On a recent trip to Europe, we decided to give Holiday Inn Express a second try. We'd not been too impressed by the chain in the past, but in some locations there were convenient properties that seemed to be good value. We booked through the site as usual, and the somewhat mixed results are in our reviews.
We had taken care to send our "Priority Club" information directly to the hotels, and in all cases they were gratefully acknowledged. However, when we returned from our trip and checked our accounts, we couldn't find any points. Obviously this had to be an error, as we have never had such problems with the Hilton chain! However, upon contacting the IHG chain, we were told that they were "...unable to issue IHG Rewards Club points for your discounted room rate per section 12 of the IHG Rewards Club Terms and Conditions...". We were further told that the big booking engines get highly discounted rates and that they display a "...notification that credit with loyalty programs will not be issued...".
We saw no such notification when we booked, and if we had, we would have sought a chain that does not apply such a penalty. Ultimately, the decision is up to you, the user/guest, to decide if points are more important than savings. Or perhaps the better question is if a chain that exacts such a penalty is that much better than one that does not.
We know that both IHG and Hyatt have this policy. In our experience with Hilton, on the other hand, we have never had to make that choice, even on their best discounts. Perhaps you can let us know your thoughts. Just send us a quick message about your experiences, and we will post them here.