Bits: has Accor scrapped Happy Mondays?, IHG redemption sale in Mexico / LATAM / Caribbean

News in brief:

Has Accor scrapped Happy Mondays?

Accor’s low key Happy Mondays was actually the best hotel promotion in the UK.

Every Monday and Tuesday, Accor would dump its unsold UK rooms for the following two weekends at this website.  The absolute maximum you could pay was £80 for the Pullman in London, but most rooms were £40 to £60.  Ibis hotels outside London were just £25 per night, and sometimes some of the London Docklands properties ended up as ‘outside London’ and so were £25.

These rooms even counted for Accor promotions, which could in some cases make your room virtually free if there was a good bonus points offer running.

Happy Mondays may have been scrapped.  Instead of a new batch of rooms, if you look at the site today it says:

“This offer has now ended, BUT COME BACK NEXT WEEK to discover our NEW SET OF EXCLUSIVE OFFERS – SECRET DEALS BY ACCORHOTELS, giving you access to at least 20% discount and exclsuive [sic] hotel packages in the UK.”

Accor gave Happy Mondays virtually no promotion and unless you read HFP you probably wouldn’t have known about it.  It was a risky offer as it could easily have cannibalised existing bookings if guests had cancelled and rebooked.  My recommendation was usually to book a redemption night with another chain and then look to switch that at the last minute for a ‘Happy Mondays’ room, saving your IHG, Hilton, Marriott etc points for a better deal on another day.

It certainly sounds like ‘Secret Deals’ won’t be as generous as ‘Happy Mondays’, but let’s see.

50% discount on IHG rewards nights

IHG Rewards Club, the loyalty scheme for InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn etc, has brought back its aggressive reward night sale.

The good news is that reward nights are discounted by a full 50%.

Unfortunately, it is very restrictive.   The promotion is only valid in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean.   It works for bookings made by 7th May for stays before 30th June.

That said, if you’re heading to the region in the next two months you might want to take another look at your accommodation choices.

Full details of the offer can be found here. 

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IHG Rewards update – July 2021:

Get bonus points: The current IHG Rewards promotion is ‘Triple Your Points’ – our full article is here. It runs from 15th May to 16th August. You receive double base points on your second stay and triple base points on your third and subsequent stays. You can register on this page of ihg.com.

New to IHG Rewards?  Read our two-part overview of IHG Rewards here and here and our article on expiry rules here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG Rewards points, you can buy them here.

There is a 75% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 13th August.

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.