Don’t forget IHG Rewards Club ‘Friends & Family’ rates for cheap hotels

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Back in 2009, when the hotel business was in real trouble, IHG Rewards Club launched a special deal for stays at Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Indigo, InterContinental, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites hotels.

It was called ‘Friends & Family’ and was nominally aimed at people who were friends or relatives of hotel employees.

However, the company made no secret of the fact that they were happy for anyone to use it, and even posted links on forums that could be used. After some pushback, people claiming to be friends of Steve Sickel, the head of the programme, found that hotels would occasionally not let them use the rate. Other links, such as this ‘Friends and Family’ link that I use, continue to work just fine.

IHG Friends Family rate

The Friends & Family deals are usually priced below the ‘Advance Saver’ rate for the same dates. They carry the same conditions, ie no changes and no refunds.

The only difference is that these rates do NOT earn IHG Rewards Club points. Hotels do a VERY good job of enforcing this rule. You won’t earn stay credit either. Bear this in mind when booking, especially if you are taking part in the ‘Accelerate’ promotion.

Availability under this programme is worse than it used to be but you can still find the odd deal.

In London on Saturday 12th March, the Friends & Family link gives:

InterContinental Park Lane at £231 vs £265
Staybridge Suites Vauxhall at £96 vs £114
Holiday Inn Bloomsbury at £132 vs £156

Various other properties were available as well. This rate is valid worldwide, not just in the UK.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about by booking this rate using the link above. You will not be asked for any special ID or proof of your friendship with Jennifer. Just be very clear that you will NOT receive any points or stay credit.

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.

RTS says:

17 Feb17 February 11:04

One thing I would say is that, you aren’t protected by Sec 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. So I’d still use your Amex to pay directly where you can but use your Curve for withdrawals and at places where they don’t accept Amex.

“Will Curve give me the same protection as when I pay directly with my credit card?

Curve offers similar protection to a standard UK high street bank debit card where users will not be liable for unauthorised purchases from the moment they inform us that their card has been stolen (see terms of service for full information).

Similarly to PayPal or Amazon 3rd party purchases, using Curve is not a direct purchase from the user’s original card, so the purchases are not covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

However Curve users are protected by MasterCard chargeback rights where refunds can be provided if goods are damaged, not as described, or the merchant has ceased trading.
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:29
  
  Businesses have no S75 protection anyway!
James says:

17 Feb17 February 11:04

There is a clause in the terms that people should be aware of. It’s 2.2 and it states that this card is for business use only and should not be used for personal expenses. I’m not saying everyone sticks to the rules, you pay your money and takes your chances but should Curve ask for proof as your credentials regarding being a business owner or self employed, then you may wish to consider applying?
- harry says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:17
  
  Curve will be launching to consumers later in the year: drop us a line at hello@imaginecurve.com to be first in line for a consumer card.
Jonathan says:

17 Feb17 February 11:06

Anyone “employed” (as opposed to Sole Trader/ Director) applying for this?
As mentioned previously this sounds like free Amex… don’t quite believe it will last.
- Andrew says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:41
  
  There are lots of mentions in the T&Cs of only lifting spending limits if you complete their risk assesments. I can see anyone who doesn’t provide evidence of being self-employed being given a fairly useless spending limit
  - harry says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 11:46
    
    There are ways around that, eg you get a £500 limit but need to pay a £10K tax bill. You’d simply pre-fund the a/c before paying HMRC.
    - Rob says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 12:15
      
      I have done the risk assessment. All they want is name, date of birth, address, old address if moved recently.
    - Andrew says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 12:16
      
      I don’t see any mention of being able to pre-fund an account. Funds are requested from your sources as and when you make a purchase. Even if you could the limit is a ‘spending’ limit, not a ‘credit’ limit.
      
      Maybe it will work differently in practice but the T&Cs suggest that there’s no way of spending more than your daily/monthly/annual limits short of jumping through their additional risk checks to get your limit raised.
Funtime says:

17 Feb17 February 11:07

Just applied for the £75 card, should now finally be able to channel my mastercard spend through amex.

Couldn’t get a referal link to work but here’s mine for anyone who wants to try https://www.imaginecurve.com/r=Otveg
Tom says:

17 Feb17 February 11:14

Also ordered the £75 + free wallet. A bit nervous whether the £40 premium will be worth it, but thought I’d take a punt.

