A sneaky 50% IHG Rewards Club price rise is hopefully not a new trend

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I wrote a few weeks ago about how the new InterContinental at the O2 had been reduced in price from 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night to 45,000.

I thought this was rebalancing – the hotel had just opened, its initial rate forecasts were too optimistic and so cash and reward prices had come down. Fair enough.

This may be a disturbing trend though. A reader contacted me yesterday to point out that the InterContinental Koh Samui (officially InterContinental Samui Baan Taling Ngam Resort) had gone up overnight from 35,000 points to 50,000 points.

This sort of behaviour is not acceptable. You cannot increase the reward points needed for a hotel by almost 50% with no notice especially one which is an ‘aspirational’ redemption.

IHG needs to understand that this sort of behaviour can backfire. If we no longer trust IHG to keep reward prices steady from one day to the next, the logical thing to do is make lots of speculative bookings ‘just in case’ at places we might want to go. After all, cancellation is free and instant.

This would make life hard for the hotels, who cannot accurately track forward bookings when they come and go so quickly. It would also be hard for other IHG Rewards Club members who cannot book they really need because someone else made a speculative booking ‘just in case’ the price went up overnight.

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.

Flyoff says:

11 Jun11 June 09:11

While agreeing significant changes like this,without notice, is very poor 35,000 points was great value compared to the cash rate. I am staying at the hotel later in the year using points. A standard room started at over £300 per night.
- Rob says:
  
  11 Jun11 June 09:54
  
  I agree with that, I didn’t say 50k was necessarily a bad deal – although out of season I think it drops down quite a bit.
miles says:

11 Jun11 June 11:02

My son is working his way to Espire , He has booked Intercontinental MARSEILLE – HOTEL DIEU, , they have cancelled his booking 3 times and sent no confirmations and have now taken the monies from his account from their cancelled stay !! , me being a seasoned traveler and have stayed loyal too IHG , is possibly looking at moving on too , being Espire when travelling means nothing in most IHG hotels in Europe
Talay says:

11 Jun11 June 11:35

I know this hotel and have stayed there. It is very isolated and was in need of refurbishment.

I also know that in Thailand, it is very easy to negotiate a good deal directly with the hotel, especially if you have good data, such as a knowledge of the usual room rates over time. Discounts of up to 50% off regular rates are not uncommon as are cheap paid for upgrades.
Nick says:

11 Jun11 June 13:01

Daft price rise. Even at 35k it didn’t really make sense – that hotel is fantastic, but the cash rate is quite low. This is Thailand after all.

Oh well. I’ve been in love with IHG for a few years now but as with avios, I’m finding it harder and harder to find great value. I’ll make some speculative bookings now.
Blackberryaddict says:

11 Jun11 June 14:11

I stayed there last year, nice hotel, although I preferred the IC Danang.

But I booked it for 25k points in March 2015 for a Oct 2015 stay, so the rate has gone up even more than appears. 25k was a bit of a steal though, and probably too low.
Elena -MuslimTravelGirl says:

11 Jun11 June 14:16

Exactly! I was looking to book the IC Koh Samui and I knew the property was lower than 50K so I was very surprised to see it that high. I thought they had done it in the last devaluation. Even Hilton upped their price on their Samui property.
Neuromancer says:

11 Jun11 June 17:02

They’ve never given prior warning for individual hotel price increases as far as I remember (and there’ve been many of those).
I’ve seen warnings only for the once a year or less mass changes
Liz says:

11 Jun11 June 19:05

OT: But IHG related – can someone help me with my calculation – recent 3 night stay at IHG £334.85 includes £15 for 3x 1000 pts package plus £66.60 food and drink for accelerate. I know you need to remove VAT and convert to $ – I used $1.42 – room charged on 2/6 F&B charges on 5/6. I calculate around 4630 pts plus 4630 for Spire plus 3000 pts package but I only got 11330 (7165 qualifying).
- Rob says:
  
  11 Jun11 June 19:48
  
  Has VAT been removed twice? The breakdown online may give you a clue.
  - Liz says:
    
    12 Jun12 June 06:36
    
    Rob they have included drink for £6 from one evening but not added a £60 food and drink bill which was added to the room as part of my accelerate task – if I raise a missing points claim will they be able to activate this so I get the bonus points and complete the task?
    - James67 says:
      
      12 Jun12 June 08:20
      
      They should do, but the food alone does not explain discrepancy in your points. I thought it was the usual VAT issud too but something still seems odd so just raise missing point query and ask for them to verify correct amount and show you breakdown on how they calculate it
      - Liz says:
        
        12 Jun12 June 09:53
        
        Thanks James – actually on checking the hotel bill it is correct – the points have only been awarded for the drink the the first night and not the food on 2nd night so I now calculate it at 5032 + 5032 + 3000 – didn’t realise food was 0% too! Claim now submitted!