Why you should book hotel rewards one night at a time

Back before Priority Club devalued their hotel reward chart earlier in 2013, I thought I’d be clever.  I knew that my parents in law would be here for a particular weekend in July, so I booked two nights at the brand new Hotel Indigo in Earls Court / South Kensington for 25,000 Priority Club (now IHG Rewards Club) points per night.  The booking was done before the devaluation.

A couple of weeks before the stay, they decided that they would only stay in the hotel for one night.  I therefore rang Priority Club and asked to drop off the first night of the reservation.  I was told that they could do this, but that it would reprice the rest of the reservation.

As I had no choice, I told them to go ahead.  The night we kept was repriced at 30,000 points instead of 25,000 points, and I only received a refund of 20,000 points.

There is a lesson here.  There is little benefit is booking hotel nights in a block, apart from for easy admin.  The hotel will have no problem linking all your reservations at check in and giving you a key that will work all the way through.

This is especially true if you feel that you may need to leave early.  Some hotels even charge ‘early departure’ fees, even on reward bookings!  And, once checked in, they may not allow you to shorten your stay.  Having each room as a separate night gets around this problem.

The only obvious reason to book a reward stay as one booking is if there is a discount for booking a longer stay (Starwood Preferred Guest, for example, offers ‘fifth night free’) or if there is a minimum stay requirement.

Meanwhile ….

Whilst researching this post, I noticed that IHG Rewards Club is still offering the new Hotel Indigo at South Kensington / Earls Court (photo above) for just 30,000 points per night.  This rate is bookable 12 months in advance of today.

Since IHG restructured their awards chart, 30,000 points per night in London is a bargain.  The dumpy Holiday Inn Express in Earls Court, for example, is 35,000 points per night!  The other two London Indigo properties are 45,000 points per night.

Worth remembering if you need a hotel reward night in London.  This is an ‘opening offer’ for the Indigo which will be pulled at some point, and you don’t risk anything by booking a reward night now and locking in the 30,000 point rate.

If you are booking an IHG Rewards Club night, I’d be grateful if you use our affiliate link.  The more bookings that go through, cash or reward, the better relationship I get with them.

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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.