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Register now: IHG brings back its generous ‘Accelerate’ promotion for the Spring

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

Click here for our article on IHG’s ‘2000 Bonus Points’ promotion which runs from 1st April to 31st May 2024. You can register for the offer by clicking here.

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IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn, HI Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc loyalty scheme, has launched a website for its Spring 2017 promotion – IHG Accelerate.  Yes, it is repeating the Autumn 2015, Spring and Summer and Autumn 2016 offer!

But that is not a bad thing.

To be honest, during 2016 IHG has been the only major hotel chain offering global promotions which offer genuine value.  Everyone has their own personal target but, for most of us, the challenge is pretty straightforward.

Here are the headline details:

IHG Accelerate (Version 5) covers stays from 1st January to 15th April

All hotels are participating

Your bonus is personalised – you need to log in here to discover yours

The 1st January start date means that IHG has excluded the Christmas period from both the current and next Accelerate ofers.  This is a shame as hotels are traditionally very cheap between Christmas and New Year and it was possible to pick up some ‘mattress run’ nights to hit your target very cheaply.

This was my target for 56,600 points maximum, comprising:

  • 1,000 points for a stay in January
  • 5,000 points on my next stay
  • 10,000 points for staying five nights
  • 5,300 points for booking four stays via the IHG app
  • 16,800 points for staying in IHG hotels in two different countries outside the UK
  • 2,500 points for booking on my corporate rate (of the company I haven’t worked for since 2011)
  • 1,000 points for making any redemption
  • 15,000 points for completing five of the six targets above, excluding the January bonus

This is not a terrible selection of offers.  The corporate rate is tricky because not that many IHG properties offer a special rate to my ex-employer.  However, I already have a four night stay at InterContinental Hong Kong booked in which will help me on my way.  Let’s see.

My wife got an easier one for 41,000 points:

  • 3,000 points on her next stay
  • 1,000 points for a stay in January
  • 10,000 points for staying five nights
  • 2,000 points for applying for an IHG Rewards Club credit card
  • 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
  • 21,400 points for completing three of the four targets above excluding the January bonus

This is exceptionally easy.  All she has to do is make ONE stay, for one night, on a Bonus Points Package rate!  As long as she also applies for the free IHG credit card, that will be 30,000 points banked.

Note that if you have a target which involves meeting a certain ‘food and beverage’ spending target, this is EXCLUDING VAT for UK stays.  IHG also uses a weak exchange rate when converting your spend to US$.  If you were asked to acheive $39 of cumulative spend (£31), you actually need to spend £37 due to the 20% VAT and in reality probably need to do £40 due to the FX rate IHG uses.

Conclusion

As long as your target is sensible, this is highly likely to be the most generous hotel promotion you are likely to see this Spring.

Log in to the Accelerate website here and see what your target is!

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.

Category

IHG One Rewards

Comments (139)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • shd says:
    10 Dec10 December 06:25

    Still getting a sodding Corporate Rate offer, and I’ve never used a corporate rate with them in my life! Pushed back on this in the last promo and IHG told me they couldn’t help.

  • JamesW says:
    10 Dec10 December 06:35

    It is IHG’s Accelerate promotions which have seen me switch nights to IHG properties and stay with them when I otherwise wouldn’t.
    If they were not so fruitful I would not be spending as much money with them.

    • Phillip says:
      10 Dec10 December 06:55

      +1 It somehow works!!!

    • John says:
      10 Dec10 December 07:28

      And other people have silly unachieveable targets (especially the “corporate rate” thing in the latest 2 seasons) which have made them switch nights away from IHG.

      As for me:
      2013 Winter – 6 paid nights IHG – 150,000 points earned
      2014-5 – 0 paid nights – worthless offers
      2016 Spring/Summer – 0 paid nights – worthless offers
      2016 Autumn – 5 paid nights – 100,000 points earned
      2016 Winter – 1 night £70 – 25,000 points earned
      2017 Spring – probably will pay for 1 night to get 16,000 points and then avoid IHG again except for redemptions.

      This is despite being Spire, as unlike the Ambassador program, I always get the minimal benefits that Spire brings from points stays anyway. The greatest benefit was to match to Hilton, Club Carlson and Nordic Choice.

    • Alan says:
      14 Dec14 December 13:03

      They’ve finally made me a more reasonable offer so that will be two stays switched to them (for 35k Accelerate rewards)

  • JamesW says:
    10 Dec10 December 06:44

    Looking forward to my 2 free nights at the $450 a night Da Nang Intercontinental thanks to the first Accelerate promo. Wish they could all be as easy as that one !
    Very tempted to pay to get Ambassador status but don’t think they’ll honour the benefits on a rewards stay 🙁

    This time I’ve been tasked with the following:

    41,000 points possible.
    My Offers
    Points Offer
    3,000 Book and stay Once Get 3,000

    10,000 Stay More, Earn More
    Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 5 night(s) and earn 10,000 bonus points.

