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Get a free night at ANY IHG hotel globally when you try out IHG’s new UK properties

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UPDATE – NOVEMBER 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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, the owner of InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn etc – has launched an interesting new offer to drive traffic to its new UK hotels.

Earlier this year, IHG acquired Principal Hotels.  This brought a number of high quality UK city centre hotels into the system.

Over the next 12 months the majority of these will be rebranded as Kimpton or InterContinental hotels.  At the moment, only two properties have been rebranded (London and Cardiff) and those are under brands most people won’t recognise (Kimpton and voco respectively).

What is the deal?

IHG has therefore got a plan:

If you stay TWO nights at any of the hotels listed below, before 31st March, you will receive a voucher for a free night at any IHG hotel.  The voucher must be used by 31st October.

It is important to note that the two nights do NOT need to be consecutive and do NOT even need to be at the same hotel.

Stays must be ‘qualifying’ for IHG Rewards Club base points.  This means that reward nights and certain heavily discounted rates, which do not earn IHG points, will not trigger this offer either.

You can register here.

IHG principal hotels

What hotels are included?

This is the list – click through for full details:

It is also worth noting that all of the hotels below are also now bookable for reward nights via ihg.com.  A reader emailed yesterday to say that he had been able to book one of the Edinburgh hotels for New Years Eve, saving £497 cash rate!

Kimpton Fitzroy London (photo below)
The Met Hotel Leeds
Principal York
Principal Manchester (photos above)
voco St David’s, Cardiff
Principal Edinburgh George Street
Principal Edinburgh Charlotte Square
Blythswood Square, Glasgow
Wotton House, nr Dorking, Surrey

What is the small print on the voucher?

We don’t know.

The rules say that it is ‘room only, standard rooms only, Regent Hotels excluded’.  This implies that it books into standard reward night inventory.  I would imagine that if a reward night is bookable, you will be able to use the voucher.  It would have been helpful if IHG has said this upfront.

We do not know if the voucher is sent as soon as you complete your second night or if you need to wait until the promotion ends in March.

What is the value of the free night voucher?

It is NOT the cost of the room you book.

Because the voucher almost certainly books into reward availability, it is worth a maximum of 70,000 IHG Rewards Club points.  This is most you can pay for a reward night via IHG Rewards Club.

When IHG is running a 100% ‘buy points’ bonus, as it occasionally does, you can pick up 70,000 points for $350, which is currently £277.  You shouldn’t value the voucher at more than this.

And, of course, the voucher is only valid until 31st October.  If you are not planning to visit somewhere with a highly-priced IHG hotel (New York, Paris etc) then it isn’t even worth £277.

Is this worth a mattress run?

Potentially, but with only a few hotels taking part – and some of them being very expensive – your options are limited.

On Saturday 6th January, for example, The Met Hotel in Leeds is £40 (single bedded room).  Book a couple of nights like that and your free night voucher is bound to be a profitable one.  Remember that you must check-in in person – you can’t make a booking and then not show up.

There is also likely to be a new round of IHG’s Accelerate promotion in the New Year.  Your two nights for this promotion should count towards your targets for that offer and trigger other bonuses.

Do I need to register?

Yes.  You can register online here.

Overall ….

This is a good little offer from IHG Rewards Club and, if you can shape your travels between now and the end of March to take advantage, it should work out profitably for you.


IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – November 2024:

Get bonus points:

Nights to do not need to be consecutive. Read more in our article here and click here to register.

IHG is running a second promotion for stays at five of its smaller brands. You will receive triple base points between 1st October and 31st December 2024 on stays at voco, avid hotels, EVEN Hotels, Atwell Suites and Garner Hotels. Read more in our article here and click here to register.

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 (88)

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

  • Pogonation says:

    By the way Avis has a 30% off IHG code that Avis preferred members can use to book.

    I checked this for The Met Leeds and brings the price down to £55 for 2 nights (from £80). Mattress run for me for sure. What I want to know is if I can get my brother to do the same and then use his voucher too 🙂

    • Tom1 says:

      What dates did you find?
      For the dates Rob suggested in the article, the price I see is higher with this promotional code than without?
      At £55 for two nights, i will be in Leeds also!

      • Pogonation says:

        I don’t know what I was looking at before but actually see its now £55/night. Also got rates of £48/night. Still decent deal if you can use it on a decent property.

      • James says:

        Which dates ? Anyone got a pub crawl in Leeds ?

    • Sarah says:

      How do you get an Avis preferred membership?

  • MDW says:

    Good question LB.

    I was wondering the same thing…?

  • xcalx says:

    Leeds MET £28.35 single room Jan 27

  • ihgwhiz says:

    I stayed at the Leeds Met (about as “luxury” as an old Best Western) for £80, got the voucher the next day, and booked the Thalasso Bora Bora.

    Overwater villa in French Polynesia (and 2 nights in Leeds haha) worth £600+ for a spend of £80. And of course a few points earned from my £80.

    It seems to work like the creation mastercard free night – subject to availability, but sometimes showing voucher availability where there is no points availability.

  • Marc says:

    Nice offer but confused with the ‘Qualifying rates’ – I’ve just booked MCR Principal on a non-cancellable rate (i.e. the cheapest rate), will this count.
    Not sure, the T&Cs are not helpful…

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