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A potentially very good IHG Accelerate hotel promotion, especially for new members

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IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn, HI Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc loyalty scheme, has launched its new Autumn promotion – IHG Accelerate.

Unlike the fairly lacklustre offerings from Hilton HHonors and Marriott Rewards which I wrote about here and here last week, the IHG one does offer genuine value.  At least, it does for me.  Your own personal target may differ.

In addition, it offers a VERY good deal for new members of IHG Rewards Club should you or your travelling partner not already be a member.

Here are the headline details:

IHG Accelerate covers stays from September 1st to December 31st

All hotels are participating

Your bonus is personalised – you need to log in here to discover yours – but will be worth at least 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points (which I value at £250)

This was my target for 87,800 points maximum, comprising:

  • 5,000 points on my next stay
  • 7,200 points for completing four nights
  • 19,200 points for staying at two different brands
  • 9,600 points for staying at two Holiday Inn hotels
  • 4,800 points for booking two stays with the IHG app
  • 15,000 points for spending two consecutive weekend nights at an InterContinental
  • 27,000 points for hitting five of the above targets

I consider this very, very do-able – probably with stays I need to do anyway.  That would be (87,800 points x my £5 per 1000 valuation) £440 of free future stays.

My wife got this for 50,000 points maximum, comprising:

  • 5,000 points on my next stay
  • 6,800 points for completing five nights
  • 2,000 points for booking a Bonus Points package
  • 500 points for spending $50 on food and drink whilst at a hotel
  • 4,800 points for booking two stays with the IHG app
  • 2,000 points for applying for the IHG Premium Visa
  • 33,700 points for hitting five of the above targets

I don’t like this.  She had the Visa but cancelled it this year, and even if she got it again it would represent a £99 investment due to the fee, admittedly offset by the sign-up bonus.  Having to run up food and drink spend in a hotel and book a Bonus Points package both require spending which may not otherwise be needed.

That said, if I can steer her into doing one IHG stay for work then it would be an easy 5,000 points for hitting the first of her targets.

Not already an IHG Rewards Club member?  You’re in luck.

If you are not already an IHG Rewards Club member, you will receive a special offer when you sign up via the link on this page.

One free night voucher for completing two paid stays (any brand, any length)

A second free night voucher for completing four paid stays (any brand, any length)

This could work out very nicely.  The free night vouchers are valid wherever a standard reward night is shown as available.

You could make a substantial saving by doing four stays at a very cheap Holiday Inn Express – perhaps booking and checking in (but not necessarily staying) for the dead days around Christmas – and then using your two free nights at a £250+ per night InterContinental in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, London etc next year.

Before you get any ideas, I should stress that IHG is very good at picking up duplicate accounts.  They appear to cross reference lots of data, including the credit card used to pay for stays.  However, if your travelling partner is not an IHG Rewards Club member then this would be a good chance to sign them up.

Conclusion

As long as your target is sensible, this is probably the most generous hotel promotion you are likely to see this Autumn.  There is an Accor promotion coming down the line which may be better if your IHG target is unreasonable.

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 (189)

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

  • BA-Flyer says:
    26 Aug26 August 22:55

    Do we know when the free night vouchers are awarded? Is it at the end of the promotion, or as soon as the qualifying stays post?

  • Julie C says:
    26 Aug26 August 23:32

    One part of my husbands offer is ‘book and pay using your IHG premium visa’. I have a secondary card on his visa. If I book and then pay with my secondary card ( I assume that I will have to show the same card at the hotel and he and his card won’t be with me) will it still count for this offer since he is the main cardholder of the visa card?
    His offer is much easier to achieve than mine so was going to book via his account if the above is possible. Thanks for any advice.

  • Cloud Runner says:
    27 Aug27 August 13:39

    Not too bad from my perspective. Target 50k, all stays must be completed 01Sep-31Dec this year…

    5000 Stay Once Get 5,000
    9200 Stay More, Earn More when you stay 5 nights
    600 Eat, Drink and Earn Spend $39 on food or beverages at IHG® hotels
    2000 Get the IHG® Rewards Club Visa®
    2000 Earn More, Faster when you book 1 Bonus Points Package stay(s)
    31200 Your Achievement Bonus Complete 4 of 5 offers

    I won’t bother with the credit card, but can probably do the stays quite easily as part of my normal travel pattern…

  • elGuiri says:
    28 Aug28 August 17:13

    Hi Rob,
    you mention an Accor offer coming down the line in your post. I am about to book 9 nights at an ibis so wanted to know if it’s worth waiting for whatever offer info you have on it?
    Thanks !

    • Rob says:
      28 Aug28 August 17:37

      Possibly, if you can wait until the 1st but only a good deal if you’d be willing to switch hotels! Should launch Tue, requires 3 x 2 night stays for 10k Avios.

      • elGuiri says:
        28 Aug28 August 23:01

        Thanks, I’ll be somewhere else for one night anyway, so this would work out perfectly (on top of the other 10k points for 3 stays I’m about to complete this weekend) should be up to platinum by Nov through doing this deal twice this year (plus a few extra points).

  • signol says:
    29 Aug29 August 10:55

    My offers are:
    Stay Once Get 1,000
    Stay 7 nights get 11600
    Get 2000 when you book a bonus points package
    Corporate Account Bonus – Stay 4 time(s) using your negotiated rate and earn 7,200 bonus points*
    Spend $39 on F&B, get 500
    Get 2000 when you apply for the Premium Visa
    Get 1000 when you redeem

    *This is the interesting one for me, as we have to book all corporate travel through the corporate travel agent. Currently only 1 work stay booked, but I’ll see if it counts towards after.
    Also interesting get 1000 to redeem. I’ve made a reward booking (in SKG) so this should be ok.

    signol

  • Mark says:
    1 Sep1 September 21:38

    I may have got the easiest ever variant of this for my personal situation. As of a couple of months ago (new job) I now do three nights a fortnight at a Holiday Inn. Existing Plat member. My offer:

    5,000 Stay once in September and earn 5,000 bonus points
    5,000 Stay once
    6,800 5 nights (total)
    3,000 + 3 (8 total)
    3,000 + 3 (11 total)
    3,000 +3 (14 total)
    3,000 +3 (17 total)
    30,000 +3 (20 total)

    So effectively 58,800 extra points for staying 20 nights in a time period where I’m already scheduled to stay 23 nights. Painfully easy.

    • Leo says:
      1 Sep1 September 21:50

      It’s similar to mine. The thing is – whilst this might be easy for you because you actually are booked to stay those nights in any event it’s actually a very hard task for an ordinary IHG member. No points for food spend, redemption or application/payment of credit card etc. Basically you just have to stay a load of nights…..21 in my case. Useless.

      • Mark says:
        1 Sep1 September 22:30

        Oh yep, absolutely. Only useful if you’re actually a frequent traveller. It’s just nice because it actually fits my stay pattern rather than them asking me to get a credit card or spend $XXXs on food or something like that, which is what I usually get – useless when everything’s on a company account.

  • HayMow says:
    2 Sep2 September 18:55

    To confirm… for 3 of my targets (of 1 stay, 2 app bookings & 6 nights), I could in theory achieve all 4 with a minimum of 2 stays that added up to at least 6 nights in total?? thx

  • JamesW says:
    5 Sep5 September 17:01

    I’ve just signed up (via a link here) and have got the accelerate offers listed as One free night after 2 stays & one more free night after 4 stays. I thought I’d get those AND the other accelerate offers too, starting with targets totalling 50,000 but perhaps even the 87,500 points one.

    Have others found this too or are you getting the new joiners offers AND the accelerate offers ?

    Cheers.

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