Referral code for anyone still interested: http://www.imaginecurve.com/r=xHeTP
- Robin says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:48
  
  The site says that the wallet itself is worth £60.00, no way you can lose by signing up for the £75 + free wallet option. No brainer!
  - Rob says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 12:14
    
    Depends if you value a leather Tumi card wallet at (£75-£35) £40!
  - Callum says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 14:09
    
    The RRP is £60, no normal person would think it’s truly worth £60. Perhaps the pictures (on the Tumi website) don’t do it justice, but to me it looks like something you’d find down at the local market for a couple of quid!
    - harry says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 14:15
      
      £30 online
    - Rob says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 14:19
      
      Does it not have some clever coating to stop your chip being read by handheld scanners? Or something silly like that.
      - Callum says:
        
        17 Feb17 February 14:38
        
        Not particularly clever (it’s just metal – like a faraday cage) but yes. Not that I see how that makes it worth £60 – I wouldn’t even consider paying close to the £30 Harry seems to have found it at.
        
        About the only way I could possibly justify paying that much for a piece of leather stitched together with some metal threads inside it is if it was exceedingly good quality – the reviews online don’t seem to think it’s particularly great. But if you were going for the £75 anyway it’s still a nice little freebie.
Waribai says:

17 Feb17 February 11:24

I think “fair usage” is a key term here. Would they have to give a definition?
- Jonathan says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:43
  
  T & Cs say for the highest group possible (best credit worthiness I guess)
  
  Maximum card transaction is £5k
  Daily ATM limit is £1k
  Monthly ATM limit is £20k
  Annual ATM limit is £100k
  - harry says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 18:47
    
    Missed some of these posts up top. So you believe we can make ATM withdrawals of up to £100K per annum?
    
    Yeah, right 🙂
    
    Of course we’d just withdraw the maximum each month and immediately re-credit our Amex a/cs. Hey guys, thousands of free MR points 🙂
    
    Who exactly will be paying for our free Avios? I bet they’ll be as happy as a sandboy.
    
    I simply don’t believe that will turn out to be permissible, not even for a few days.
Charlie says:

17 Feb17 February 11:26

As a lot of people here I’m looking forward to using this to hit Amex spend targets more easily by using it at places that do not accept Amex. For example at Lidl.

I do not quite understand the draw of using this for HMRC or Council Tax, as using credit card payments here are not fee free.

Anyway the sign-up process was pretty easy, I chose IOS, and was able to select both Employed and Self-Employed (as I am a landlord). I was then able to complete the process and paid the £75 fee using an Amex. Pretty smooth!

I hope this helps anyone considering applying. Here is my referral link in case you are interested.

http://www.imaginecurve.com/r=VB3cN
- James says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:30
  
  Because despite the fact it is not fee free, it’s a very cheap way to hit a spend target quickly. If you had a £10,000 HMRC bill, for instance you could potentially pay it on the Curve, using a BAAP, meet the spend required for the 2-4-1 voucher and downgrade the card to a fee free one until you have utilised the 2-4-1 voucher. Not exactly the be all and end all for everyone but it will suit me. Until it’s tested and confirmed as working I won’t get too excited.
  - RTS says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 11:52
    
    It is actually a MasterCard Debit Card though… So – there will be no fees using Curve to pay your HMRC bills.
    - Rob says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 12:13
      
      No it isn’t. It is a prepaid MasterCard. I tried to pay my Amex bill and it was refused.
    - James says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 12:13
      
      I’ve been emailing Raffles about this and I think we’ve pretty much agreed that it’s a wait and see with regards to it even being accepted by HMRC. Well worth the £70 punt in my eyes anyway. I’d happily pay the 1.5% credit card fees so if it does indeed get accepted as a debit card so much the better.
  - Genghis says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 12:19
    
    And the 1.5% fee for HMRC cc transactions is matched say by the 1.5 avios / £ earned (using BAPP and valuing Avios at 1p). Same maths as Amex travellers cheques MS.
Ben says:

17 Feb17 February 11:28

Do you really have to have an iOS phone? Anyone know?
- James says:
  
  17 Feb17 February 11:30
  
  Given that you need to use the App with the card, it’s probably not worthwhile paying the card fee to find out you can’t.
  - Jonathan says:
    
    17 Feb17 February 11:45
    
    You don’t need the App to use the card – the app only allows you to view transaction and to change the card being charged to, it’ll use the same for forever until changed.
    - RTS says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 11:53
      
      You will still have to link your card card via the app…
      - Genghis says:
        
        17 Feb17 February 12:21
        
        Or could borrow a trusted friend’s iPhone to make amendments to your account?
    - Leo says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 12:47
      
      Could you use an iPad instead?