Potential IHG One Rewards Cyber Promo Disaster

IHG ran a very lucrative promotion last week from Monday to Tuesday (read more here), allowing its rewards program members to earn 10,000 bonus points every two nights through the end of 2022.

You were required to register and book this offer during the 48-hour window, but now there is confusion about this promotion’s exact start and end time, as it was not clearly defined anywhere.

You can access IHG’s page for the Cyber Sale here.

READ MORE: IHG One Rewards Rate & Bonus Points Offers

I noted when I wrote about this promotion that there is a potential issue with the booking deadlines:

To participate in this Promotion, a member must both register for the Promotion and book their qualifying room night stays during the “Activation Period.” The “Activation Period” is November 28, 2022 (12:00AM Local Standard Time).

What is this “Local Standard Time”?

It is not defined anywhere. So, is it the local time of the hotel you try to book, the time of the city/country where your account is based, the time of IHG’s headquarters (UK), or their US operations (Atlanta)?

There will be many extremely unhappy guests who have booked IHG hotels under this offer in Asia (booked too early) or in the Americas (booked too late) if the “Local Standard Time” is defined as the GMT.

A reader also left a comment that they couldn’t register for this offer at 8 PM local time where they were based:

Just tried to book my business stay and take advantage of the 10k bonus point promotion. Couldn’t complete the registration needed to take advantage of the promotion. I’m already a Rewards Member. So I was prompted to call them.

After 2 calls to the Customer assistance line I was told that the promotion had ended. IHG following GMT or something? It is 8pm CST. No where in the U.S is it 2am. Or even after midnight. And the promotion is still being advertised on the internet. But they did offer bonus points for a 4 night stay! Sounds like bait and switch? Very deceptive.

If the deadline is based on the “Local Standard Time” where the IHG One Rewards member is registered, surely the reader should have been able to register and book at 8 PM of their local time if it was supposed to be valid until midnight?

If you try using Google to find out how you calculate the Local Standard Time, it spills out the following:

How do you calculate local standard time?

LSTM = The local standard time meridian, measured in degrees, which runs through the center of each time zone. It can be calculated by multiplying the differences in hours from Greenwich Mean Time by 15 degrees per hour.

Conclusion

I have a vague feeling that IHG has another promo disaster on its hands due to not clearly defining this promotion’s beginning and end time.

Nobody knows what this “Local Standard Time” is and how it applies to their IHG One Rewards accounts.

I am sure there will be tens of thousands of contacts from members to the IHG One Rewards service center when they find out that no promo points were posted to their accounts.

IHG could have defined that the valid promo period is either based on the GMT or ET; that would have been clearer for more members.