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REGISTER NOW: IHG Rewards Club launches a new hotel promo giving you up to 4x points

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UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December 2021. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

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

IHG Rewards Club has launched a new promotion letting you earn up to quadruple points on your next stay.

You need to register here.

I called it a ‘new’ promotion, but it was actually launched a month ago for residents of the United States.  It has now been opened up to everyone.

IHG Rewards Club is the loyalty scheme covering InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo among other brands.

IHG Rewards Club 4x bonus points offer

How does IHG’s new ‘4x’ promotion work?

This is how it goes:

You must register in advance via this link 

You earn 2 x base points on your first two stays after registration

You earn 3 x base points on your third stay after registration

You earn 4 x base points on your fourth and subequent stays after registration

You must complete your stays by 8th September

Existing bookings DO count so there is no need to rebook anything.  Only one room per stay counts towards the offer, so if you are booking multiple rooms you should put each in a different name.  There is a maximum of 100,000 points earned per stay, and 400,000 points earned over the life of the offer, but that is unlikely to have an impact!

You should assume that rewards stays do NOT count as qualifying stays, although I could be proved wrong.  This means that if you do one cash stay and then a reward stay, your next stay would only earn 2x points because it would be treated as your second and not your third stay during the promotion.

IHG Rewards Club 4x bonus points offer

How many points will I earn?

The standard earning rate in IHG Rewards Club is 10 points per US$1 (78p).  I value an IHG Rewards Club point at 0.4p although you can often do better, which means your base return is 4p per 78p spent, ie 5.1%.

Under this offer, a member with no IHG status would receive:

10.2% back on their first two stays

15.3% back on their third stay

20.4% back on their fourth and subsequent stays

It gets better though.  Most HfP readers will have some sort of IHG Rewards Club status.  These come with a status bonus (applies to base points only):

10% bonus for Gold Elite

50% bonus for Platinum Elite

100% bonus for Spire Elite

This means that a Spire Elite member, on their fourth and subsequent stays, will be earning 50 points per $1!  This is 20p of points for every 78p spent ex-VAT, or a return of 25%!

Of course, I’m not sure many of you will be doing four IHG stays before 8th September.

IHG Rewards Club 4x bonus points offer

Is it worth a mattress run?

Not really, unless you are planning to spend substantial sums.  Let’s look at the numbers.

Imagine if you have already done one stay and you have a $2,000 holiday coming up.

As it stands, the $2,000 stay would be your 2nd stay after registration and so you’d earn (on top of your 20,000 base points) 20,000 bonus points, worth £80.  If it was your 3rd stay, you’d have received 40,000 bonus points, worth £160.

A mattress run would make sense if you could get a stay for well under £80, which is the ‘extra’ you get from this being your 3rd stay – and earning 3x – versus your 2nd stay, earning 2x.

That said, there are some VERY cheap deals around at the moment.  The Holiday Inn Express Wandsworth in London, for example, is selling rooms for £30 in October (see 23rd October) which sleep 4 AND come with free breakfast!  This is outside the expiry date for this offer, of course, but similar deals may be available near you for July or August.

Conclusion

Let’s be honest.  IHG Rewards Club is NOT the loyalty programme you join if you are interested in great status benefits.  There is no free breakfast, no guaranteed upgrade and no guaranteed lounge access, even for Spire Elite members.

It IS the programme to join if you want to be flooded with points, however.  The ability to earn up to 50 points per $1 spent this Summer is very interesting, although realistically I’m not sure how many people will do 4 x IHG stays before 8th September.

Click here to register for IHG’s 4x promotion.

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.

Category

IHG Rewards

Comments (56)

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

  • Andrew says:
    16 Jul16 July 12:25

    Agree Rob – I’m not sure many people will get past the second stay over the next 8 weeks – normal times, yes, but not this year. So most people will get 2x points, but better than nothing and like you say IHG continues to be the programme where you are flooded with points – that coupled with the recent bargains on the launch of dynamic pricing means it’s the best programme in my opinion. I think you will need to update your points valuation though – as I have been getting far higher value than £80/20.000 points – nearer £80/10,000.

    • Harry T says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:14

      I agree. I have a cash stay at an IC booked for this month but it’s still not quite worth the effort of mattress runs given you earn double points on the first stay (the difference in points earning if it was 4x instead for my IC stay don’t really outweigh the costs of mattress runs). I think the last promotion was only 2x from the second stay, with a 1000 points bonus only for the first stay.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Jul16 July 16:13

      But the reason they are valued so low is that you have been able to buy them at that price from IHG many times a year.

  • Lady London says:
    16 Jul16 July 12:43

    are reward stays excluded? I may find I have to do nights in this period. Am generally avoiding travel though but my backup if forced to travel now is burning points.

    Trying to dump some Accor points – as they’re worthless to keep – I have discovered Accor is allowing hotels to refuse payment by points and I have come across quite a few that are doing this. Yet another reason not to choose to invest your stays in Accor.

