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Lots more info on IHG’s ‘Into The Nights’ promotion

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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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The new IHG Rewards Club (Holiday Inn, InterContinental etc) promotion “Into The Nights” caused a lot of interest yesterday.  You can read my main article here.

I wanted to add three new pieces of information which have emerged over the last 24 hours.

‘Free Night Vouchers’ seem to be valid for one year

One caveat I had in my article yesterday was that IHG had not revealed the terms of the free night vouchers.  I speculated that they would be the same as the vouchers that come with the UK credit card – ie:

  • Valid for 12 months from the date they are deposited in your account
  • Valid for any hotel room at any brand which is showing as bookable for points
  • Bookable online

Two American sites are stating that they have been told that the same terms will apply to these free night vouchers.  It is worth noting that one person got their information from the IHG call centre which is not necessarily worth much.  The other claimed it was from ‘an IHG contact’ – make of that what you will.

However, I am willing to give IHG the benefit of the doubt now and assume that the vouchers will be valid at all properties.

This sets up some exceptional deals.  If you are planning a trip to Sydney, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Washington etc in the next 12 months – all places with very nice, very plush, very expensive InterContinental hotels – you should be seriously looking at “Into The Nights“.

Don’t forget your other half

If you usually travel with a partner, get them signed up.  They will have a super-easy target as I outline in the next section.

Here is a word of warning.  Actually, a few words of warning:

Do NOT open accounts in the names of other people who will not be travelling with you.  In the UK, hotels are very lax about comparing the name of the person on the booking to the name of the person turns up.  This is NOT the case in most countries.  Even if you are named as a second guest, you will have serious trouble in a lot of countries if you redeem a free night voucher in the name of someone else and then arrive yourself.

(I found this out myself in Spain last year when, trying to hit my Mum’s ‘Big Win’ target, I had serious difficulty checking into a Holiday Inn Express even though I was named as the 2nd guest.  And, of course, I share a surname with my Mum.)

Do NOT open multiple IHG accounts in your own name.  IHG is frighteningly good at spotting duplicate accounts.  If any bits of personal data match up, even down to the credit cards you use to pay for your stays, they will spot it and they will close your account.  This has happened to me, albeit at least five years ago.

Do NOT get too carried away with the value of the free nights.  You can book the InterContinental Bora Bora using these free night vouchers, where a basic room costs over $1,000 per night.  However, no room in the IHG system costs more than 50,000 points per night and you can buy 50,000 points for $350 if you know how.  The maximum value of your two free nights is therefore capped at $700 (£428).

There is a very generous offer for new IHG Rewards Club members

If you sign up for IHG Rewards Club as a new member – the link is here – it is highly likely that your ‘Into The Nights’ offer will look like this:

  • 500 points for downloading the IHG app
  • 1,000 points for staying 3 nights
  • 1,000 points for booking 2 stays with the IHG website or app
  • 1,000 points for staying 2 Saturday nights
  • 1,000 points for staying at 2 Holiday Inn hotels
  • Bonus of 50,000 points or 2 free nights for completing all 5 tasks

This means that you can earn 2 free nights (worth £428 if you are smart) plus 4,500 additional points plus the base points for the stays just for booking:

  • 1 x Holiday Inn hotel for a Saturday night, and
  • 1 x different Holiday Inn hotel for a Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun night

That is it.  The total cost could be as low as £150 depending on where you live.

A Holiday Inn Express is not a Holiday Inn

This came up a couple of times yesterday in the comments.  For the purposes of this promotion, Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn are different brands.  If you need to do two Holiday Inn stays, you cannot book a Holiday Inn Express (and vice versa).

Be careful on what is a qualifying rate

Stays will only count for this promotion if the rate is ‘qualifying’.  ANY rate which shows on the IHG website without entering any special codes will be OK.

However:

  • Reward nights do not count
  • ‘Cash and points’ rates do not count
  • Any corporate discount or other promotion which takes your room price to less than 70% of the Best Flexible Rate for the same night will potentially be non-qualifying
  • ‘Friends & Family’ rates do not count
  • Rooms booked on Ambassador 2-4-1 voucher should technically give you one qualifying night.  Some hotels post it as two but you should only get one.  If you get none, complain.

For safety, if using a discount code, take a screenshot of the last page in the booking process which states “You will earn x,xxxx IHG Rewards Club points from this stay”.  You can fall back on this as proof that you thought the rate was a qualifying one in case of any issues.


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.

Comments (99)

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  • Premier01 says:

    The recommendation is to get your partner signed up if they are not already signed up to IHG Rewards in order to benefit from the likely easy points achievable-a good plan!

    But was thinking that as my wife shares the same surname and address what if we pay with same IHG Rewards Visa or other card I use on my long established account- will IHG not flag this and close both accounts?!

    Thanks,

    Premier01

    • Rob says:

      You should be fine, you have a genuine reason to do this.

    • JQ says:

      I think I would just use a different card (if the supplementary card has a different number that would be fine) just to avoid the risk and hassle of getting the account reopened should it be closed.

  • Rob says:

    Sounds fine to me!

    • Chris says:

      I hope you don’t mind Raffles but I have sent you an email with an issue I have discovered with my one, I thought it easier to put it in an email rather than post it on the site.

