IHG Rewards Club – Overview and how to redeem points effeciently

Overview

IHG might be not so well know but has 4900 properties in over 100 countries worldwide.

The main brands participating are:

• Intercontinental
• Holiday Inn (all of them)
• Crowne Plaza

Different status levels

Club (upon registering)

Your main benefits is Free Internet

Gold Elite (10 nights or 10000 qualifying points)

Additional benefits:

• Extended Checkout
• Reward points do not expire
• Priority Check-in
• 10% bonus points

Platinum Elite (40 nights or 40000 qualifying points)

• Elite Rollover nights
• Complimentary room upgrade

Spire Elite (75 nights or 75000 qualifying ponts)

• Exclusive Choice benefit upon receiving status
• Exclusive Hertz Gold Plus Rewards^® Five Star^® Upgrade Upon Receiving Status
• Early check-in

Earning reward points

The base reward points you will earn per stay are 10 points for every 1$ spent at most of the participating hotels. Only in Staybridge suites and Candlewood suites you will only receive 5 points per 1 USD spent.

You might also buy reward points if you are short on points. We suggest you wait until they offer a bonus on purchasing your points which happens on a regular basis, ideally a 100% bonus. With a 100% bonus 1000 points will cost you roughly 5€.

It is also possible to earn more points with numerous credit cards and some other partner, but we will not go into detail about that here. You can visit their site here for more information.

Spending your points

Spending your points on normal hotel stays.

At IHG, the hotels have a specific category depending on the property. Depending on the hotel category a hotel will cost between 10000 and 70000 points. It is also possible to part pay a room with points and money.

Plenty of good redemption options exist, we suggest aiming to get at least a value of 5€ per 1000 points as this is the cost you could buy points with promotional bonus. So if you happen to have some points, before your next trip check out an hotel which you like and have a look if you can redeem your points there for a value of at least 5€ per 1000 points to get some decent value.

Spending your points with the IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks promotion

Every month IHG publishes a list of hotels where the points you need to redeem a hotel is reduced. You will find hotels on that list where you need only 5000-15000 points for one night. If you happen to need a hotel in one of those places, you can usually get an excellent deal here. Access the current list of PointsBreak hotels here. Your are only allowed to book 2 stays under one PointBreaks list. Stay tuned on our blog to receive updates on the next IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks lists.

Transfer you miles to an airline program

With IHG you have the possibility to automatically get airlines points for your hotel stays or transfer them to an airlines program. This is always a bad use of points with IHG Rewards Club as the rate is usually terrible, but it might make sense if you are only planning on doing 1-2 stays with IHG, so that you will get at least some value out of your points.

Conclusion

IHG Rewards Club might be interesting as the portfolio of hotels is very big. However their elite statuses cannot compete with the other big hotel rewards programs out there. A nice possibility to get good value out of your points however is the PointBreaks promotion.