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REGISTER NOW: IHG Rewards Club launches a mini-Accelerate promotion

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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

Click here for our article on IHG’s ‘2000 Bonus Points’ promotion which runs from 1st April to 31st May 2024. You can register for the offer by clicking here.

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IHG Rewards Club, the scheme covering InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc, has launched its new Autumn promotion.

It is fundamentally a slimmed-down version of the long-running Accelerate offer, although it is being described as a ‘double points’ promotion with extra targets.  Perhaps they thought the original Accelerate format was too complicated?

You can find out your targets, and register, on the IHG website here.

It is valid for stays between 16th September and 16th December.

Everyone gets this target:

Earn double base points on every stay, starting from your 2nd stay, to a maximum of 15,000 bonus points

I got the following extra targets:

11,200 bonus points for staying at two different IHG brands

6,800 bonus points for making four bookings using the corporate code of the firm I haven’t worked for since 2010!

12,000 bonus points for making two stays of 4+ nights

15,000 bonus points for completing three of my four targets

This is fairly useless to me, frankly.  To hit 15,000 base points would require spending $1,500, before VAT, on IHG stays over the next three months (plus the spending on the first stay, which won’t be doubled) and that isn’t happening.

The 11,200 points bonus for staying at two different brands is an easy one, howeverIf I value an IHG point at 0.4p, as I do, then I’m getting £45 of points back from those two stays – plus double base points on the 2nd stay – which is a good deal.

My wife got the following extra targets:

11,200 bonus points for staying at two different IHG brands

3,200 bonus points for booking two stays on the IHG app

8,400 bonus points for staying two weekends (a Saturday night and another night)

Again, this is not hugely exciting.  However, 11,200 points for two brands is straightforward enough, as is the app bonus.

IHG Rewards Club double points promotion

Conclusion

The new IHG Rewards Club promotion is very similar to Hilton’s new offerYou can read about the Hilton offer here.

Both companies are offering double base points and both are offering a ‘twist’.  With Hilton, the twist is triple base points at luxury and resort hotels as well as 2,500 Lufthansa miles for stays until 31st October.  With IHG, it is personalised extra targets which may or may be achievable.

We don’t yet know what Marriott / SPG is planning for its first promotion since the merger, but I’m sure we will find out soon.

I strongly recommend signing up now, partly because you might forget otherwise, and partly because you won’t know – until you’ve seen your targets – whether it is worth moving stays to IHG brands.

You can register for the new IHG promotion here.


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.

Comments (143)

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  • Graham Walsh says:

    The way I understood the 15k bonus double points from your second stay is that, let’s say you earn 3k points for stay one, stay two you will earn 3k but then another 3k as part of double bonus points. You then have a ceiling level (another 12k in my case) on how many extra points you can earn.

    • Rob says:

      But for people with a ‘complete 3 of the 4 tasks’ target, does it count as ‘complete’ on the 2nd stay or after you’ve hit 15,000 bonus points?

  • Simon D says:

    Mine us very poor indeed. The usual double points up to 15K from the second stay and then 2K for using the app twice. I’m a Platinum member who puts a relative amount of business travel through IHG and a couple of paid pleasure stays per year. I wonder if this is placeholder while they develop a new strategy?

  • Zoe says:

    Please can anyone tell me if booking a reward night would count towards staying at 2 different brands or would it need to be a paid stay?
    Thank you

    • Sandra says:

      Would have to be a paid stay. For reward nights you only normally get points on any incidental spend – meal in restaurant, paid breakfast etc but no recognition for the actual reward stay.

  • Matt H says:

    Best Accelerate I’ve had for a while
    15,000 Double Your Stay
    38,400 Stay at 3 brands
    16,800 Stay 2 weekend(s)
    4,000 Stay 4 nights
    29,600 Complete 3 of the 4 offers

    Hmmm.. Really need the clarity on if Double your Stay counts as 3 of 4, as my Stay 4 nights for 4k is clearly rubbish.

    • Genghis says:

      But staying two weekends (2 x 2) = 4 nights so kills two targets with one stone?

      • Matt H says:

        Ahh yes, thanks good spot Genghis although that’s my paraphrasing that has confused things. It’s Stay 4 Consecutive nights.

      • MLim says:

        what does it mean by ‘stay weekend’? Can you do a single night on any Friday, Saturday or Sunday? or must you stay 2 nights over the weekend? Sorry, easily confused.

  • Marc says:

    Terrible! After years of usually attaining my targets I get this;
    Double your stay 15,000
    Travel with the app 1,300
    and…that’s it. Pathetic! I keep on checking in case it’s my mistake but no, that’s all I’ve got to aim for this time.
    I was wondering if you can complain and get another go but I presume not…
    Totally uninspiring!

  • Tony says:

    After never attaining these targets, I just got….

    Double your stay 15k
    Two CP stays 16.8k
    Use the app to book twice 4.5k
    2 weekend stays 16.8k
    Achievement bonus (3 of 4) 19k

    So two distinct CP stays will get me over 55k points 🙂 Sounds like a good deal to me.

    • Tony says:

      Actually it’s not quite that generous, is it….
      Probably more like 45k.

  • X says:

    OT: I have 16,000 Starwood points on my SPG account, and I am not going to be able to use them on a hotel stay anytime soon. Is there any way of spending them elsewhere?

  • Sarah says:

    I have a couple of questions about IHG.
    1) can ihg points no longer be redeemed at intercontinental? Any hotel I check says no reward nights available.
    2) I have aabassador weekend voucher which doesn’t expire until Feb 2019 but membership expires Nov 18 because it took so long for them to send voucher out. I’ve managed to book an IC for Jan 19 but they said I’ll have to renew Ambassador before staying at the property otherwise voucher won’t be honoured.
    Have to admit, struggling to see benefit of Ambassador apart from the upgrade.

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