    • ChrisC says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:13

      Reward stays are excluded.

    • Paul74 says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:50

      I checked out of the Novotel West London in Hammersmith only just over an hour ago and my points burn with them went fine. Furthermore, no issues with late check out (albeit that I only actually stayed until c1230 in the end, but they said 16:00 when I asked at check in!) and two drinks tokens for one night (Gold with Ibis Business Card).
      That said I generally find Novotel good for recognising status etc, other brands in the group are not as consistent.

    • ankomonkey says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:54

      Accor remain the most miserable chain for loyalty. I suspect even Britannia are better…

      • Rich says:
        16 Jul16 July 16:01

        And miserable for staying in, too. Even Accor property I’ve stayed in (admittedly low to mid-range) has been a soulless, hateful place to sleep.

        • Novice says:
          16 Jul16 July 16:30

          I’ve stayed in multiple Accor hotel brands…. Sofitel, Pullman, Raffles, Fairmont and Swissotel

          They have been very good consistently. I know the loyalty program is not good but the actual hotels I’ve been to have been really good.

          • PM says:
            16 Jul16 July 18:21

            some of my worst stays have been in Mercure hotels, by contrast Novotel and Pullman have been good. Oddest issue was a room upgrade to a category with a free mini bar, however as it was an upgrade it wasn’t free and they put a price list in the room.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            16 Jul16 July 21:49

            Mercury is a strange brand with everything from great to drab properties. Suspect some were taken on with the promise of refurbishments which are on the never never.

    • The Urbanite says:
      16 Jul16 July 16:28

      Accor’s IT is a bit weird – I paid points worth 80 EUR towards one stay and after a few weeks they were refunded to my account with the original expiry date.

  • Aston100 says:
    16 Jul16 July 12:56

    I somehow managed to signup for this a couple of days ago.
    Must have stumbled across the US link or something.
    Tried re-registering and it confirmed that I was already signed up. Hopefully doesn’t cause their IT to have a meltdown!

    Also, the dynamic points pricing at all properties I’ve looked at has been cheaper, or very close to the cheapest cash rates. Those cash rates don’t allow as much cancellation flexibility as the points rates. Therefore, I’ve booked a bunch of stays on points, even when the cheapest cash rate was just a few pounds lower (and I’m talking no more than £5 per night lower).

    I just don’t think it’s a good idea booking cash rates at the moment given the need for flexibility on cancellations – possibly with very limited notice if things go pear shaped again in the coming weeks and months.

    • Harry T says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:12

      Doesn’t matter if you’re booking flexible cash rates though, which are often as cheap as prepaid rates at the moment. Unless I’ve misunderstood you?

      I did book plenty of IHG stays with dynamic points pricing before they realised they were being too generous in Europe, or had filled enough rooms. This is generally an excellent time to be booking with points given their flexibility though, I agree.

    • ChrisC says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:16

      Book with points for the cancellation policy and once your trip is confirmed you can cancel the points stay and rebook using the cheapest cash rate available.

      • Aston100 says:
        16 Jul16 July 13:47

        Cunning.
        I’m clearly not crafty enough for this site. I don’t even MS!

        Will deffo be considering doing that. Might wait till a couple of days before the check in date.

        By the way, do hotels care much whether you’ve paid cash or are using points? Do they see a different amount of money?

        • meta says:
          16 Jul16 July 14:15

          I also sometimes book flexible rate and then when plans firm up rebook using cheapest cash rate. It also works well Amb weekend night as you can rebook as many times as needed.

        • Novice says:
          16 Jul16 July 16:33

          I know yesterday I asked how ppl were booking £3 Cambodia hotels and getting points from Rocketmiles because I’m totally interested and nobody answered.

          Can somebody answer today? Do you get the points even when you don’t turn up?

          • Charlieface says:
            16 Jul16 July 21:50

            A while ago we crowd-sourced a list of a few hostels people used. Note they were all hostels not hotels, I think Thailand was also popular.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            16 Jul16 July 21:52

            It wasn’t for rocketmiles it’s useful for keeping your hotels.com rewards night alive though or if you need a 10th night.

        • memesweeper says:
          16 Jul16 July 18:19

          > By the way, do hotels care much whether you’ve paid cash or are using points? Do they see a different amount of money?

          Maybe and yes.

          However, my experience with a points booking last week was everyone was *delighted* to see us. I think we were the tenth checkin since lockdown started (this was in London).

        • Harry T says:
          16 Jul16 July 19:01

          @Aston100
          I don’t think good hotels, or at least hotels with proper customer service, care if you paid with points or cash. I’ve been thanked for using my loyalty points before!

        • Charlieface says:
          16 Jul16 July 21:53

          MS is not by any means a standard thing across this site, only among a few active posters (short-selling is probably far more popular 🙂 )

          Hotels are generally paid a nominal amount for a points night, I once saw $16 on a UK Holiday Inn invoice. Except when it’s a busy night, say 90 or 95% occupancy when they get the average rate for the night.

