Trying to keep this as clear and factual as possible, but this situation has been incredibly frustrating.
I was an IHG Diamond member for multiple years. A few years back I was staying in IHG properties 36+ weeks a year for work. I’ve spent a lot of money with them over time.
In December, my wife and I stayed at an IHG hotel in San Diego for a leisure trip. My wife took a shower and the smoke detector immediately went off.
Manager #1 came to the room and said there was obviously no smoke, apologized, and told us not to worry. Said it was likely a faulty detector.
Then Manager #2 showed up and took a completely different tone. Said smoke detectors don’t go off from showers, accused us of smoking or “something,” said we disrupted hundreds of guests, charged us fees, and told us we had to leave immediately.
Since then:
The hotel reported to IHG that we were smoking
My IHG account has been locked and banned
I cannot book any IHG hotels
I’ve lost access to all my points and status
The hotel charged my bank account hundreds of dollars in fees
They now claim I owe even more money, which is why my account remains locked
I’ve called IHG support repeatedly. They say the hotel has final say and that corporate can’t override or unlock my account. Basically, the property controls everything.
I disputed the charges with my bank, but the dispute failed and the charges were reinstated, leaving my account negative and stacking additional bank fees. I’m currently laid off, so this hit especially hard.
At this point I’m asking:
Is there anything else worth trying?
Has anyone successfully gotten IHG corporate to step in when a property makes a false claim like this?
Any escalation paths I’m missing?
I can live without IHG if needed, but avoiding them entirely could be difficult if I return to heavy business travel. Given my history and spend, it’s hard to believe there’s no due process at all.
Any advice or similar experiences would really help.
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