I’ve joined and used the Priority Privilege membership program a couple of times over the last few years, and used the benefits sporadically, but to great effect, over the course of 12 months membership each time.
Update: at this point (in July 2014) it looks like the Priority Privilege program is being closed down to new members, with existing member benefits continuing for the duration of membership. I’ll update this guide when I hear more.
What is the Priority Privilege program
Priority Privilege is a paid membership scheme that gives members a set of vouchers and discounts to use for significant savings on stays at hotels in the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental) hotels, across Australia, NZ and some other countries across Asia/Pacific, including Fiji and Vanuatu.
For the last year I had membership, here’s how I used the Priority Privilege benefits, and what I saved:
| InterContinental Adelaide | |
| 2 nights for price of 1 certificate | $355 |
| $50 hotel credit voucher | $50 |
| Breakfast for 2 certificate | $60 |
| Crowne Plaza Newcastle | |
| 2 nights for price of 1 newsletter offer | $260 |
| 50% off dining for two | $21 |
| InterContinental Sydney | |
| 10% off advance purchase rate | $25 |
| Savings | $771 |
| Cost of membership | $289 |
| Total Saving | $482 |
Even though I only had 3 eligible hotel stays, I still managed to save nearly $500, and the savings also ensured I felt OK with spending more to have larger, more comfortable rooms, which ultimately improved my stays in these 3 hotels.
What are the documented benefits of Priority Privilege
The benefits of membership re articulated pretty clearly on the Priority Privilege website and fairly easy to use and understand. Membership is currently set at $309 annually.
The participating hotels are:
Australia
- Crowne Plaza Canberra
- InterContinental Sydney
- Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach
- Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley
- Crowne Plaza Newcastle
- Crowne Plaza Norwest
- Crowne Plaza Terrigal
- Holiday Inn Darling Harbour
- Old Sydney Holiday Inn
- Holiday Inn Parramatta
- Holiday Inn Potts Point
- Holiday Inn Sydney Airport
- Holiday Inn Warwick Farm
- Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn
- Gagudju Lodge Cooinda
- InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort
- Crowne Plaza Gold Tower Surfers Paradise
- Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise
- Holiday Inn Cairns
- Holiday Inn Townsville
- InterContinental Adelaide
- Crowne Plaza Adelaide
- InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto
- Crowne Plaza Melbourne
- Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport
- Holiday Inn On Flinders
- Crowne Plaza Perth
- Holiday Inn Perth City Centre
South Pacific – Fiji Islands
- InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa
- Holiday Inn Suva
New Zealand
- Crowne Plaza Auckland
- Holiday Inn Auckland
- Holiday Inn Rotorua
- Crowne Plaza Queenstown
- InterContinental Wellington
Vanuatu
- Holiday Inn Resort Vanuatu
And the headline benefits are:
- 10% off the Best Flexible Rate for any number of stays
- 10% off the Advance Purchase Rate (which is non-refundable) for any number of stays
- Two ‘Stay 2 Nights for the Price of 1’ certificates
- Two 25% off Best Flexible Rate certificates, with the discount value for a the full duration of a stay
- Up to 50% off dining at participating hotel restaurant outlets
- A Breakfast for Two certificate
- A $50 Hotel Credit certificate
Beyond these benefits, you’ll also get to earn IHG One Rewards points for any stay you make when using the Priority Privilege discounted rates. This is pretty valuable, as IHG One Rewards points can easily stack up on single night stays – have a read of the IHG One Rewards guide for more.
Conclusion – Priority Privilege Membership Program
For $309 you’re going to receive a range of discounts and benefits. These are ideal for two sets of travellers. First, those like me – if you like to eye up ways in which to leverage memberships and loyalty programs for high-value opportunities, Priority Privilege is great – it’s possible to very easily earn back the price of admission in just one stay.
Secondly, there’s the true frequent traveller – if you self fund your own leisure or business travels and you could have a choice to stay in InterContinental, Holiday Inn or Crowne Plaza hotels, then leveraging the certificates AND ongoing booking benefits could easily add up to substantial savings.
