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

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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

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

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 4) covers stays from 6th September to 15th December
  • All hotels are participating

This year IHG has excluded the Christmas period.  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 64,900 points maximum, comprising:

  • 5,000 points on my next stay
  • 5,000 points for a stay in September
  • 10,000 points for staying five nights
  • 3,500 points for booking three stays via the IHG app
  • 6,400 points for booking 2 x 2-night weekend stays
  • 2,500 points for booking two stays using my Corporate Rate (where I haven’t worked for 5 years!)
  • 12,000 points for one stay in North America, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Greater China, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa
  • 1,500 points for spending $160 on food and drink (this is excluding VAT or local taxes)
  • 19,000 points for completing six of the seven targets above, excluding the September bonus

This is a bit trickier than last time, to be honest.  Even ones that you may think are easy, such as the Corporate Rate one, are not because only about 10% of hotels used to give a special deal to my ex-employer.  The Corporate Rate is also higher in many cases than sale rates.  Spending $160 (roughly £150 when you add back VAT) on food and drink isn’t easy either.

At the moment, I don’t think I can manage this.  My plans are still very flexible for the Autumn so things may change.  64,900 points is also well worth having – even if I had to spend £175 on mattress run nights it would be worth it.

My wife got an easier one for 46,600 points:

  • 3,000 points on her next stay
  • 5,000 points for a stay in September
  • 10,000 points for staying five nights
  • 6,400 points for booking 2 x 2-night weekend stays
  • 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
  • 18,600 points for completing three of the four targets above excluding the September bonus

It isn’t a no-brainer though.  It would require at least four nights over weekends or five nights midweek to trigger the 46,600 points.  I might be able to justify two mattress run nights if necessary – perhaps another day out before Christmas at the Holiday Inn Brent Cross?!

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 Autumn.

That said, for my household it may be that the maximum bonuses are out of reach.  8,000 to 10,000 bonus points for a stay in September (well, 6th September to 30th September) is not to be sniffed at though.

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 (170)

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

  • Kevin says:
    19 Aug19 August 05:39

    Mhm, anyone have the same problem as me? On all 4 of our (genuine) accounts, when I try to sign up it gives me an eroor message ‘there was a problem with you request, please wait some time…’ I have tried since yesterday…

  • Scott says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:11

    I wish they would cater more for non-US citizens when it comes to the “spend $40 on food and drink” one. No idea what counts as $40 (i.e. £32.56, £29.11) so I’ll be forced to spend £40 to be on the safe side.
    Other than a couple of IC breakfasts and extra coffees, harder to do in HIX etc or hotels with little in the way of food options……well, could get plastered one night I suppose.

    • John says:
      19 Aug19 August 08:25

      How is a $ target targeting US citizens?? Americans do travel outside the US and you can go there too (or Ecuador)

  • Mark E says:
    19 Aug19 August 06:26

    Not registering me either.
    ” There was a problem processing your request. Please try again after some time or contact your IHG® Rewards Club Customer Care Center for assistance.”

    • Nick says:
      19 Aug19 August 06:31

      There was a problem signing up last night too so I guess it’s a technical problem their end.

  • SteveB says:
    19 Aug19 August 07:21

    The previous Accelerate promotions have been good for me, with achievable targets albeit at a stretch on some occasions. Not sure if it’s because I have met the previous targets or if this Q4 campaign has a high threshold, but this time round my targets are too high – I won’t be staying 16 nights or spending £300 on food and drinks.

  • Andy S says:
    19 Aug19 August 07:25

    Talking of IHG, I recently had an email from IHG about a special “birthday offer” ( as my birthday is coming up) whereby if I register for this offer and then stay a weekend (fri-sat or sat-sun) I get 3000 bonus points. I already have two weekend stays coming up (one will complete my current “accelerate” and the other was booked recently for a weekend getaway), will either of these count towards this new “birthday offer” or will it only count for nights booked since signing up. both existing bookings are non-refundable so i can’t just rebook.

    • Andy S says:
      25 Aug25 August 08:13

      For the record, pre-existing booking counted and bonus 3000 points were added to that stay.

  • Britbronco22 says:
    19 Aug19 August 07:25

    I’m sure I read the food and drink spend is cumulative across all stays

    • Rob says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:29

      It has in the past been cumulative, yes.

      However, as you need to factor in the VAT AND guess what exchange rate they are using (probably not the spot rate) it is tricky.

      It also incurs cost. For example, if you stop booking ‘bed and breakfast’ rates and just book room only – as breakfast spend will count towards your food target if paid for separately – you will end up spending more.

      • SImon says:
        19 Aug19 August 08:20

        When I have booked bed and breakfast rate on the current promotion the breakfast has counted toward the food target – this happened on 2 separate bookings.

        • John says:
          19 Aug19 August 08:28

          But how do you know how much the breakfast element costs?

        • Rob says:
          19 Aug19 August 09:19

          Interesting. How did you know? Does the tracker move forward a bit after the stay!

          • SImon says:
            19 Aug19 August 09:49

            Yes it did.

            I had two stays that were just bed and breakfast. I spent nothing on any other food and the tracker moved up to 20% after the first stay and 60% after the 2nd stay (2 nights).

  • Ryan says:
    19 Aug19 August 07:38

    I have a stay booked 5th-6th September so will post after the period starts. Any idea what my likelihood of the stay being applicable is?

    • Ziggy says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:50

      In my experience, very low. The T&Cs say that all activity has to take place in the promotion period so, to meet the “book X stays” criteria, you have to book after the promotion start date – I got burned by this a few promotions back.

    • Rob says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:52

      None, looking at the rules

    • Andy S says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:53

      For the previous accelerate, I had a 4 night stay that ended on 1st June (acc start date) and the last night counted. TBH I was surprised that it did, would have thought the whole booking had to be within the period. So based on that it should count unless they’ve changed something

  • Nadir says:
    19 Aug19 August 07:40

    My offer:

    3,000 – Stay once, get 3,000
    12,000 – Stay six nights and get 12,000
    2,600 – Book two stays via the IHG app and get 2,600
    8,000 – Stay three weekends (two nights inc Saturday) and get 8,000
    4,000 – Book a single stay of four or more consecutive nights and get 4,000
    500 – Spend $39 on food or beverages and get 500 points
    1,000 – Make any points redemption and get 1,000 points
    10,000 – Achievement bonus – complete any six out of the seven above and get 10,000 points
    5,000 – September bonus offer – any stay in Sept gets 5,000 points

    I also have another offer right now of 5,000 points for any stay before 27 October.

    I’ve got a four night stay coming up in IC HK; unfortunately, only one of them is on a qualifying rate (three reward nights – two free nights from my first Accelerate, and one with points). That one night (with $39 of incidentals during my stay) should get me 13,500 bonus points plus base points.

    • Rob says:
      19 Aug19 August 07:52

      Like mine, yours is trickier than it looks because you MUST do either the ‘four night stay’ or ‘three weekends’ which is outside the usual stay pattern for most people.

      However ….. perhaps IHG has finally woken up to the fact that the Accelerate targets were not actually moving people outside of their usual comfort zone?

      • Nadir says:
        19 Aug19 August 07:59

        Yep. The weekends one is the one I think I’ll struggle with. I was planning a week in Madrid or Barcelona in the autumn so the four night stay should be okay.

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