      • Aston100 says:
        16 Jul16 July 14:18

        Ah well, the prices for both cash and for points bookings have increased since I booked a few weeks ago using my points.
        Still, I got them at a rate that I am very happy with (e.g. 12.5k pn for a CP)

  • Harry T says:
    16 Jul16 July 13:15

    Anyone think Marriott Bonvoy will release a promotion in response to this? I think with Hyatt and IHG incentivising stays with promotions, the pressure may be on.

    • memesweeper says:
      16 Jul16 July 18:21

      I would hope so, but Marriott’s reduced stay requirements for status means I’m going to be prioritising them on cash stays for the rest of 2020, all else being equal.

      • Harry T says:
        16 Jul16 July 19:02

        Yes, me too!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        16 Jul16 July 19:10

        Same.

        • Rob says:
          16 Jul16 July 19:23

          May do the same. If I get the card again I’d be on 41 nights, with 1 cash stay done and 3 nights booked. This leaves me 5 short of getting 5 x Suite Night Awards for hitting 50 nights. Seems manageable.

          • Pangolin says:
            16 Jul16 July 19:34

            I got the card 7 weeks ago and am still waiting for the 15 nights credit

        • Ming the Merciless says:
          16 Jul16 July 21:25

          Same. I’ve got worthless spire and 800k ihg points already.

          Bonvoy platinum looking very Achievable

  • dezbez says:
    16 Jul16 July 13:34

    I’ve got a 4 night (cash) stay coming up in this period – just to be clear, notwithstanding the extra admin, am I better off booking this as 4 separate single night bookings rather than one booking covering the full 4 nights?

    • Aston100 says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:49

      Would be tragic if it is a large property spanning numerous floors and they end up shifting you to diagonal opposite corners of the property each day.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Jul16 July 13:53

      2 nights in the same hotel are always counted S one stay even if you check out and back in again.

      The way round is to switch hotels every 2nd night then the nights will accrue as separate stays.

      be careful if you have 2 hotels of the same chain in the sane building and dont choose thise to switch between. They are likely to have the same owner and may be using the same centrak systems for billing etc so could look lije the same hotel to the chain.

      so your credit would be 2 nights abd 1 stay.
      Always crucial to read the small print on any promo as to which will credit.

  • Also says:
    16 Jul16 July 14:40

    No idea if it’s always been there but there’s a Platinum challenge offer when I log into my IHG account. 5 nights within 90 days of registering. Register by December 30th.

    • Aston100 says:
      16 Jul16 July 15:18

      I commented on this the other day, but the consensus here was this was a corporate thing. Or something.

      • Rob says:
        16 Jul16 July 15:58

        Requires a code provided by your employer AND you must book using the corporate rate code of your business. Some weird IT failure that it is appearing in My Offers.

    • HayMow says:
      17 Jul17 July 09:09

      I had this appear early last summer too, out of the blue. I don’t have any corporate links, used no code and have never booked a corporate rate. Registered and did the 5 stays and have been Platinum ever since (including for the stays themselves). I was a bit concerned so emailed them but they assured me it all seemed to be in order and to contact them if I slipped back to Gold on 1 Jan, but everything stayed in place. Just don’t register until shortly before you need to given the 90 day window! And if things ease up before then, Dusseldorf is a great place for an IHG mattress run: a LOT of excellent value cash prices when there’s no trade fair on. I did 3 nights in a row moving from HIEx, to HI to Indigo and got great treatment in each as Plat. (And get the Dusseldorf Card / transport ticket to get around while you’re there – efficient, easy & bargainsome.)

  • JOHN MATRIX says:
    16 Jul16 July 15:34

    FYI last time this ran in Europe the points multiplier was capped at 4x – irrespective of status.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Jul16 July 19:13

      I’m not sure what this mean but this is how it works

      2x = base points x2 plus your status bonus so if spire you’ll earn 3x the points total
      3x = base points x3 so you’ll earn 4x the points total
      4x = base points x4 so you’ll earn 5x the base points

      If you were due to earn 1000 per stay that’s

      2x = 3000 points
      3x= 4000 points
      4x = 5000 points

      • marcw says:
        16 Jul16 July 19:37

        This means that in the previous version, your status was kinda pointless. You couldn’t get, let’s say, x5 points. Max was always x4.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          16 Jul16 July 21:41

          I got 5x exactly as described above.

          Stay at the now Kimpton clocktower in January 1,787 base points and total including all bonuses 8,932 = my bass 1787 x4 + 100% spurs bonus or in total 5x the points.

      • Lady London says:
        17 Jul17 July 00:01

        At least IHG is not mincing around with promo only earning from 2nd stay on this one. Any promo thats do cheap and sleazy to give nothing on the first stay does not get my attention.

        • First Class Fiona says:
          17 Jul17 July 09:13

          Here here @Lady London, couldn’t agree with you more. Fiona x

  • Matt says:
    16 Jul16 July 16:33

    What Regent hotel is that? Looks nice.

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