REGISTER NOW: IHG One Rewards launches its new Summer bonus points offer

IHG One Rewards has announced a new global promotion following a fallow few weeks.

You need to register here. A bit of thinking is involved because you need to choose between TWO different options.

IHG One Rewards is the loyalty scheme covering InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo among other brands.

How does IHG’s new bonus points promotion work?

The offer runs from 6th June to 31st August.

You must register in advance via this link. Registration is now open.

You can learn more about IHG One Rewards in our overview article here.

What will you earn?

It’s up to you, interestingly:

As you can see from the image above, you can choose from two options:

• 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights or

• 10,000 bonus points for every four cash nights

Once you’ve made your decision, you cannot change it.

Reward stays do not count.

Existing bookings DO count so there is no need to rebook anything.  Only one room per stay counts towards the offer, so if you are booking multiple rooms you should put each in a different name.

Which option is best?

For those who do a lot of hotel stays, this isn’t a tricky choice. You are substantially better off with ‘10,000 points for every four nights’ rather than ‘2,000 points for every two nights’.

Let’s say you ended up with seven nights, and on 31st August you were kicking yourself for not triggering the 8th night. You would still be better off than if you’d chosen ‘2,000 points for two nights’, as seven nights earns 6,000 points under the first option and 10,000 points under the 2nd.

The only people who should choose ‘2,000 points for every two nights’ are those who are fairly confident they will only complete two or three paid nights during the period from 6th June to 31st August.

Even then …. if you were confident of doing three nights, you might be tempted to register for ‘10,000 points every four nights’ on the basis that something is likely to come up. You are only gambling 2,000 points and could potentially gain an extra 6,000.

What is the bonus worth?

The standard earning rate in IHG One Rewards is 10 points per US$1 (80p) excluding taxes.  I value an IHG One Rewards point at 0.4p although you can often do better, which means your base return is 4p per 80p spent, ie 5.0%.

Of course, most HfP readers will have some sort of IHG One Rewards status.  This comes with a status bonus (applies to base points only):

• 20% bonus for Silver Elite
• 40% bonus for Gold Elite
• 60% bonus for Platinum Elite
• 100% bonus for Diamond Elite

Under this offer, and assuming you do an exact multiple of two or four nights:

• you get an extra 1,000 points (£4) per night with the ‘2,000 points for every two nights’ offer

• you get an extra 2,500 points (£10) per night with the ‘10,000 points for every four nights’ offer

This means that the offer is heavily geared towards people doing low value stays at, say, Holiday Inn Express-style hotels. There isn’t much here for anyone planning a week at InterContinental Maldives.

Conclusion

If you can do four nights, or a multiple of four, over the 11 weeks that this promotion is running, you will do OK. Bonus points worth £10 per night are not to be sniffed at, especially on low cost stays.

Click here to register for IHG’s new bonus points promotion.  It kicks in for stays from 6th June but you can register today.