      Thanks

  • Geoggy says:

    So I signed the mrs up for IHG club. Then registered her for the promo, but I can’t see what she has to do.

    Am I being thick?

    • Simon says:

      Probably not! Just signed the wife up and similar to some posts above got

      25,000 points or 1 Free Night(s)
      Complete 1 more offers and earn another 25,000 bonus points or 1 free night

      But no details of the offers!!!

      • MikeK says:

        Got exactly the same, with no details of the offer.

      • Fenny says:

        Just had a reply. Basically, they’re working on it, try again sometime.

        “Thank you for contacting IHG Rewards Club regarding your account. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

        Please accept our sincere apologies for the trouble in viewing your offer for Into the Nights promotion. We have reported the issue to our Web Services Team and was advised that the error you have encountered is a known issue. Rest assured that the team is working round the clock to resolve this the soonest possible time. Please try to check the website again within 24 to 48 hours.

        We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you as we value your patronage. Should you require further assistance, please feel free to contact IHG Rewards Club Service Center again.”

  • Andy says:

    I signed my wife up and she got the easy path. She downloaded and booked one Saturday night via the app on an “Advance saver rate”, (pay up front for the stay) now looking at the qualifying rates that rate isn’t actually excluded but then again it isn’t specifically included either. There is nothing anywhere on the conformation saying that she will earn any points. Does anyone know if this rate will be qualifying or not?

  • Rich Spencer says:

    Has anyone who had the “blank offers” spoken to IHG about it?

    • Dan says:

      I emailed their customer service team and they first of all sent me a list of instructions, detailing how to take part in the offer (not very helpful!), and when pushed admitted that they were experiencing IT problems and i should try again later.

      Not much use as the 120 days tick by – still not sure what offers i need to hit to earn the free nights.

      • Twobfair says:

        Just had an email stating they are working around the clock to sort out the registration issues and confirmed I had registered on the 4th Sept. Waiting on a reply specifically relating to having zero offers in my account.

        • Russell G says:

          I phoned IHG Rewards centre and the response was just naff. First they tried to claim that its not available to new members to which I responded saying that I’ve been a member for nine years (if you include when it was called Priority Club). Then they suggested that I will have received an email telling me my rewards. When I explained I hadn’t they ignored me and said twice more that I will have received an email. Finally when I said I’m looking at all the emails from IHG right now and I have no emails regarding Into the Nights promotion whatsoever, they said “Well, we are experiencing some IT issues around this promotion, but please just keep checking your emails”. I asked when I could expect an email, they didn’t know. I asked when it would be fixed on the website they didn’t know. They didn’t even know if it would be fixed and their response changed multiple times during the conversation as to where and when I should check.

          Maybe I’ve been spoilt with the customer service you get from companies like Amex and BA. However, when your first response is to lie, your second response is to blame the customer and only finally when backed in to a corner do you admit that you have IT problems yet still refuse to admit you have no idea or do anything about it, customers like me start to question the reliability of the whole rewards programme and brand in general.

          If they can’t rectify something like this, I really don’t want to trust that they’ll rectify problems after I’ve sunk money in to staying in hotels in order to build up points based on this offer.

          :-/

    • Fenny says:

      I’ve filled in their awful online contact form and will await a response. There are plenty of people on FB who are having the same issue.

  • vlad says:

    > 1 x Holiday Inn hotel for a Saturday night, and
    > 1 x different Holiday Inn hotel for a Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun night

    So total 2 or free nights? Thanks

    • Jb says:

      I’m not a member of ihg if I join now . Am I likely to be part of this promotion?

  • N says:

    Yes, as long as you have a “5 out of 6” rule. Otherwise you’ll need to stay another 5 nights to meet the “stay more (7nights)”

  • Richard B says:

    HI, is it worth taking the points between 50,000 points and two nights, if they have discounts on the costs of promotion nights? would they not go further? or is it outright better to take the nights?

    • Rob says:

      It depends how you redeem. 2 nights at an InterCon would be 100,000 points so the vouchers are better. However, 2 nights at Holiday Inn Sheffield would be 30,000 points so you’d be better off with the points.

      The points also will not expire whilst the vouchers will have a 12 month life.

      If you are keen booker of the 5,000 point PointsBreak special offers then definitely take points.

    • Lady London says:

      My plan for the two nights would be to try to get my parents a couple of nights in a very nice InterContinental. They’ve worked all their lives and it would be nice to give them the experience that I don’t really need right now.

      My taste in hotels is either the best 5 star or preferably better, or the Youth Hostel and nothing in between. So if my parents can’t use the InterContinental nights then based on no expiry, it would probably make sense for me to hoard the points for Points Breaks instead. If Points Breaks turned out to be unusable or, worse, if they are ever withdrawn then taking this amount of points instead of the 2 free nights would be a very poor deal.

      • Rob says:

        The thing with PointBreaks is that, unless you are willing to arrange your holidays around their rather wacky selections, you may never get what you want. If you have decided to give your parents a special trip then I would do that and take the free nights. If nothing else, having the vouchers ticking away to expiry in your account will ensure that you do get the trip arranged.

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