The free rewards night fiasco

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So, we have an IHG account membership that gives us a free night every year as part of the membership and this is the first year that we're attempting to use the free night.

I thought it would be super easy to do, but I've now learned that there are some tricks to using it. For one the further out you can book your hotel the better. They only have so many free night rooms each day at each hotel... so the closer you get to the day the less likely you'll be able to get something. Secondly, the more specific you are in what you are wanting to get the harder it is to find something. For example, we were hoping to find a  suite that would fit our family, with an indoor pool and free breakfast. That's made it even tougher. Lastly, there's really no way to search online for the free night. You have to call in order to find out what's available for this perk and have them book the free night for you.

Not the greatest experience IHG. Now that we know all of the rules and better how it works I think we'll plan ahead more for next year.

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