IHG experiments with opening all room categories for points

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• Jeff says:

  9 Apr9 April 05:55

  There have always been some IHG hotels at which you could book more than just the basic room on points, but if it’s being extended, this sounds like a positive – especially if it opens the door for so-called intern rates.

  • LittleNick says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:26

    We’ve not had a nice intern rate for a while ☹️

• Retron says:

  9 Apr9 April 06:34

  Hmm, not sure this is a win, although more options are usually a good thing.

  The way to do it at the moment is book the (usually basic) room on points, then email the hotel directly for upgrade pricing. They often have discounts if you do it this way and I’ve scored some absolute bargains over the past few years, including an upgrade to a junior suite at an InterContinental for around £40 extra a day, when the normal cash difference was well over £100 a night.

  I suspect the key is that by approaching the hotel and offering cold, hard cash, it offsets the meagre payment they get for a plain points redemption.

  • LittleNick says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:28

    It’s funny how points prices are correlated to the cash price but the payment from IHG to said hotel isn’t correlated to the cash price. IHG are having and eating their cake

• jj says:

  9 Apr9 April 06:35

  Much needed. Many hotels have so-called ‘cosy’ rooms as the smallest category – that are fine for one night on a business trip but useless for a few days with your partner.

• Bagoly says:

  9 Apr9 April 07:02

  If redemption is purely 0.x pence per point, why would the amount that IHG pays the hotel be peanuts? I would have thought the whole point for IHG and the Owners is that redemption being the cash value paid in points means they would pay some the hotel some proportion (?70%) of the cash rate.

  • Rob says:

    9 Apr9 April 07:53

    Absolutely not.

    Even Accor doesn’t do this. Whilst Accor redeems your points at a fixed 0.2 cents, hotels get a peanuts flat fee unless they are full.

    IHG’s franchise agreement says that 5% of rooms per night must be given up for free for rewards, and in return the hotel gets a nominal fee towards cleaning, in-room freebies etc between $25 and (for luxury places where you may be getting a nice welcome gift etc) $200.

    • Dubious says:

      10 Apr10 April 04:00

      Is the low / high occupancy determined at the time of redemption, or at the time of stay?
      e.g. if the hotel is low occupancy when the booking is made, but subsequently becomes full occupancy on the day of check-in?

      • Rob says:

        10 Apr10 April 07:59

        Check-in.

        Marriott sued a hotel once (the documents went public) which got employees to check-in when the hotel was approaching 95% occupancy so that all the redemptions that night would pay at the full room rate.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:03

    Because it is a “peanut” rate. And this is what the hotel managers and owners have signed up for when they join IHG.

    Several of us have been charged in error for the IHG reimbursement for a points stay that reveals this “peanuts” rate. The HIX Wall Street it was something like $ 30 when it happened to me last year.

    I’ve seen similar amounts at other hotels when I’ve been given qualifying and bonus points for this even though I didn’t pay any cash at all.

    It’s only when occupancy is very high that hotels get anything approaching the cash rate for the room.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  9 Apr9 April 07:52

  Not a new thing. In both 2023 and 2024 I was able to book a balcony room at the HI in Brighton for the same points as one of their basic rooms.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:05

    Though any expansion of it is a good thing and not to be sniffed at.

    • NorthernLass says:

      9 Apr9 April 08:36

      Indeed. I’ve seen a few places in he past with all rooms available, I think hotels occasionally do this by accident. Remember when the Indigo Bath opened and people were booking suites for 30k per night?!

• r* says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:19

  The problem is that ihg redemptions are now so stupidly over priced that its largely irrelevant.

  Who is paying 180k points for 1 night? Thats like $900 worth of bought points (when on offer) or $9000 spent at hotels to get points.

  • LittleNick says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:31

    Agreed, ridiculous amount of stays/spend required to build points and then redemptions are high now

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Apr9 April 09:54

    People who absolutely must stay at that hotel on that particular day.

• Andrew. says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:29

  It’s tended to vary per hotel.

  I was never interested in the grade of room, I just wanted to be able to book a room with two beds.

  • NorthernLass says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:39

    Whatever people say about the USA, you can generally get a room with 2 double beds, or a sofa bed, as a standard redemption. I stayed several nights in different properties from the recent points “sale” last month, 3 of which were suites.

    • Paul says:

      9 Apr9 April 09:07

      Indeed that is true and when with family and young kids was perfect.
      But the issues today with the USA extend beyond the 2 queen beds. A colleague has just spent two months touring route 66 in an RV and was advised to have a Trump bumper sticker to avoid any hassle in the backwaters of the USA where whole towns have the same family name.
      Between that and the interrogation and random incarceration of tourists on arrival simply because they choose a circuitous route to save some money means it will be a long time before I venture near the disunited states

      • Matarredonda says:

        9 Apr9 April 09:38

        Couldn’t agree more.
        Suspect BA and Virgin who have bet heavily on the US market are looking anxiously at forward bookings.

      • NorthernLass says:

        9 Apr9 April 11:42

        It’s often more complicated than that, if you dig a little deeper. I’ve seen 3 headlines about this kind of thing recently, and on further examination, one case turned out to have never been granted leave to stay, another had a drug conviction, and one had an outstanding warrant. These things always carry the risk of being picked up by US immigration.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          9 Apr9 April 16:33

          But people don’t dig that far. And I’ve seen more than 3 headlines on this and most cases don’t even reach the media.

          Most people will see the headlines and be put off from visiting the US. And that’s before the economy tanks.

          Bookings from Canadian visitors have cratered and some countries have issued ‘be careful’ alerts to their populace about visiting the US.

          There really is a hostile environment there now.

• JohnTh says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:43

  Looks a lot better than Hilton premium rooms which are often 10x basic room rate or more..

  • Rob says:

    9 Apr9 April 09:47

    That is nothing to do with this.

    Hilton premium rooms involve Hilton paying the full cash rate to the hotel, not $25, hence the poor rate.

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