An IHG One Rewards member with a suite-booking problem emailed the loyalty support address last week and got an auto-reply he wasn’t expecting: the mailbox isn’t monitored anymore. Please call, chat with the Digital Concierge, or, if you prefer, send a fax.
The change was flagged by LoyaltyLobby, a long-running miles-and-points site. Its author noticed the switch after writing in about a Confirmable Suite issue on a Diamond Elite stay – IHG’s top loyalty tier, and a guaranteed room upgrade the tier is supposed to protect. The auto-reply he got: “While this email address is no longer monitored for incoming support requests, our dedicated Diamond Elite support team remains ready to assist you.” It then pointed him at IHG’s Customer Care page, the Digital Concierge chatbot, and the phone line.
How to contact IHG in 2026: phone, chatbot, or fax
What makes this a fax story rather than a chatbot story is what remains on IHG’s own Worldwide Reservation Offices directory. Alongside the regional phone lines, IHG still publishes a fax number for each continent:
- Americas: +1 801 975 1846
- Europe, Middle East and Africa: +44 (0)2033 491 716
- Asia/Pacific: +61 2 9437 6366
Those numbers have been sitting there for years. What’s new is that email, the channel most people would have reached for first, is no longer among the options a loyalty member is offered.
A mirror of the Northern Rail moment
The situation rhymes with one we covered back in 2024, when Northern Rail admitted at a mayoral hearing that its train crews were still being contacted by fax. That story landed because a public official demanded, on camera, to know how it was still possible. The IHG version is quieter, but the shape is similar – a large, well-resourced organisation pushing customers toward fax because that’s what its own contact page still offers.
There’s an important asymmetry, though. Northern Rail hadn’t finished modernizing yet. IHG has actively removed a modern channel and pointed people back toward one that predates the internet. For a one-off guest with a stay dispute, a one-time fax online is the least painful way to put something in writing without signing up for a fax plan. For IHG, sending members that direction is a design choice.
Why the fax line is still there at all
Global hotel chains still fax because the buildings, the franchisees, and the back offices route through it. Group booking desks, EMEA accounting teams, and travel wholesalers all keep the audit trail on paper. The infrastructure is easier to keep than to retire.