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

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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!

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IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

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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IHG One Rewards

Comments (168)

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

  • Ian says:
    19 Aug19 August 22:14

    Mine is insane.

    Stay 21 nights for 38,000 points

    4 stays with the app for 3,000 points

    Spend $490 on food and drink for 4,700 points

    And 5000 for any stay in September

    So… Only 5000 points for me this month!

  • LEE says:
    20 Aug20 August 00:05

    is this 80% deal worth it or do they offer better deals than this ? Shame the £ is so weak at the moment as this could have been super cheap

    • Rob says:
      20 Aug20 August 08:08

      They have done 100%. There is also a deal on ‘cash and points’ if you have status which I will cover tomorrow.

  • Shyla says:
    20 Aug20 August 06:11

    I had to phone to get registered for September’s accelerate promotion; it is my first time to participate. However, when I checked I had been enrolled for the current accelerate program, which ends the 31 August! Yet another phone call. I now have two offers to download the IHG app as a target. If I download the app now has this is only target I can meet at such short notice, will I still get the credit if I repeat the download for September’s accelerate promotion?

  • Joe says:
    20 Aug20 August 08:55

    5,000 Stay Once Get 5,000
    14,000 Stay More, Earn More – stay 7 night(s) and earn 14,000 bonus points
    3,200 Travel with the IHG® App – Book 2 stay(s) with the IHG® App
    8,800 Saturday Stays Bonus – Stay 3 weekend(s), including a Saturday night
    17,600 Globetrotter Bonus – 3 IHG hotel(s) outside of your country of residence.
    1,100 Eat, Drink, and Earn – Spend $110 on food or beverages
    18,000 Your Achievement Bonus -Complete 5 of the 6 offers and earn 18,000 bonus points
    5,000 September Bonus Offer – Stay once in September and get 5,000 bonus points.
    500 Registration Bonus – Register for Accelerate and earn 500 bonus points.

    So potentially I could go for triple bonus here, if I booked 2 stays with app, one of them being in September: 5000 stay once + 5000 September bonus + 3200 book with app? And potentially booking without breakfast and hit the spending on food for 1100 more?

    Do Cash + Points count towards Accelerate Bonus (unlike Reward nights)

    • AndyS says:
      21 Aug21 August 10:55

      No, cash and points are effectively points, the cash buys more points that are spent on the stay. If you cancel you get refund all in points, no cash.

  • Fenny says:
    20 Aug20 August 12:02

    My target is pretty much the same as this quarter. Apart from the “stay 7 nights” for 10,500, they’re all very achievable for 35k points. Book a couple of stays via the app, including a bonus points stay and spend £40 on food & drink. It’s effectively a “buy 2, get one free” offer. By the time I’ve completed the current offer and do this, I’ll have plenty of points for next summer’s jaunt somewhere warm.

  • Zara says:
    20 Aug20 August 14:21

    Thank you for the sign up notice. I am not a business traveller yet I find I am given targets that would suit business travellers. This year only stayed two nights, and have a target of 79,000 with over 15 nights to stay so again not worth it for me. I hope at some point my targets become attainable.

  • Lois Hutton says:
    20 Aug20 August 19:57

    Many thanks for the link – nothing from IHG themselves. I have just chased up a missing app booking from the current promotion; I found the customer service excellent with the points added manually and after next week’s stay they will manually add the bonus points that will be due.
    My new target isn’t too bad; the only one that isn’t achievable is a stay in Americas or Asia.

    As above do the cash and points stays count?

    • AndyS says:
      21 Aug21 August 10:53

      Cash and points don’t count unless a target states that method. Cash and points is really just points, the cash is used to buy extra points to credit the stay

  • Markc62 says:
    21 Aug21 August 10:13

    This is the 3rd ‘Accelerate’ I’ve registered for – anyone else noticed that their possible total earnings have gone down each time, or is it just me! My first one totalled 80k+, second 55k+, and the latest 44k+! The first was easy, but I won’t manage to hit all of them in the current or the next, but I now have enough points for at least 5 nights in a top category property. Thanks Rob – I also haven’t had any notification from IHG.

    • AndyS says:
      21 Aug21 August 10:51

      Yep, every time the offers are harder and the rewards are less. I wasn’t going to bother chasing mine this time but I already have 7 nights booked out of target of 9 (was 4 on the first, 6 on the second) so booking two more on the app will achieve about 3 of the targets. Got to work it all out when home…

      • Andy S says:
        21 Aug21 August 18:16

        Yes, just two stays booked through the app, one as a “bonus points” stay, and a random redepmtion of some points for a digital download will get me 5 of the 6 and trigger that bonus. the only outstanding thing would be spending $70 on food and drink which only yields an extra 800 points

        • JamesWag says:
          31 Aug31 August 21:59

          One of my goals is to book two stays via the app. Could they be reward redemptions using points and still meet the goal correctly ??

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