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Some ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ hotels appear on ihg.com …. Cliveden, Coworth Park, Chewton Glen

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One of the more surprising hotel tie-ups of 2019 was the announcement that IHG has secured a tie-up with hotel marketing group Mr & Mrs Smith.

Our full article on the IHG / Mr & Mrs Smith partnership is here.

We have seen similar deals with other hotels groups, such as Design Hotels & Marriott and Small Luxury Hotels of the World & Hyatt, but this one feels different.  Mr & Mrs Smith has a substantially looser relationship with the hotels it partners with, and properties do not tout it in the same way that a hotel promotes its membership of Small Luxury Hotels.

Mr & Mrs Smith hotels are on the way ….

Mr & Mrs Smith hotels have started to appear on ihg.com, although they are not bookable yet.

Take a look at the screenshot below.  I mean …. Chewton Glen is there.  If you are able to book Chewton Glen – one of, to some people THE, best hotels in the UK – for 70,000 IHG Rewards Club points then you’re laughing.

We have been to Chewton Glen numerous times, always at disproportionately high expense, so the potential to visit on points is fantastic. 

Whilst it sells itself as a ‘country’ hotel it is actually a 10-minute walk from an impressive and quiet beach.

Chewton Glen Mr & Mrs Smith IHG

Other Hampshire / Dorset options include The Pig, The Pig In The Wall, The Pig On The Beach, The Green House, Southampton Hampton Harbour, The Grosvenor Arms and The Beckford Arms.  ‘The Pig’ chain has excellent feedback.

Here are a couple of other options.  Take a look at a search for the Maidenhead area.  Cliveden is there (photo below), and Coworth Park.

I admit that Cliveden, whilst obviously ludicrously impressive as a building, is still a little below the top tier of UK country hotels – although it is much improved since the team behind Chewton Glen bought the lease.  Coworth Park, however, is the real deal.  It is owned by Dorchester Group and only opened a few years ago.

In total, over 500 Mr & Mrs Smith hotels are being added to ihg.com.  There will be some fantastic redemption options opening up across Europe.

You will also be able to book these hotels for cash via IHG.  It isn’t yet clear what you will get in terms of points, elite credit and benefits, however.  The lesson from Hyatt’s addition of Small Luxury Hotels to its ‘system’ is that pricing is often not competitive with what the hotels offer on their own websites, although the extra benefits sometimes outweigh the difference.

Unless the points pricing is (literally) off the chart, IHG Rewards Club is going to be substantially more interesting for UK members in 2020 …..

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.

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IHG One Rewards

Comments (69)

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

  • christian kemp says:
    17 Dec17 December 08:43

    Rob do you think the credit card free night will be usable on Mr and Mrs Smith hotels or is it hard to say?

    • Rob says:
      17 Dec17 December 09:27

      Almost certainly not. IHG’s own hotels must, under their franchise contract, offer 5% of rooms for redemption which means it doesn’t cost IHG much – unless the hotel is full – to give you a free night. All Smith redemptions will cost IHG cold hard cash. They are only doing this to bulk up their luxury portfolio to encourage you to spend more money in its standard hotels.

  • Craig says:
    17 Dec17 December 10:32

    I’ve probably missed it somewhere but is there a list of the 500 properties that will be loaded?

  • Miguel says:
    17 Dec17 December 11:39

    I see the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green is a Mr and Mrs Smith listed on IHG as coming soon. This is a Design Hotel currently under Marriott Bonvoy. The missus stays there quite often with work. Wonder how this will pan out – surely not bookable under both schemes? Maybe just a switch of reward schemes.

    The Mr and Mrs Smith link up makes IHG much more appealing but as ever, the devil will be in the detail.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      17 Dec17 December 15:53

      I’ll be interested to know how the scheme works. I suspect the hotel just treats you as if you are booking via Mr & Mrs Smith and IHG points will only be on the room spend like Hyatt/SLH.

      Burn will be set at a high points number for all properties and IHG pay Mr & Mrs Smith a set amount per hotel.

  • Lady London says:
    17 Dec17 December 14:20

    Very OT for those looking for country weekends in non points earning places that are out of the ordinary I have used Alastair Sawday’s guides for years. Reliable but you must ‘read between the lines’. Have also occasionally used for business and really hit the spot when I needed to book visiting colleagues in the odd London one. (Again read between the lines.). Found some marvellous places especially for winter weekends out of London.

    • Stu_N says:
      17 Dec17 December 17:39

      +1 for Sawdays, very reliable once you understand their way of writing about places.

      • Lyn says:
        17 Dec17 December 19:56

        Another +1 for Sawdays, including their B&Bs in rural locations in Italy and France.

    • Lady London says:
      17 Dec17 December 20:13

      Apparently their pub guide is really excellent too. I’ve not had the leisure (or the companion) to thrash it but wish I did.

  • Phil says:
    18 Dec18 December 08:11

    Any idea when these will actually be available to book?

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