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IHG Rewards Club “moving to variable points pricing”

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Is IHG Rewards Club “moving to variable points pricing”? It might be.

InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of Holiday Inn, HI Express, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza etc, published its 2018 results on Tuesday.

The summary is here, but I have summarised the summary into news I think is relevant:

A new brand, not named so far, will launch in 2019.  It will be an ‘upper midscale all-suites’ brand.  How this differentiates from Staybridge, which is already ‘upper midscale’ in the UK to my mind, and Candlewood remains to be seen.

The company now has 837,000 rooms globally

The number of UK rooms grew 8% in 2018, helped by the Principal Hotels acquisition 

Room rates are falling in the Middle East (REVPAR down 6% in 2018) due to oversupply

The avid brand has now signed over 170 contracts although only one hotel – in Oklahoma – is actually open.  These will be new build ‘cheap and cheerful’ hotels which will charge noticeably less than an equivalent Holiday Inn Express.

voco, the new conversion brand, has three hotels open with 13 signed.  We are reviewing the Cardiff hotel over the weekend.

Bookings by IHG Rewards Club members rose from 39% to 43% (over 50% in the Americas)

IHG Rewards Club members are 7x more likely to book direct than non-members

Importantly for hotels, revenue from IHG Rewards Club members is 25% higher than from non-members (this is, I imagine, due to the 20%+ commission charged by Expedia, booking.com etc and the propensity for loyal guests to book superior room categories)

Here is the key thing that caught my eye:

IHG Rewards Club is “testing new features for 2019 roll-out, designed to increase member engagement with variable point pricing” 

It is not clear what this means.  If we’re lucky, it MAY be a move to a Hilton model whereby redemption rates fall on dates where cash costs are low.  It may also be linked to the current New York promotion whereby certain hotels are currently on special offer for points until 30th April.

Of course, there is also a massive downside scenario whereby IHG Rewards Club moves to 100% variable pricing.  Points prices become uncapped and you get a fixed amount, say 0.5c, per point.  If the InterContinental Times Square pictured below is selling for $600, you would need 120,000 points.

I doubt IHG would do this – it is hardly likely to “increase member engagement” – but we need to keep an eye on it.  The Hilton Honors model has, I think, worked well with hotels having a points cap but members still able to get redemption value on nights where cash rates are low.

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IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – March 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is offering double base points on cash stays until 31st March 2025. This kicks in from your second cash stay during the offer period. 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.

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IHG One Rewards

Comments (99)

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

  • a9504477 says:
    21 Feb21 February 06:19

    The Hilton model has worked well? For Hilton maybe but not for us trying to make useful redemptions (ie. booking when cash prices are high) at most properties.

  • Mr Dee says:
    21 Feb21 February 06:28

    I would likely use IHG more if I could use the points for more than just room only guaranteed ie spend some for extra meals/parking or even club access otherwise have to factor this in when comparing to Hilton

    • Rob says:
      21 Feb21 February 06:30

      Agreed. Redemptions start to look pricey when factoring in breakfast for four. Most of mine tend to be for solo HFP trips now.

      • John Matrix says:
        21 Feb21 February 07:11

        Agreed. Really puts me off bothering with IHG

      • TGLoyalty says:
        21 Feb21 February 07:37

        We should all fill in the surveys after a stay and when they ask about how you find rewards club remind them it’s the only top tier status that doesn’t automatically give breakfast and lounge access.

        • John says:
          21 Feb21 February 07:41

          Been doing that for years, nothing changed except that Amb breakfast for 1.

        • Genghis says:
          21 Feb21 February 07:43

          And in China only

        • TGLoyalty says:
          21 Feb21 February 07:48

          Amazing isn’t it. You’d think they could do it in new brands anyway. Ie Avid/Voco brand new contracts and no long standing contracts to make change their minds.

        • Matt says:
          21 Feb21 February 12:59

          How many of us that moan about IHG Spire benefits have actually earned it ‘properly’ by staying 75 nights a year? I imagine we’ve ‘cheated’ our way there via cc spend. As soon as a loyalty program opens up an avenue like this you’d expect status benefits to diminish?

          • Rob says:
            21 Feb21 February 13:30

            Hilton gives Diamond in the US as a credit card benefit, no spend required. That gets you breakfast, guaranteed lounge access and good upgrades.

        • David says:
          21 Feb21 February 17:28

          My record was 236 nights with IHG in one year. I’ve earned the right to complain about no free breakfasts.

  • Charlieface says:
    21 Feb21 February 07:33

    “pursue a refund for the original flight from their credit card company”
    No, they need to get a refund for the NEW flight. The credit card is jointly liable under s75 for EC261/2004 rebooking (and compensation, prob not relevant here). It’s a red herring if they just want to pay out a refund for the original flight.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      21 Feb21 February 07:54

      “IHG Rewards Club members are 7x more likely to book direct than non-members”

      If you don’t book direct you’re not treated as a member.

      Most people booking through a 3rd party would therefore not bother giving their rewards club details, hence would count as a non member anyway.

      • Andrew says:
        21 Feb21 February 08:48

        There’s always different ways to read a statistic…

        Across the hotel chains, there must be a considerable number of members, who stay as non-members, as a consequence of corporate booking policies.

        • Chrisasaurus says:
          21 Feb21 February 09:03

          Indeed

          If you really wanted to know you’d let the stays count as qualifying nights (with Zero points or benefits) so members would associate their number, and you’d get to recognise them in some small but meaningful way.

