I think this is an interesting promotion, but it's full of restrictions and complicated terms (it's not nearly as straightforward as Steve Sickel makes it out to be--there are almost 1500 words of 'fine print'). Also, there seems to be some confusion at IHG about the registration process--is it or is it not activated yet?

Here's an excerpt from an IHG rep's reply to an e-mail I sent:

"Foremost, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. We experienced a web page error and the registration web page for the Stay 2 Nights, Get A Free Night offer went live earlier than it was supposed to. This web page will be available beginning 27 April 2009. Priority Club will be sending out an announcement beginning the week of April 27 with all the information or you can visit http://www.getafreenight.com on Monday, April 27.

As such, the registration you made on 23 April 2009 did not go through. Hence, your reservation in question may not qualify towards the said promotion unless you re-book it upon or 48 hours prior to registration."

In addition, some clarity as to the availability of the free nights would be appreciated. The terms indicate restricted availability. Will free nights come from the same inventory as standard award nights, or are they coming from a more limited inventory of nights?

Lastly, why does PCR have the draconian term that changes are not permitted to free nights. Family emergencies come up and weather delays occur, etc.  Hyatt, Starwood, and others who run Free Nights promos allow changes within the cancellation terms in effect at that property and within the promo period. Why doesn't IHG?

Hi Jenni, good to see you on here to answer our questions! There is a lot of confusion around the terms and conditions of this promotion.

I had 3 reservations totalling 6 nights already booked through May (non-refundable). i wasn't sure whether to take up this offer as the original terms said that you needed to register for it before making the booking.

I wrote to priorityclub and got and email back full of the terms and conditions but this time it said you had to register 2 days before the stay rather than before booking. this made all the difference to me so i registered for the free nights promo

Now I get another email back from priorityclub this time saying that these reservations won't be valid after all.

Does this mean that not only i don't get my free nights from these bookings, but also I have forfeited all my base and platinum bonus points?? If so this would be highly disappointing.

I would appreciate your carifying this - and I know I'm not the only one!

So I will definitely still get my base and elite points for this?

Very annoying as I was operating on the basis of an email that your PriorityClub employee sent to me on Wednesday. Prior to the email i was holding off on registering for the promo to see if anyone else had the same experience before us. But i assumed that the information sent out by your employee would be accurate.

It is a shame advertising for this promotion did not come out earlier.  May is a big month for graduations and many families of students would have taken advantage of this program had they not already booked their rooms weeks in advance knowing hotels would fill up fast.  I always encourage people to make reservations well in advance, but this promotion seems to focus on travelling on a whim.  Depending on the cancellation policy of the hotel it almost seems that it would be worthwhile to cancel and rebook reservations just to qualify for this promotion.