Reader Question: InterContinental Dar Al Hijra Madinah Cancels Haji Season Reservations?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a case for a stay at the InterContinental Dar Al Hijra Madinah that the hotel had canceled due to them booking three rooms.

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You can access InterContinental Dar Al Iman Madinah’s here.

READ MORE: IHG One Rewards Rate & Bonus Points Offers

Reader’s Message:

I made reservations almost a year ago for 3 rooms (my family of 6). 2 rooms were booked on points and one for cash. Today, 2 months before arrival, they email me to tell they’ve cancelled all reservations using some bullshit excuse.

I am a Diamond Ambassador member so you can imagine how upset I am. I have reached out to them to help, but so far no satisfactory response.

Have you ever encountered anything like this?

InterContinental Dar Al Hijra Madinah’s Cancellation Email:

Dear Mr. REMOVED,

Greeting from Dar Al Hijra InterContinental Madinah,

Thank you for your loyalty being an IHG member,

Please be informed that your bookings during month of May 2025 ( Hajj Season ) have been cancelled due to IHG Membership is only for the individual use of the membership holder and cannot be used for a group booking.

Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards

—

REMOVED ｜إسماعيل كرفانجي

Cluster Assistant Reservations Manager｜ مساعد مدير الحجوزات

InterContinental Dar Al Iman Madinah｜دار الإيمان انتركونتيننتال

InterContinental Dar Al Hijra Madinah｜دار الهجرة  انتركونتيننتال

King Fahad Street, Al Madinah Al Munawarah, KSA

Main（الخط الرئيسي）: +966

This email from the property doesn’t make any sense.

Booking three rooms for a family cannot be considered a “group booking,” as per the IHG One Rewards T&Cs; a member can collect points for up to nine rooms at a time.

The reader should contact the Ambassador Service Center (ambassador@ihg.com) to have these bookings reinstated and request them to contact the hotel to have them familiarize themselves with IHG program rules.

Conclusion

It is clear that the hotel likely wants to cancel these bookings as they are either overbooked OR they can resell the rooms at a much higher price now than a year ago.

The property tries to make random excuses for why it needs to cancel the reader’s reservations, claiming that it would somehow violate IHG’s T&Cs, but that is not the case.

IHG should really better police what these InterContinental hotels are doing, especially during such a high-demand season.

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