Is Ambassador worth $200?

[1958]

I’ve just been offered Ambassador for US$200 (before the price increases in early October).
I reckon that I will stay about 10 nights at IHG hotels during a year – but I normally book on my Corporate rate, which includes breakfast.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Nevermind ongoing stays. Is $200 more or less than you’d save with the free weekend night? Once you’ve answered that, any other benefits are mere cherries on top.

[sturgeon]

Does the room rate change when searching with the ambassador free night offer? Having read about the ambassador scheme it explains how you have to search after entering a promo code or ticking a box.

I’m intrigued about ambassador too. However, if it forces you to pay the most expensive room rate and not the cheapest non refundable rate then it may not be worth it. What’s the best way to find this out and do a dummy search?

Also, does the free weekend night only apply to intercontinental hotels or does it apply to any IHG property?

[strickers]

Fee goes to $225 in October. To find the rate just google ambassador weekend and it will take you to a booking page to try.

[BBbetter]

The ambassador rate is higher than the cheapest flexible rate, but not by much.
Remember it’s second night free, not average.
As hotels are now allowed to get away with not providing benefits and compensate with a handful of points, the value has diminished significantly.

[John]

1958 wrote:

I’ve just been offered Ambassador for US$200 (before the price increases in early October).
I reckon that I will stay about 10 nights at IHG hotels during a year – but I normally book on my Corporate rate, which includes breakfast.

Why did you use the words “I’ve been offered it at $200”? It’s open to anybody at this price, for now.

Ambassador only means anything at Intercontinentals, it is completely disregarded at other IHG hotels.

Breakfast isn’t a benefit of Amb. It’s also unrelated to your corporate rate. If you purchase Amb and book an IC with your corporate rate, you will get breakfast as well as the Amb benefits.

You only wouldn’t be able to use your corporate rate along with the free weekend night.

[1958]

@John – I said that “I have been offered” because IHG sent me an email with the offer. I didn’t search for the deal, it was offered to me.
Hope that this is clear to you.

[BBbetter]

Ambassador also gets you free breakfast and other benefits at Six senses. It’s a very strange benefit – at a smaller premium sub brand instead of providing at it at your flagship brand.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

The way to search is to use this

https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/content/us/en/ambassador/free-weekend-certificate

No codes needed.

Remember to double the non AMB rates that display to get the full comparison as the search results show the nightly rate.

@Sturgeon AMB weekend voucher is only useable at ICs

You can extend your stay using other rates but it will be a separate booking.

The compensation for not being able to upgrade is listed in the schemes T&Cs. Whilst upgrades sometimes don’t happen I’ve not seen widespread evidence thsr hotels are regularly not complying with their obligations.

[Peter T]

It gives you Platinum Status with IHG, contrary to a comment above. I joined for that and gig my monies worth from multiple cheap stays with free drink or points in every stay, plus multiple upgrades.

I’ve just booked my free night. £439 worth. I COULD have bought the room for two nights for £370 pn so the free night paid for itself and I got loads of benefits from Platinum. I’ll pay for it with points which if I manage the same next year will be c £500 of hotel for 40000 points. 👍

[JohnG]

Peter T wrote:

It gives you Platinum Status with IHG, contrary to a comment above. I joined for that and gig my monies worth from multiple cheap stays with free drink or points in every stay, plus multiple upgrades.

I’ve just booked my free night. £439 worth. I COULD have bought the room for two nights for £370 pn so the free night paid for itself and I got loads of benefits from Platinum.

The irony is that Ambassador becomes less valuable if you already have status with IHG. I stopped getting AMB, unless I had a specific stay that would benefit, when I started getting Platinum via stays anyway. If you’re not staying enough to get Platinum anyway then the free drink or a couple of pounds worth of points aren’t likely to justify renewing for.

My experience with AMB vouchers is that almost none of the large savings people claim are calculated in a way that I’d consider accurate. You pay a premium for the AMB rate vs what you’d spend if you’d be happy to book an advanced, railcard, AAA rate; alternatively you can book the stay at the Best Flex rate with Virtuoso benefits including breakfast and credit.

The final straw for me was that a number of the best ICs are rebranding to Regent which isn’t covered by Ambassador so now I just book AMB when I have a specific IC stay I want to do.

[Supergers49]

Ambassador used to work really well for me. At the Carlton Cannes it used to stack with FH&R bookings and Spire. So we would book the lowest category room, get a double upgrade to a sea view room (sometimes a suite), free breakfast, welcome gift, $100 F&B Credit, Free drinks vouchers, 4PM checkout etc.

We would typically use the Weekend Voucher at the Willard, Amstel or Opera for a Suite. As a “cost avoidance” the savings could sometimes be valued at $500-600+. However, in reality were closer to $200 – $300 of real cash savings (e.g., the price we would’ve paid for a room night in those cities).

Combine that with renewal also renewing Spire/Diamond, it was very lucrative for us.

2023/24 was the first year our Ambassador membership didn’t break-even but that was only because we had to cancel our Estoril trip in Feb and couldn’t use the Weekend Voucher. I will probably renew for 2024/25 as we have a couple of IC trips lined up but with my Spire/Diamond disappearing for ’25 and with IHG moving to dynamic pricing for redemptions… it is becoming an ever more marginal product.

[n1368585]

So we booked a 6-night stay at the Intercontinental RAK last year.
As I booked it as a package I was aware I would not be eligible for the IHG points for my stay.

However, I contacted the hotel as soon as I booked to inform them I was an Ambassador member and they upgraded us to the Villa.

I haven’t used the free weekend night so I can’t comment how much value there is in that.

But the upgrade obviously was worth considerably more than the ambassador fee.