Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

(DEAL DEAD) BE QUICK: Most IHG hotels showing at half price or less for points!

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

I am typing this on Sunday afternoon – it’s not clear how long this deal will last.

EDIT: It died around 8pm on Sunday

Most IHG hotels globally, for all dates (albeit not the very short term), are currently bookable for roughly half – or less – the usual number of points.

The pricing appears to be:

  • Kimpton – 45,000 points
  • Regent / InterContinental – 35,000 points to 45,000 points
  • Hotel Indigo – 30,000 points
  • Crowne Plaza – 25,000 points
  • Holiday Inn / Holiday Inn Express – 20,000 points

I just booked Kimpton Paris and the new Kimpton Mallorca for 45,000 points and InterContinental London for 40,000 points.

The Kimpton Paris, for the date I wanted, was over 100,000 points per night when I looked a week or so ago, with a €660 cash rate.

It isn’t clear if not all hotels are taking part or only certain dates are included. I can’t get the InterContinental Amstel for when I need to be in Amsterdam, for example, but I know others have booked it.

You can even lock in the Maldives etc at hugely discounted rates.

This could be a mistake but it could be an unprecedented flash sale which is due to be announced tomorrow. Mr & Mrs Smith hotels are not included, which leads me to believe that this is a deliberate sale of some sort. Regardless, it is worth making some speculative bookings – remember that all reward nights can be cancelled.

Should you buy points?

Today (Sunday) is the last day to get a 100% bonus if you buy IHG points. You can buy here.

People who have done it say that they are posting immediately. I am not guaranteeing this to you but it is working for others.

With the bonus you’re paying around 0.4p per point so, for example, my Kimpton Paris stay – which is €660 for cash – would need £180-worth of purchased points.

The ‘buy points’ page is here if you choose to risk it.


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 (241)

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

  • Ben says:

    Just bought some points 20 mins ago and they haven’t posted yet… fingers crossed

  • PG says:

    Got an error saying contact customer services on the payment page but points have been deducted. Is that normal?

    • meta says:

      I had the same just occurring as well. Happened to me before once a few months ago, so will be contacting IHG CS to return the points for non generated reservation.

      • PG says:

        I couldn’t get through to CS in time.. kept getting cut off. I guess I’m stuck with a load of purchased points now 🙁

    • BJ says:

      No error messages, points properly deducted, and stays properly recorded on my app. However, so far I have not received any emails confirming any stays. Hoping for the best but suspecting the worst is more likely.

      • Miles says:

        Booked a stay in London and no confirmation email either.

        • BJ says:

          Is that your name, or your cat’s name? Just wondering, if I’m making no sense just ignore me 🙂

      • Lady London says:

        just 2-3 hours to come through BJ

        prices what they were before IHG got silly with its pricing model Think I was booking at these prices around 2018 or so, possibly 2019.

        Just a shame IHG points earning opportunities dried up. Mine are close to zero now. Even Accor is looking attractive compared to IHG these days.

        • BJ says:

          Thanks @LL, I’ll keep a look out. After this I’m down to my last 10k points, I didn’t want to buy more. However, I’m in Thailand in November and have a cunning plan to retain Diamond, and hopefully a stack of points given the right promo comes along. I thought you had washed your hands of Accor. I’m seriously contemplating Ibis Ginza in Tokyo, it’s an excellent location and only €40/night. The usual spartan matchbox Tokyo rooms but we’ll hardly be in hotel anyway (if we get there).

          • Lady London says:

            Thanks for the tip on Tokyo BJ I would love to go back to Japan, but as you know I’m cheap. Yeah IHG got so bad with dynamic pricing I waa actually beginning to consider giving Accor money again 🙂

            To retain Diamond look late in comments on here Anna and BB not the first time heard by a long chalk, certain it does the job (I think meta and some others mentioned 2 or 3 days ago), but with your extensive travel plans I would lock in sooner than later perhaps from the US end if you can, in case of stoppage

  • Mouse says:

    Awesome, thanks Rob! Worked totally smoothly. You just saved me literally thousands of pounds!

  • BJ says:

    Thanks so much HfP , just been on a shopping spree from Amsterdam to Hong Kong. Some rich pickings but the cherry on top … a €5400 + tax 4 night stay for 120k points, let’s see if it’s honoured 🙂

    • BJ says:

      Hotel must have very high occupancy given the rates so they should presumably be paid market rate by IHG.

    • Lady London says:

      my namesake LL has confimed it’s legit. Nothing lower than 20,000. So the value is IC and Indigo around 40,000, Kimpton sticking around 45,000

      • BJ says:

        Good to hear 🙂 The cherry … Indigo Barcelona, nothing less than €950ish weekend I wanted. All roons including suites were 30k. I took King Premier which is apparently the top and was €1350ish plus tax per night. I didn’t go looking for best value, I don’t believe in that, just picked places I want to go.

    • Harry T says:

      Will I be seeing you at the Amstel then? 🙂

      • BJ says:

        Week after Easter Harry, No doubt you booked too as I think it’s your favourite? Unbelievably Easter weekend was available, I was tempted but then figured airports were better avoided then.

        • Harry T says:

          I actually booked Easter, so hopefully it won’t be to busy at the airports. Shame I will just be missing you. It’s a lovely hotel, we stayed in April on points (40k from the last “sale”) and they randomly gave us a full suite, which was surprising as I’m only IHG Plat Amb. Hope you enjoy your stay.

  • meta says:

    Rebooked IC Lyon for bank holiday, saved 40k.
    Booked IC Rome for July next year (cash price 800 euros), effectively free stay because of compensation they gave me for canceling my reservation earlier this year. But now they’ve taken twice the points, so will need to contact them to refund one set of points…Not the first time when doing it via the app.

    • Alex W says:

      What compensation did you get? I got nada!

      • meta says:

        I had two nights booked. Wrote a letter to the CEO that I expect them to honour reservation either by moving me to the a similar luxury hotel in the same area of Rome (they suggested Indigo which was too far and only if it had availability) or I am happy to be move the reservation for later at the same price. Otherwise, I’d told them we will need to go to a court in Georgia, US (my friend there is a litigator). We agreed then that since there is no opening date in sight that appropriate compensation would be return of used points plus the difference in points of the current rate at a random date in November which worked out at 85k extra. Hence why I am up again save for the fact that they deducted twice.

        • Alex W says:

          Nice work. I had booked 14 nights so I wonder how much I could wring them for!!

    • BJ says:

      I left my existing reservations alone although I was fairly tempted to do Kimpton Shinjuku. However, rereading the Japan forum thread this morning spooked me so I didn’t want to throw any points that way. Was funny to see all my Bangkok stays increase in price; I also failed to improve on London stay next month.

  • MQ says:

    Checked existing bookings for dublin and HK, and others I’m been eyeing, see no difference in points needed anywhere. Wondering why? Is this geo restricted (users) or something?

    • BJ says:

      I saw falls across the board for HK next July. I ignored IC and Indigo for HI Golden Mile though, I just prefer the vibe around Nathan Road.

  • swifty says:

    Thanks so much booked ny for fall and also for spring. Lucky me! All availability seems gone for the others I wanted

  • Roy says:

    I have a stay booked where I got the last reward nights for the days I want to go. It looks like it’s now been dropped in price to the 45k points rate. If I cancel, will the dates go back in immediately to rebook ? Or am I taking too much of a chance at loosing the rooms ?

    Or can I call IHG and ask for the difference back ?

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.