IHG credit card £2k free night for me!

[Pointofview]

Just booked what I think could possibly be the best redemption in the Uk.
I used a free IHG night certificate from the now defunct IHG credit card and managed to book the Prince of Wales suite at Cliveden House with Breakfast and a bottle of LP champagne thrown in.
The usual price would be £1895 and other dates are still available if anyone has a free night certificate.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Outrageous redemption! Well done

[NorthernLass]

Gar! Wasted our last one at the Kimpton Seafire where the cash price was a measly £700.

[Pointofview]

NorthernLass wrote:

Gar! Wasted our last one at the Kimpton Seafire where the cash price was a measly £700.

£700 wasn’t too shabby a year or two ago, now its the average nightly rate of most 4-stars in London 😂

[NorthernLass]

Or 3 nights at a 3* Manchester airport hotel.

[elguiri]

Was that this year? I was checking a few months ago and couldn’t see a single weekend night this year in anything more than whatever they call a supreme double…

[Pointofview]

elguiri wrote:

Was that this year? I was checking a few months ago and couldn’t see a single weekend night this year in anything more than whatever they call a supreme double…

I booked it yesterday and there is still plenty of dates available up to Christmas

[J]

Great find.

Just to save others the time, I’ve searched up to the end of August 2023 and the best I found was the Junior Suite this Saturday (22/10)

[Rob]

This is an IT quirk linked to when the certificates were reissued, but I know a number of readers who have booked this. Can only be done with a credit card night, not points.

[elguiri]

Rob Burgess wrote:

This is an IT quirk linked to when the certificates were reissued, but I know a number of readers who have booked this. Can only be done with a credit card night, not points.

When you say reissued, is that book stay with free CC night, cancel and then get CC night back again, or something else?

[J]

Incredible, I’ve just booked for my family. Thank you Pointofview, (and to Rob, for the nudge to look a bit deeper!)

[damboy5]

Thanks a lot Pointofview, I have also booked this for a night in November. Can anyone advise what’s the best room to book, is it the Prince of Wales suite?

[damboy5]

Hi Pointofview – Please advise how did you get the website to include the complimentary breakfast and LP champagne, I can’t see that as an option on the IHG booking website with the credit card night. Any advice much appreciated on this as that does make the deal even better!!

[elguiri]

Recently come back from using my IHG black CC reward night at Clivedon – got the Schrewsbury Suite. Lovely view across the back garden and across the valley, very impressive.

A few things to note:
– Half bottle of LP champagne, pretty box of 6 truffles, 3 packs of nuts/trail-mix were all provided in the room.
– Breakfast buffet is impressive, but costs £20pp. You can have a hot dish made for you as well as the buffet for £25pp total, but we weren’t impressed at all by the omelettes, should have stayed with just buffet.
– At checkout there was a ‘discretionary service charge’ of 5% of original room value added. When I queried, I was told it was for the cleaners etc.
– At checkout we were asked if NT members, and were accordingly not charged the £18pp? additional fee.
– Although the bedroom and lounge area were impressive, the bed was so soft, it felt like it was still the original mattress, so didn’t sleep much at all.
– The outdoor pool is heated (but feels cool if not moving about in it)

[NorthernLass]

They charge £2k per night but expect guests to pay extra for having the rooms cleaned? I do believe in rewarding good service but this isn’t the US where it’s generally accepted that you’ll be making up the staff wages …

[alig4th]

We’ve got the Inchiquin Suite for the middle of next year, so thanks for some of this heads-up.

Might be worth getting NT family membership to save paying this fee, then we can use it elsewhere.

And as NorthernLass says, if I want to tip the cleaning staff I will. Any “discretionary” attempt to charge will be politely rebuffed.

I’ve heard varying comments about breakfast being charged… I assume as a Smith property that Diamond status (breakfast for two) isn’t recognised so was expecting to pay; let’s see.

Also, any suggestion the Butler’s Pantry was open/available/included?

[elguiri]

alig4th wrote:

We’ve got the Inchiquin Suite for the middle of next year, so thanks for some of this heads-up.

Might be worth getting NT family membership to save paying this fee, then we can use it elsewhere.

And as NorthernLass says, if I want to tip the cleaning staff I will. Any “discretionary” attempt to charge will be politely rebuffed.

I’ve heard varying comments about breakfast being charged… I assume as a Smith property that Diamond status (breakfast for two) isn’t recognised so was expecting to pay; let’s see.

Also, any suggestion the Butler’s Pantry was open/available/included?

Nobody mentioned the Butlers pantry to us (and I didn’t ask about it).

[Lady London]

…And will this suite at Cliveden be the free night from Creation that might appear in a claim or two? (I do hope they’re reading this.)

[shilly]

damboy5 wrote:

Thanks a lot Pointofview, I have also booked this for a night in November. Can anyone advise what’s the best room to book, is it the Prince of Wales suite?

The Lady Astor suite is the best room in Cliveden and can take up to 60 people for a wedding if that’s for you but other room or suites are better if you are bringing family and need 2 beds. The butlers pantry is open but only available if it’s in your room description as I guess some rooms are too far from where it is in the main house. It’s on the first floor.

@damboy5 the extras mentioned ie champagne and chocolates are part of the Mr & Mrs Smith program so you will get those, breakfast is not included but you may get lucky as we did.

[Paul B]

Great redemption, never even knew these certs could be redeemed at Mr & Mrs Smith hotels, wastesd mine at the IC PL recently.

[Rob]

Paul B wrote:

Great redemption, never even knew these certs could be redeemed at Mr & Mrs Smith hotels, wastesd mine at the IC PL recently.

They can’t.

However, there was an error a while back when certifictes were issued wrongly (set up to insist on staying by expiry date, instead of just booking).

When IHG fixed this with new certificates, they accidentally removed all restrictions on how they could be used.

[ECR]

Rob Burgess wrote:

However, there was an error a while back when certifictes were issued wrongly (set up to insist on staying by expiry date, instead of just booking).

When IHG fixed this with new certificates, they accidentally removed all restrictions on how they could be used.

I have just tried to use a Creation IHG premium credit card free night certificate which I received in July 2022 to book a hotel for September 2023, however, it is saying it is not valid and will only allow me to select dates between July 2022 and July 2023.

In the HfP article in 2021 IHG said “We will update all impacted active anniversary night certificates to remove the stay date rule and ensure that all certificates awarded going forward will not have the book and stay date rule.”.

I wonder is this another error or have they changed the rules to make the certificate less useful.

[alig4th]

Sorry if this is unhelpfully vague, but I remember having an issue similar to this previously.

When trying to book further out than the expiry date via one route it didn’t work, but via another it did

I THINK the different routes were;
– in the app, selecting the voucher and my dates then looking at a property (whether it says it had availability or not) would take me to a calendar that only went up to my expiry date.

– Looking on desktop version, going to my account, selecting the voucher and my dates (past the expiry), clicking on an available property it went straight though to booking.
– But if I looked at a second property or clicked out in any way, it went to the calendar to the expiry only.

So if I’m remembering it all correctly, just use desktop (not app), and if you change anything (date/location), log out and log back in before your second search or it will default to expiry-only

[sman9]

Last June I redeemed at Chiltern Firehouse (Mr & Mrs Smith) staying in the Firehouse Loft room, which had a separate lounge (with working fireplace). At check-out I saw what they billed IHG and it was £1,500! Great redemption!

[TopTourist]

Could someone remind me please, is the certificate issued on the anniversary date of opening the account or when the £10k has been spent?