IHG changes the Avios earning rate at Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc

Rather sneakily, and with no notice that I have seen, IHG Rewards Club has changed the number of Avios that you earn if you stay in an InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Indigo or one of their other brands.  This is especially bad news for Iberia Plus members.

(This assumes that you don’t take points in IHG Rewards Club and choose to take a direct deposit of Avios instead.  Given all the bonus points currently floating around, though, taking points may be a better bet at the moment anyway.)

Earning in British Airways Executive Club

This page shows the Avios points now earned with a stay at an IHG hotel.  To quote:

• Earn 500 Avios per qualifying stay at participating InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, located outside of the USA, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and Caribbean.
• Earn 2 Avios per $1 spent at InterContinental Hotels and Resorts located in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts and Hotel Indigo
• Earn 1 Avios per $1 spent at Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites & Staybridge Suites.
• Members must join IHG Rewards Club, the IHG loyalty programme in order to earn Avios.

The old rates were:

• InterContinental – was 500 Avios per stay (no change outside North America, moved to 2 per $1 in NA)
• Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo – was 500 Avios per stay (now 2 Avios per $1)
• Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites – was 500 Avios per stay (now 1 Avios per $1)
• Holiday Inn Express – was 100 Avios per stay (now 1 Avios per $1)

Things have not necessarily got worse here, just different.

For a longer stay at any of these brands, you will be better off than you were.

For a short stay, you are definitely worse off at a Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites or Staybridge Suites since you’d now need to spend over £300 to earn the old rate of 500 Avios.

For the other brands, you would probably come out equal over time.

Earning in Iberia Plus

Things have certainly got SUBSTANTIALLY worse if you used to credit your stays to Iberia Plus, however.

Here are the Avios points now earned in Iberia Plus with a stay at an IHG hotel:

• Earn 500 Avios per qualifying stay at participating InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, located outside of the USA, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and Caribbean.
• Earn 2 Avios per $1 spent at InterContinental Hotels and Resorts located in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America and and Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts
• Earn 1 Avios per $1 spent at Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites & Staybridge Suites.
• Members must join IHG Rewards Club, the IHG loyalty programme in order to earn Avios.

Note the odd treatment of Hotel Indigo.  With BA, you get 2 Avios per $1.  In Iberia Plus, you get 1 Avios per $1.  You are 50% worse off for no obvious reason!

The old rates were VERY generous in Iberia Plus:

• InterContinental – was 1,800 Avios per stay (now 500 in North America, moved to 2 per $1 elsewhere)
• Crowne Plaza – was 1,500 Avios per stay (now 2 Avios per $1)
• Hotel Indigo – was 1,500 Avios per stay (now 1 Avios per $1)
• Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites – was 1,000 Avios per stay (now 1 Avios per $1)
• Holiday Inn Express – was 600 Avios per stay (now 1 Avios per $1)

However you look at, this is very bad news for Iberia Plus members.  Unless you doing a long stay of 4+ nights, I doubt you would be better off under this new earnings system.

Hualuxe (the small China-only chain) and EVEN (the very small US experimental chain) no longer appear on the list of hotels which earn Avios.  This is unlikely to be a major issue for anyone, though.

Note that the points transfer from IHG Rewards Club to Avios (BA or Iberia) remains unchanged.  You still receive 2,000 Avios points per 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points.

I have updated my master article of all hotel chains which award Avios with these new details.

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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.