    4,800 Travel with the IHG® App
    Book 2 stay(s) with the IHG® App and earn 4,800 bonus points.

    6,000 A Bonus Weekend Stay
    Stay with us for the weekend and earn 6,000 bonus points. A Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday night stay required.

    1,000 Earn When You Redeem
    You earned your points, now use them! Redeem your points for anything, from a digital download to a Reward Night, and you’ll earn 1,000 bonus points.

    15,200 Your Achievement Bonus
    Complete 4 of the 5 offers and earn (an additional) 15,200 bonus points.

    1,000 January Bonus Offer
    Book and stay once in January and get 1,000 bonus points.

    • Following from behind says:
      10 Dec10 December 08:50

      I did three nights in Da Nang InterCon. It’s a very nice hotel. You will have a wonderful time. It is worth getting or paying for club lounge access in my opinion as the food is generally very expensive and not good. There is a super fancy restaurant there but I didn’t go. As you can see from a map, it’s quite a journey to the nearest restaurant that isn’t in the resort.

      You’ll have a fab time! Well jealous!

  • DaveP says:
    10 Dec10 December 06:47

    My Accelerate offer is a little more challenging for me to achieve than your wife’s Rob: points awarded for staying between 4 – 19 nights! Ho hum!

    • Stuart says:
      10 Dec10 December 07:01

      Mine is similar, one for a stay in January then the next seven challenges are for staying three nights more

      • Joshua says:
        10 Dec10 December 08:04

        Mine’s the same…it’s crazy.

      • Susan says:
        10 Dec10 December 08:05

        +1 for OH. So future bookings will stay with Hilton.

        Mine is, for the first time ever, acheivable. I think it can be done with 3 x 1 night at three different brands for a total of 30k. Still not worth a mattress run.

      • Gin and Tonic Please says:
        10 Dec10 December 08:30

        +1

        I had the same stupid challenge in Winter 2016 too. *sigh*

        • Rash says:
          10 Dec10 December 09:24

          +1

          Same crazy challenge for me. 19 nights for me for 36200 in total (after hitting other targets)

      • Kathy says:
        10 Dec10 December 10:23

        Me too. Not worth bothering with.

  • Si says:
    10 Dec10 December 06:58

    Semi-O/T
    Looking at getting the £99 IHG credit card (comes with Platimum status). Question is: I think I read IHG status expires at end of year following your qualification. I.e. if I apply in Jan’17 for a single year, would my Platimum status last until Dec’18??

    P.s. my targets are awful… would need to stay 19nights to complete all mine. Def not going happen. Only perk this time is all my bookings can go through HFP’s double-points link. On current promotion had to be wary, as had to make particular bookings through the app to activate bonus points

  • the_real_a says:
    10 Dec10 December 06:59

    I got this:

    10,000 Stay More, Earn More
    Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 5 night(s) and earn 10,000 bonus points.

    Does anyone know if this is cumulative or must have 5 nights in one stay?

    • Si says:
      10 Dec10 December 07:03

      Accumulation of stays within qualifying date (even if booked prior to qualify date period I.e. I booked hotel in April for Sept last year. Got bonus for staying in September even though had no idea promotion would even be run at time of booking 🙂

      • the_real_a says:
        10 Dec10 December 07:32

        Thanks!! Good news.

        Mine could be worse i suppose.

        5,000 Book and stay Once Get 5,000
        10,000 Stay More, Earn More – Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 5 night(s) and earn 10,000 bonus points.
        3,200 Travel with the IHG® App – Book 2 stay(s) with the IHG® App and earn 3,200 bonus points.
        21,800 Your Achievement Bonus – Complete 3 of the 3 offers and earn (an additional) 21,800 bonus points.

        1,000 January Bonus Offer Book and stay once in January and get 1,000 bonus points.

        Terms

    • John says:
      10 Dec10 December 07:34

      The previous answer isn’t very clear.

      No, the 5 nights don’t have to be in one stay.

  • Roger says:
    10 Dec10 December 07:37

    offer – 1: Book and stay Once Get 3,000
    offer -2: Spend on your IHG® Rewards Club Premium Credit Card
    Book and pay for one stay at any IHG hotel using your IHG® Rewards Club Premium Credit Card and earn 1,500 bonus points.

    so can I just book one stay and qualify for completing two offers as above and get 4500 points?

    • Roger says:
      10 Dec10 December 07:47

      also there is an offer of 3200 points for booking two stays using IHG app.
      so would I qualify for three offers if I booked two stays using IHG app and paid using IHG premium credit card?
      If it does work for one stay I can get very good average points back.

  • Jen says:
    10 Dec10 December 07:56

    I’ve also got stay 19 nights for 36000. In tranches of 3k. Clearly not going to draw me in with that

    • Jen says:
      10 Dec10 December 07:58

      I’m wondering if they give the rubbish 19 night one to anyone who got easy free nights a year ago

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