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

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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.

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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.