor of Tokyo Hilton, one of the summums of ‘Why I Will Stay A Diamond’ (even if the lounge does get swamped on and off by huddling visiting Americans seeking comfort in the, for them, alien world of Shinjuku.)
Here Diamond service is as good on the ground (and the 38th floor) as it is on the phone with Diamond Desk in Dallas, a truly wonderful team of people.

Now then. You cannot say the same for the IC Group. A comparable Intercontinental may even emulate a Hilton (tho’ not a Conrad) but their service centre practice sucks (polite English: is somewhat lacking). However, being a PC Platinum and Ambasador always makes a big difference in any HI and IC for me, and in about half the HIEs I grace. Superbly excellent in their treatment include CP Nairobi and HIE Marseille (downtown). There are dodgy HIE (like Schiphol, I am ashamed to say as a NL resident) and the dodgy ones are more frequent than the occasional placid Hampton Inn in the US.

Summary: for me. the together Hilton family overall outclasses the dysfunctional not-joined-up ‘family’ of IC.

Have you tried the Carlson chain? I signed up 2 weeks for their recent amazing points actions, and I shall believe the points when I see them! I matched my HH Diamond to request Carlson Gold granted within a week. This augurs well…

In the meantime, this week the Park Inn in Tallinn gave reaonable facilities and more than correct upgrades, although it has training isues about cleanliness and wake-up calls. Over 3 nights, the average room price paid for a large business room+balcony, after my charm for a double upgrade, a 2for1 deal and a discount for failed wake-ups was EUR35.

400 metres away, the Radisson Blu Olumpia reciprocated my charm with theirs, granting me a super double size business room, including free movies and breakfast banquet on a trolley into the room, for an average of E84/n, plus a voucher (used for a meal) for a one-time glitch on brekkie timing. Plus wall to wall name recognition.
Avoid the restaurant if a cruise liner surprisingly docks, all unexpected. Otherwise enjoy.

After a week in Tallinn, my first reckoning is that the higher end of Carlson can be charmed up to be very reasonable and to give, in situ, good service. One has to forgo one’s lounge (as in many a HI or CP or highway Hiltons), but otherwise, I am impressed with the Blu product.

If their service centre behaves, and the backroom delivers me the 180,000+ plus points for my first three stays in Carlson chains (still to-do: a Country…), which will be good for 5 nights in Blu’s, then I reckon IC are in for a bit of a drubbing from Carlson for non-high-end stuff.

Hilton are in a different league. Their downfall will be the usual complacency plus the insipid, smarmy attitude and non-hospitable rules of their seemingly Indian MBA management style, at least in their UK operations. Enjoy while you can.

Remind me to show this post to Carlson!!

[Pierre]

Hi,

I was a regular guest of IHG properties. I still enjoy staying there from time to time, for the quality of the service, but left it aside because their PC doesn’t work.

HH is fine, but the service at their hotels varies so much between countries (excellent in Tokyo and India where Hilton left the market some years ago, but poor in Czech rep, Bulgaria, UK)

Radisson/Carlson is fine. No surprise, good or bad, the same standard worldwide.

A good recognition is given by Marriott.

[TexScot]

Howdy All

Was a very loyal IHG customer primarily staying over 150 nights annually all over the world at Intercontinental or Crowne Plazas. Was “invited” years ago Platinum Royal Ambassador but it was withdrawn last year after 1.5 years of reduced activity. Was diagnosed with MS last year so was a bit restricted in travel until this year.

Began travelling again 8 months ago and while I did notice a ever decreasing slide in customer service from PriorityClub and IHG along with a definate lowering of service and standards in their top tier hotels all over the world. I am heading out next week on a 8 week RTW business trip and based on some of the same issues others have noted with customer service and my less than stellar experiences at Intercontinentals since the end of last year finally had enough.

The solution – Contacted Starwood, Hilton & Hyatt and asked if they would match my Platinum IHG level with them. All responded very quickly with a resounding yes. I do have to stay a minimal number of days at each of the chains hotels but compared to what you need if starting from scratch not a problem. In fact will achieve each of the groups top tier level membership on this one trip alone!

