Reminder: IHG offering free internet to all from July

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A quick reminder that IHG Rewards Club is finally about to move to free internet in all of its European properties. This covers Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, InterContinental and Staybridge Suites.

Free internet is already available in all other regions of the world. Gold and Platinum IHG members have also received free internet in Europe since January.

You will need to be an IHG Rewards Club member. As you can sign up for free before your stay or at the hotel reception, this is not a major impediment.

Free is not necessarily free ….

Hotels are interpreting this in different ways. Some properties have created two tier internet services. The free service may be a 0.25 MB service whilst you still need to pay for anything fast enough to deliver video.

Some properties will choose to give elite IHG Rewards Club members the faster tier.

It is not clear whether this will go live on July 1st or July 31st. I am assuming July 1st. IHG just says ‘July’ ….

IHG Rewards update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

New to IHG Rewards? Read our overview of IHG Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

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IHG Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Trevor says:

23 Jun23 June 07:25

So how long before they are told they can’t ccall it free?
- Mr Bridge says:
  
  23 Jun23 June 08:41
  
  my thoughts exactly
  - Rob says:
    
    23 Jun23 June 08:46
    
    I think they have cracked this one. It is only free if you join IHG Rewards Club. Technically you could end up paying if you refuse to join so technically I reckon they can still call it ‘free’.
- Col A-B says:
  
  23 Jun23 June 08:42
  
  Exactly what went through my head 😉
Simon says:

23 Jun23 June 17:32

Stayed at the InterContinental in Berlin last night, so just missed any changes they are making in July. I’m a Gold thanks to having the IHG credit card, the internet speed was capped, it was ok for checking emails and reading HFP, the connection dropped out quite a few times though. Stayed in a youth hostel in Belgrade a few days before that and had no problems streaming a world cup game using their free internet.
Fenny says:

23 Jun23 June 17:46

It’s about time that a decent free internet connection was included in all hotel prices. 2 weeks in Italy and Austria last month with free internet in the well appointed and well priced non-chain hotels, but Hilton charge £15-20 in most of their properties if you aren’t at least Gold.
Thunderbirds says:

23 Jun23 June 18:03

On a related topic…
Did everyone get their BiG Win final bonus through? I had to ring in to get mine posted, the system missed my credit card completion which I also had to have posted manually.
Frenske says:

23 Jun23 June 18:07

Our company policy is that there internet available in the room to be able to do some work or for communication.

IHG and other hotels may be losing customers. It is ridiculous that you have pay extra for something like this. I noticed that premium hotels often are charging for a basic need, whereas cheaper hotels often offer it for free.
Clive J says:

24 Jun24 June 12:55

I was in a HIX at the weekend and received my WiFi code with my key card. In the room I turned in the WiFi and it connected to Swisscom without me entering any code. I wondered if it was because I had used the same device at a HI recently and it remembered me. If this us just for IHG members I would have thought you would need a code even after July.