          Has to be said that even if a customer was booking through kaligo/hotels/Expedia etc, if they actively seek out the same hotel chain for 60nights a year you might want to acknowledge that…

    • Noggins says:
      21 Feb21 February 14:16

      Have just received a refund from Amex for Flybmi tickets which have been replaced with Loganair tickets sold at indentical price. These replacement tickets were on sale the day Loganair announced they would take over the routes. Oddly efficient?!

      • Charlieface says:
        21 Feb21 February 14:20

        Remember they have the same corporate parent plus revenue management will set the same price anyway.
        If It’s the same price, my argument wouldn’t have made a difference to you anyway. It’s only when prices have gone up since booked.

      • Simon says:
        22 Feb22 February 17:25

        The management must have known they were selling tickets that would never get honoured leading up to the collapse.

        So far I’ve had 3 refunds from Lufthansa and 5 from Amex, very efficient. Nothing from Lloyds.

  • John says:
    21 Feb21 February 08:39

    Got a world hotel booking in April – but booked direct with the hotel – hadn’t heard of the group.

    I doubt that my status with Best Western will help at that time though. Currently Platinum (probably did a status match before?) – not sure if they would match me again from Hilton Diamond.

    I assume this will take a while to have any benefits???

  • jane says:
    21 Feb21 February 09:06

    OT – got charged to select an aisle seat on BA this morning (CDG – LHR), it was only £12 but I thought seat selection at check-in was free. Did I miss something or should I not have been charged?

    • Anna says:
      21 Feb21 February 09:12

      Is it a HBO fare, I think this may have some bearing on it?

      • jane says:
        21 Feb21 February 09:20

        It was, inadvertently booked as such via corporate booking. We then added checked bags online before the outbound so I guess this may have been the issue. We had an aisle seat outbound anyway so didn’t need to change anything so it might be the HBO that is causing the issue. thanks

        • Shoestring says:
          21 Feb21 February 10:06

          Tell your corporate booking people they cost you & your employer money by not booking the standard ticket with checked luggage in the first place

  • jamie says:
    21 Feb21 February 09:13

    OT, the Marriott £100 off £500 Amex offer, does anyone know if it’ll work for pre-paid reservations but across 2 different transactions? Thanks

  • Anna says:
    21 Feb21 February 09:15

    OT – Marriott Bonvoy. Has anyone transferred points between accounts? It looks as though you have to call to do this, is it quite straightforward? OH and I both have points but we want to transfer mine to his and make a booking from his account as he is gold and I am only silver.

    • jane says:
      21 Feb21 February 09:21

      not since they were Bonvoy but it was easy enough beforehand. just a quick call and they were there almost instantly (log out and in again)

      • Solo says:
        21 Feb21 February 09:52

        Did a transfer the day Bonvoy switched on and can confirm it was instantly done. Relatively straightforward, but a bit of a weird process where we had to confirm each others account details separately.

      • Simon says:
        21 Feb21 February 11:30

        Advice sought on a similar theme: Amex MR to my Marriott Bonvoy account. It has been FIVE MONTHS (!!) since I initiated a transfer and still nothing. Amex tells me it’s Marriott’s issue; and I’ve called/emailed Marriott more than 12 times, always being told “we’re looking into it” or “it’s been escalated to a manager”… and yet no points have turned up in my Marriott account. And I’m “Titanium Elite”. Suddenly get concerned about getting points into my Marriott account vis-a-vis a Points Advance booking I have. Could anyone suggest a way around the impasse? I’m genuinely getting quite worried and I feel entirely neglected by both Amex and Marriott. (Just to be clear: my new Marriott number is the one in my Amex MR area.)

        • Mark2 says:
          21 Feb21 February 13:52

          Have you checked whether the points were refused (see ‘My Redemptions’).
          Mine were but were not re-credited to my Amex points automatically.

    • Lee says:
      21 Feb21 February 10:50

      Done two days ago, no problem, points transferred instantly.

  • Michael says:
    21 Feb21 February 09:35

    OT: Are we expecting a new marriot bonvoy card at some point? i’m assuming then in due course they’ll close SPG to new applicants and then after that close the card completely?

    • Shoestring says:
      21 Feb21 February 09:45

      Yep Amex SPG is on borrowed time, USA version already closed to new applicants

    • Rob says:
      21 Feb21 February 09:45

      Current policy, as stated on their site, is that neither card will be rebranded and both continue. I doubt this is a long term strategy.

    • will says:
      21 Feb21 February 10:15

      Anyone tried calling to cancel an SPG card recently and been made a retention offer?

      I’m still fighting bonus points from an offer they made last August (pre combined scheme) of “1 additional starpoint per £ spent”, it even appears on the statement as “1 additional starpoint per £ spent” and they’ve instead issued one “bonvoy” point per £ spent.

      They are not acknowledging that a starpoint is 3 bonvoy points despite them upscaling the base spend by 3.

      Escalated to complaint, response to which was a no as offer was not “double points”. I never claimed it was double (even though it effectively was in early august when they made it. I’ve written back, keen to know if anyone else has any feedback on this.

      • Shoestring says:
        21 Feb21 February 10:18

        life’s too short 🙂

      • S says:
        21 Feb21 February 11:53

        Amex seem unusually stubborn in their definition of 1 Bonvoy point = 1 SPG point, the only exception being the one-off tripling of already earnt SPG points when they were sent to Marriott instead. I was promised 10000 SPG points due to the delays during takeover, and confirmed by multiple agents that 10000 SPG = 30000 Marriott but in they end they only gave 10000 Marriott points despite some back and forth and a threat of ombudsman.

      • Mark2 says:
        21 Feb21 February 13:54

        I cancelled this week and no offer was made. Mind you, an extra point pales into insignificance compared with re-applying in six months time and getting 36,000 + 18,000 MR for referral!

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