So bye bye IHG it was nice while it lasted but once I use up my current points it no more!

[Lando Marco]

I have been a Platinum member since the intro of PC but have since given up PC. Clearly the worst loyalty program but what irritates me is the IHG group’s penny pinching attitude that boarders on dishonesty – has anybody tried to make them honor the online lowest rate guarantee? Those who have attempted to claim on the guarantee will know exactly what I mean!
Starwood and Hilton seem to shine in their customer loyalty programs.

[GarethForster1]

What really irritates me, is when I email Priority club my emails are all ignored!!!! I get an auto response saying how busy they are and will reply in 5 business days. The response never arrives. When I email missing stay or point requests again Ignored. I think this is a shocking and outrageous way to treat their top tier members.

[Irons80]

Gareth, may I ask how you booked your stays?

If you book via hotels.com, expedia or other third party web sites, PC does not award you points, no matter what rate you’ve paid or status you have. It is the same with Club Carlson too.

In my experience (as an IHG Platinum Ambassador) you only are awarded points if you book directly with the hotel, via intercontinental.com or through a travel agent.

My experience of their customer services – out of interest – has actually been quite positive. They awarded me Platinum status, despite being a couple of thousand points short because I booked a flights+hotel package via ba.com that wasn’t eligible for points. Had it been, I would have reached the required amount.

[NTarrant]

I recently contacted IHG Club regarding the Crowne Plaza in Amman who wouldn’t respond to my email asking about airport transfers.

I copied them in on an email to the hotel and their response was to tell me to contact the hotel.

I responded saying they don’t reply that’s why I’m contacting you.

To be fair they did get the price of the airport transfer, but still didn’t get a response from the hotel.

In the end I cancelled the Crowne Plaza and booked into the Intercontinental and Holiday Inn Dead Sea Resort.

Overall I find IHG hotels to be very good, with a few exceptions.

I used to be a Hilton Gold but when they increased the number of stays required I stopped using them as I found that there was more inconsistency of service in Hilton than IHG

[lesmclaren]

I was a Platinum member with PC for more years than I care to remember, often qualifying in the first 3 months of the year and at least double qualifying over the year. Because of my location [Scandinavia] I also used SAS [now Carlson] hotels a lot as well as there were very few IHG properties in this region. Then the benefits with PC started to go downhill along with the overall service especially of their call centre. Now I use Carlson properties whenever I can, have been Concierge ever since they introduced it which gives great and useful benefits that are 99% honoured without having to ask. Good range of hotels across a broad price spectrum that try hard and generally understand what customer service and loyalty should be. Their only let down is their customer service centre which seems to struggle to understand plain English but as I have only had to contact them very rarely [unlike PC] then its not been a great issue!!
As for PC – never even contacted me to ask why I was using them less and took 6 months to inform me I had been downgraded to Gold. Old adage I guess – loyalty a one way street!.

[canucklad]

@ lesmaclaren
You’re not missing much, it’s now almost impossible to maintain platinum.
I’m sure these people in the various loyalty programmes must assume that work/ home life balance is a thing of the past.

To stay platinum, as well as reaching top tier with other programmes ,I’d be as well divorcing the wife, if I still had one and dedicating myself to constantly flying around the globe seeking out a specific hotel chain for them recognize my loyalty.

The diminishment in this programme in particular is as stark as a stripper clothes on death row.

And like all these corporations I’m sure they deliberated any changes , but only after seeking their most loyal customers feedback, did they then enhance their product..

[lesmclaren]

@canucklad.
LOVE IT!! – so very true, great comments!!

PS [and off topic] – you may recall from the recent BA HBO blog that I was waiting for a reply from BA. Well after 2 weeks I got an acknowledgement!!:
Quote:
Frank van der Post has asked me to thank you for your letter of 07 March 2015. He has asked his Customer Relations team to reply on his behalf.
Please be assured, one of the team will be in touch as soon as they are able to.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.
Best regards
Trupti Morya
British Airways Customer Relations Unquote

Which is strange as several people were kind enough to tell me than Mr. van der Post left BA in February – obviously BA staff do not know this!!!

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