IHG Rewards Club in ‘no devaluation’ shocker
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IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn / Crowne Plaza / InterContinental etc loyalty scheme, leaked the following the information to a number of US travel sites earlier this week:
More than 100 IHG hotels will require 5,000 less IHG Rewards Club points per Reward Night. We will not be making any increases to our Reward Night pricing during 2014. These changes to our Reward Night catalog will be effective on April 15.
Below are some highlights of the more than 100 properties whose Reward Nights will be decreasing by 5,000 points.
InterContinental Hotel Shanghai-Puxi, China – 35,000 to 30,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Crowne Plaza Geneva, Switzerland – 35,000 to 30,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Hotel Indigo Fort Myers Downtown River District, Florida, U.S. – 30,000 to 25,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Mai Khao Beach Resort, Phuket, Thailand – 20,000 to 15,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Holiday Inn Ciudad De Mexico- Trade Center, Mexico – 15,000 to 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Holiday Inn Express Frankfurt-Messe, Germany – 25,000 to 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Staybridge Suites – San Antonio-Stone Oak, Texas, U.S. – 20,000 to 15,000 IHG Rewards Club points
Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. – 25,000 to 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points
It isn’t exactly clear from the wording if NO hotels are going up in price, or simply that the current category pricing – capped at 50,000 points – will remain unchanged, with some moves up and down.
I am not totally surprised that some hotels are decreasing in points. Remember that IHG hotels are almost all independently owned, and that reward nights are a key source of revenue for them. Even if IHG does not pay much for the night (and it doesn’t, unless the hotel is above 95% occupancy, at which point it pays the average rate for that night), the hotel still benefits from the additional food and drink spend from the guest.
If IHG’s reward pricing means your hotel is uncompetitive, you will lose reward business. Who in their right mind, for example, would pay 30,000 points per night for the Holiday Inn Express Limehouse – a truly depressing hotel in East London directly overlooking a monstrous road – when they could luxuriate in the InterContinental Park Lane for 50,000?!
If anything, I am surprised that only 100 hotels are dropping in price. Holiday Inn Express Limehouse will probably not be amongst them.
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.
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