Advanced Priority Privilege hack: Easily research Priority Privilege discounts by using the right discount rate preference codes
The Priority Privilege website allows members to research availability through use of a country/city based form containing participating properties. This doesn’t allow non-members to research the kind of discounts on offer to members to assess the value proposition of the program. However…there is a way around this.
The Priority Privilege discounted rates are based off a set of ‘rate preferences’ (discount codes) applied to participating hotels in the Priority Club online booking engine. These rate preferences can be manually applied to any accommodation search – but the rate codes and the method to apply them is not generally known.
The rate codes for each discount type are as follows – once you’ve clicked on the link for any of the codes, you’ll need to change both the destination (city/town) and the Rate Preference dropdown to select and apply the rate preference.
- 10% off Best Flexible Rate – IDPMF
- 25% off Best Flexible Rate voucher – IDPMC
- 10% off Advance Purchase rate – IDPM5 for bookings more than 5 days away, IDP14 for bookings more than 14 days away, and IDPLS for bookings for bookings more than 30 days away
- Stay 2 nights for the price of 1 voucher – IDPBG
- Special Offer – IDPP2 (seems valid for bookings in Jan, March, May, August, October and December)*
- Special Offer – IDPSP (seems valid for bookings in Feb, April, June, July, September and November)*
- Stay 2 nights for the price of 1 in China – IDPBC (not sure if this needs a voucher)
The special offer rate codes apply to the offers sent out in the Priority Privilege newsletter; however sometimes these rates are broadly available outside of the specified offer month, so it can be worth checking.
The accessibility of using the cards by the public means anyone can book the Priority Privilege member rates – but as the hotel asks for your membership card and your certificate for eligibility, you still need to be a valid member when staying to obtain the discount.
Hopefully this makes assessing the value of the program to you for future stays much easier.
I have been a PP member since 2003 and now find it impossible to book a 3 bedroom villa on two for one certificate at the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley for any Friday to Sunday stay up to the end of April 2015 due to the limited accommodation made available by IHG to PP members. I have been able to book this for the last 3 years as a family weekend away with considerably less notice. IHG have reduced the number of rooms that are available to PP members. This certainly does not promote their new so-called loyalty system. IHG should let the existing PP members complete their memberships with a reasonable expectation of being able to book. IHG should also come clean on the number of rooms that are to be available on the new scheme. I am sure that IHG will put the same limits on availability as they now have to PP members. I will not be joining the new program due to the lack of loyalty and consideration shown by IHG.
Being a member of PP since 1993 always reasonably happy with the hotels they offer.
Yesterday i rang the call center from NZ first guy Alex quite helpful but said i need service dept so transferred me to a woman whose name i could not understand who hung up after approx 4 minutes.
Then rang 0800454555 again from NZ this time spent 45 bloody minutes!!!! getting no where (Greshia then Max) they would not honor my 2 for 1 vouchers. They had sent me ones that expire on 31/10/14 but my membership goes thru to 15 February 2015. In end said they would call hotel Flinders in Melbourne. I have rang the Hotel spoke to very nice lady Amanda in reservations but No phone call from PP.
Christchurch lost all 3 hotels that were part of the PP in our earthquakes so i can only use when traveling but seems the PP world has changed and maybe afetr 21 years time to NOT renew my membership.
I keep getting messages about a new PP.
I have had a PP Membership for 5 years now and have had a number of issues with bookings, payments and more.
I have enjoyed some of the vouchers offered, but I realise have not fully utilised my membership due to time restraints or no rooms available even when booking 7 months ahead!. I am currently overseas and have not been able to fully take advantage of the 1 year membership this time even though I was told I could use them overseas.
The new membership deal looks less enticing than past deals plus will be more expensive, so I believe that this will be of no value to me if I am to go by what I have used in the past.
Are PP still offering 2 for the price of 1 night deals or is that not available anymore?
Is there anything that will improve memberships, such as better communications, a return email reply, a recognition of when I have encouraged friends of mine to join, each customer service representative having the same information, bookings being recognised and cancellations also being recognised without a continuous email and phone trail???
If the deal looks to be better or improved then I may consider but at this stage I do not think renewing holds any value.
