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I’ve currently got 2 nights booked at the IC Lisbon for 84K Points, in November on a Sun/Mon night, by which point my Ambassador will have expired and I’ll drop back to Platinum (I think!). So no free breakfast.
If I recall, to qualify for the free weekend night, I need to book the non-refundable rate via IHG? Which is currently £405 for 2 nights, albeit the Sunday night is slightly cheaper at £190.
I’m being offered 15K IHG points if I renew Ambassador.
Assuming that I make no other IHG stays this year, my maths is as follows:
Don’t Renew
– 84K Points
Using HfP’s valuation of 0.4p per point, the total stay “costs” me £336
Renew
– $200 Ambassador renewal fee (-£165)
– £405 for the room, minus £190 free night voucher = -£215
– Plus 15K IHG points for renewing (x 0.4p = +£60 of points)
– Plus approx 10K points for the stay (x 0.4p = +£40 of points)Total stay therefore = £165 Ambassador Fee + £215 room rate minus £100 worth of points = £280
Conclusion
Renewing Ambassador in this instance “saves” me over £50 – am I missing anything? Apart from the obvious fact that if I make any further IHG stays I will also benefit from the higher tier.
You’re missing the €15 credit to spend at the hotel, as well as any value you’d want to put on the guaranteed one category upgrade and 4pm late checkout (and water, I suppose!).
Just to clarify, free breakfast comes from Diamond status, not ambassador.
“If I recall, to qualify for the free weekend night, I need to book the non-refundable rate via IHG? ”
Are you referring to the free weekend night using AMB voucher? Its not a non-refundable rate. You need to book using the dedicated link and the rate will be flagged as AMB rate.Perhaps I have misunderstood your post.
Amb free weekend night is only available Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, not Sunday/Monday night like you are trying to book.
Also, there is a special Amb Weekend rate, which is higher than the basic rate. It is however refundable up to 24 hrs prior.
So for Lisbon IC in November 2023, a non refundable weekend night is about £220 but the Amb rate is £265 per night.
Yes, Ambassador stay would need to be Fri-Sun or Sat-Mon. Extra nights can always be booked with cash or points if you want to stay longer than 2 nights (or via Emyr for extra benefits). The gap between Ambassador and normal flexible pricing is getting bigger and bigger!
But AMB is flexible as well and when you average the one night you do pay for across the two it’s very good value.
I’ve a stay at the end of next week where the average per night will be $ 140 a night. It’s $311 a night with the rail card
Rate.And the AMB rate is cancel by the afternoon before arrival. Whereas with BFR it’s 2 nights and 3 for railcard rate.
Comparing it to a non refundable rate is not the right comparison though.
Ah thanks guys, for some reason I thought that just one of the nights needed to fall on a weekend! Unfortunately in this case, it won’t work as I’m due to fly to Lisbon on a Sunday. Still, will have to consider if there is another weekend trip on the cards where the maths might make sense. If not then I guess these Ambassador promos come round fairly regularly (i.e. the 15K IHG points for signing up) so there’s no real disadvantage in letting it slide this time around but renewing in the future.
I’ve only seen “non-refundable” and “refundable” recently (with different rates for non/members, and the latter can be cancelled up to 4 pm the day before check in.
Happy to be corrected but I believe the Free Weekend Night does work for a Sunday and Monday night stay since I just booked this for Lisbon.
Interesting – just done a dummy booking for early October and the IC Lisbon isn’t letting me use the Ambassador cert for Sun/Mon but IC Estoril IS.
OK, my booking is for Estoril/Cascais
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