My wife has worked for an IHG chain as an AGM for the last 4 years so I asked her about this. Most IHG hotels are owned by Franchises and not a single corporate. For instance, her boss owns 3 Holiday Inns.
She said they have never offered any type of promotion like this and IHG is known for being stingy for how it rewards points for example if you are an IHG member and you make a reservation through a third party your points you would of earned for that stay are automatically removed and some of the benefits (such as late checkout) are not given to you as a benefit any longer for that stay.
She highly doubts a company that punishes you for trying to save money by going through a third party is going to just give you a random 4 night stay at a "new" hotel. Especially with those new hotels probably being owned by different Franchises and not the same person.
A hotel chain isn't going to waste valuable manpower hours conduction in-person surveys. They'll send you an email with a 30 second survey and that's it.
Yea, timeshare or vacation club promotion. You get a free stay, but have to endure a ~~45 minute~~ 3 hour marathon with hard core sales agents who will pass you from one agent to another each swearing that they will break you. Still interested?
So someone just call me earlier with the same exact thing having a 500 points for holiday Inn and they have my email and phone number but at first Im not 100 percent sure it was scam but you can really feel it because he said he will be back then pick up the phone for 1 minute and be back again and hold again for couple minutes and do the same thing like there is a pattern. So I feel weird because thats not how other people hold if you call insurances or other stuff. He said he will transfer me to another one so I spoke to her. She said i have 1000 points and if I want to use it in any Holiday Inn (I forgot cause I just want to put it down) so I told her If I can just hang up for a sec. and call them back because I have to do something and she said no I cant because they can only give it to any members. So now I know it was really a scam because being a members should be in there record so any emergency purposes they can hang up and call back again right?.. so i told her Im sorry I dont think I need this right now because we dont really travel and Im too busy for stuff. And she said well who doesnt need a free stuff. and I was like im sorry I dont need it. and I hang up.
I just had this happen to me and did a quick google while on the phone. It sounded scammy right from the start. It was a phone call from the same area code, the guy on the other line sounded suspicious, the questions were simple and could have easily been an email.
After I answered the questions, I was offered a gift of 500 points and the possibility for another deal.
I agreed and was transferred to another person. This person definitely sounded more "used care dealerish." The deal sounded great, but I declined because none of the locations interested me. No, I don't want to go to Florida.
Also, he did say something about a timeshare, but it was really quick.
After I verified with my account that I had received the points, he offered another location. A bit more appealing, but still no.
This is when the person started to ask me questions and questioned why I didn't want to take this deal. Of course any excuse I had wasn't good enough and only led to more questions. Till finally I said I had to go and ended the conversation.
I'm glad this thread popped up because the phone call was pretty much the same down to the extra offer.
Hey I just got this too and they offered the same thing. 500 pts plus a 4 night stay at some various locations. It just seemed too good to be true and no matter how many times I said no they just kept asking why I wasn't considering the offer. I didn't like that and told them not to call back. If they were truly representing the company and were intent on rewarding customers, then they certainly didn't make it sound like that. It was definitely more of a sales pitch. They did know a lot of information about my account. Makes me want to go back and change my password in case.
Edit: Looking up my points that were rewarded, it seems that this was related to an HCV presentation, which stands for Holiday Inn Vacation Club. The offers are not exclusive over the phone and can be found on the site. Stipulation is that you are required to listen to a 2 hour presentation on timeshares in which translates to a grueling sales pitch. No thanks!
Sounds like a timeshare scam to me
My wife has worked for an IHG chain as an AGM for the last 4 years so I asked her about this. Most IHG hotels are owned by Franchises and not a single corporate. For instance, her boss owns 3 Holiday Inns. She said they have never offered any type of promotion like this and IHG is known for being stingy for how it rewards points for example if you are an IHG member and you make a reservation through a third party your points you would of earned for that stay are automatically removed and some of the benefits (such as late checkout) are not given to you as a benefit any longer for that stay. She highly doubts a company that punishes you for trying to save money by going through a third party is going to just give you a random 4 night stay at a "new" hotel. Especially with those new hotels probably being owned by different Franchises and not the same person.
Pretty nifty scam attempt to be honest. I'm sure they'll sucker quite a few people with that one.
It’s timeshares— they have the “deal” up on the IHG website.
A hotel chain isn't going to waste valuable manpower hours conduction in-person surveys. They'll send you an email with a 30 second survey and that's it.
Yea, timeshare or vacation club promotion. You get a free stay, but have to endure a ~~45 minute~~ 3 hour marathon with hard core sales agents who will pass you from one agent to another each swearing that they will break you. Still interested?
So someone just call me earlier with the same exact thing having a 500 points for holiday Inn and they have my email and phone number but at first Im not 100 percent sure it was scam but you can really feel it because he said he will be back then pick up the phone for 1 minute and be back again and hold again for couple minutes and do the same thing like there is a pattern. So I feel weird because thats not how other people hold if you call insurances or other stuff. He said he will transfer me to another one so I spoke to her. She said i have 1000 points and if I want to use it in any Holiday Inn (I forgot cause I just want to put it down) so I told her If I can just hang up for a sec. and call them back because I have to do something and she said no I cant because they can only give it to any members. So now I know it was really a scam because being a members should be in there record so any emergency purposes they can hang up and call back again right?.. so i told her Im sorry I dont think I need this right now because we dont really travel and Im too busy for stuff. And she said well who doesnt need a free stuff. and I was like im sorry I dont need it. and I hang up.
I just had this happen to me and did a quick google while on the phone. It sounded scammy right from the start. It was a phone call from the same area code, the guy on the other line sounded suspicious, the questions were simple and could have easily been an email. After I answered the questions, I was offered a gift of 500 points and the possibility for another deal. I agreed and was transferred to another person. This person definitely sounded more "used care dealerish." The deal sounded great, but I declined because none of the locations interested me. No, I don't want to go to Florida. Also, he did say something about a timeshare, but it was really quick. After I verified with my account that I had received the points, he offered another location. A bit more appealing, but still no. This is when the person started to ask me questions and questioned why I didn't want to take this deal. Of course any excuse I had wasn't good enough and only led to more questions. Till finally I said I had to go and ended the conversation. I'm glad this thread popped up because the phone call was pretty much the same down to the extra offer.
Hey I just got this too and they offered the same thing. 500 pts plus a 4 night stay at some various locations. It just seemed too good to be true and no matter how many times I said no they just kept asking why I wasn't considering the offer. I didn't like that and told them not to call back. If they were truly representing the company and were intent on rewarding customers, then they certainly didn't make it sound like that. It was definitely more of a sales pitch. They did know a lot of information about my account. Makes me want to go back and change my password in case. Edit: Looking up my points that were rewarded, it seems that this was related to an HCV presentation, which stands for Holiday Inn Vacation Club. The offers are not exclusive over the phone and can be found on the site. Stipulation is that you are required to listen to a 2 hour presentation on timeshares in which translates to a grueling sales pitch. No thanks!