Two great Priority Club bargains for London hotel stays

One of the better features of Priority Club, the loyalty programme for Holiday Inn, HI Express, InterContinental and Crowne Plaza amongst others, is that it offers generous discounts on reward night stays at new properties.

This is a win-win for everyone. Hotels generally take a couple of years to build up occupancy levels, so encouraging more reward night redemptions helps fill empty beds. The customer is the real winner, though, as you get to stay in a brand-new hotel for substantially less than it would cost to stay at the worn, unrefurbished hotel down the road.

And here is the key benefit – the discounted pre-opening rate can be booked for up to 1 year ahead!

There are two good offers currently available for bookings in London. On December 20th, although the date has slipped a few times so far, the InterContinental Westminster opens in a location between Victoria Station and the Westminster Abbey.

The hotel website is here and it looks suitably plush as you would expect.  (That website says 20 November for opening, however the Priority Club booking site says 20 December.)

Once open it will be charging 50,000 Priority Club points per night. However, if you book now, you can lock it in for just 30,000 points for dates up a year in advance. This is an amazing deal when you consider that a Holiday Inn Express in Central London will cost you 25,000 points.

If you need a place to stay now, it is worth taking a look at the Holiday Inn Commercial Road. Recently opened, this is a world away from the grim decor of old-style Holiday Inn’s.

At present, you can book this hotel for just 15,000 Priority Club points per night, for any night in the next year. This is a 40% discount on the usual 25,000 points, and 40% cheaper than even the grottiest Holiday Inn Express in the central area.

Commercial Road is, admittedly, a slightly out of the way location in the East End, but there are various tube stations in the area and it is more central than you might think.

There is also a third London hotel opening soon, an Indigo in Kensington in November. I don’t know much about this property, though, and am normally wary of hotels near Earls Court. It is currently bookable at 25,000 points a night vs 35,000 for a standard Indigo.

As with all Priority Club redemptions, reward nights can be cancelled without penalty so there is nothing to lose by locking in speculative nights over the next 12 months. I have booked my brother into InterContinental Westminster for the middle Saturday of Wimbledon, for example, when he normally visits.

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IHG One Rewards update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.

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

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

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.