I would appreciate a reply this time if anyone from PP is reading this
Jill
Gee, thanks whingers one and all …
All of your combined tears have contributed to the fall of this once-great program.
I’ve been a Member for four years, and I’ve saved THOUSANDS !!
People who claim they can’t use their vouchers are doing it wrong !! You all blamed PP … but take a close look at your own lack of ability to ‘seek out solutions’…
Please be totally aware of this ploy.
They also don’t tell you how rude and condescending their customer service is .
I am reporting them to consumer affairs.
I don’t agree that it’s a good deal overall because PP website offers you the highest prices.
They should rename the program to the ‘Reject non Privilege’ since the only time it gets honoured is when the hotels are almost empty.
If you’re disappointed by PP (lack-of) access to possible rooms during the booking process, that’s a different issue, and yes, one I agree they should flag more.
The more specific you can get with your comments and experiences about the problem, the more useful it is to others, and less of a general rant which only helps the person commenting. So help us out and let us know what specific hotel / what circumstances you were having problems with to flag this to anyone else considering the program.
Yes I have had vouchers not honoured at a Sydney hotel but no I will not name and shame them because the problem does not lie with them, apart from the fact that they have chosen to partner with a dodgy vendor.
I have given facts in all my previous posts but just to simplify it for you, here they are again (for the last time):
1- Priority Privilege sold me the membership on the phone by claiming that it would include 2 free nights (did not mention that it was 2 x 2 nights for the price of one). Once I received the details in the mail 3 weeks later which was just after the 21 day cooling off period, they refused to refund membership , refused to acknowledge that I was misled by their salesperson and claimed that it was all the same. They claimed that there no difference between having a free night and having 2 nights for the price of one. Being someone who doesn’t usually have to stay 2 consecutive nights at a hotel, it makes a big difference to me.
2- Priority Privilege’s salesperson, at the time of sale, claimed that I would be given priority over the general public. BullSh*t! Hotels give limited , non-fancy rooms to Priority Privilege. You try and book a Harbour-bridge-view room or an opera-house-view room at the Sydney InterContinental by using a priority privilege 25% voucher. You can’t. These rooms aren’t available to priority privilege customers using a voucher. Of course Priority Privilege don’t tell you this and leave you to find this out through the maze of websites, once they have pocketed your money.
3- Priority Privilege have a clause stating that vouchers can be used ‘on availability’. As this is a standard clause, you assume that you would be able to use their vouchers if there is a room available. Not the case. You can only use their vouchers if there are a large number of rooms available. IN these quiet periods, hotels discount rooms to last minute websites, so there would be no need to pay $300 a year to obtain a discount.
4-In busy times of the year, I haven’t been able to get availability for 2 months in advance using the vouchers. Vouchers only last for 12 months so you get the drift.
5- Priority Privilege charged my credit card immediately but only sent me the paperwork, with the fine prin,t 3 weeks later , after the 21 days cooling off period.
5- Every time I have tried to complain to their customer service, I have been met with a rude and condescending jerk on the phone , who inform me , with a lot of gloating that the original call made by their salesperson that promised me the world, and resulted in me handing over my credit card number, was not recorded and that I would have trouble proving it to Consumer Affairs.
6- Finally, Priority privilege website can be misleading as it shows the price post discount without itemising the discount item. But by doing simple maths, you would be able to quickly determine that their prices are over-inflated compared to booking the room directly with the hotel, or even with lastminute.com or laterooms.com or Expedia etc etc
So in summary: apart from the breakfast voucher, the rest of their vouchers are a ‘discount’ on a over-inflated price, for basic rooms and only when the hotel is almost empty.
So to all you readers out there who aren’t lurking to defend Priority Privilege, save your money, book on true discount sites that are free.
You have been horrendously mis-sold the program with your explanation of the experience, you should absolutely take them to whatever body will help you to enforce any consumer rights you have. Good luck with the process, I hope you get some recourse.
Please contact me on [email protected].
I’m not sure if you need to book prior, or stay prior to the expiry date.
Send me a twitter DM if you want it and I will send it to you by post tomorrow.