Reward Nights vs Inventory

[Aston100]

Hello.
If I were to book 3 or 4 rooms for a week, using points, is this likely to have an immediate affect on the points pricing of the remaining reward inventory for that date range?

I ask because I want to lock in some prices now, but they are (in my opinion) only a little bit above average value (0.55p value per point), so would hope they fall at some point in the near future when I would then cancel and rebook.
However, I’m wondering if the mere act of booking 3 or 4 rooms on points will cause the points price to go up, meaning I am unlikely to see a better price after this. Will I be engineering my own problem here?

Thanks.

EDIT: I don’t think this is brand or location specific, so a general question regarding IHG reward nights.
EDIT 2: I do actually need all 3 (maybe 4) rooms. This isn’t some attempt to game the system.

• This topic was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Some HfPers did this as an experiment in April last year at the time that IHG first rolled out its new approach to redemption pricing.: All booked HIX Edinburgh Leith Waterfront as far out as possible on the assumption that occupancy will be 0% – 25,000 points on the 24th-25th of March 2022. Prices didn’t change at all in that experiment … see the comments in this thread for more @Aston100 !
https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/04/09/how-does-the-new-ihg-rewards-pricing-vary-at-the-same-hotel/comment-page-2/#comments

[Aston100]

Hello, I recall that thread. I made a number of comments in it myself in regards to booking a stay as a number of 1 nighters and joining them up shortly before check-in date.
However, I can’t see any mention of the HIX experiment? Am I not looking properly, or were you perhaps thinking of something on Flyertalk?

[meta]

I booked a room at Lima Airport and it immediately then went up by 1k point. Same room type as well.

[Peter K]

Just to point out that 0.55p per IHG point is very good value. I’d be very happy to lock a redemption in at that value!

[Aston100]

Peter K wrote:

Just to point out that 0.55p per IHG point is very good value. I’d be very happy to lock a redemption in at that value!

Well Peter, I hope you are right!
I’ve just used up the bulk of my points for 3 * 7 nights worth of reward bookings.
Thanks for the encouragement.

(Somewhere in the distance, Mr X feels a disturbance in the force and writes another angry rant to Creation).

[NorthernLass]

He’ll be smelling blood now, @Aston100 🦈
I only go for 0.8p and above – like my BOS stay next week.

[Aston100]

So in answer to my own question, there are now no more reward nights available on that date range, so I’ll never know if the rewards pricing would have been impacted.
Turns out the value was 0.598p per point (I miscalculated). I’m comfortable with this.

[Aston100]

Does anyone know if there is an IHG policy for standard number / percentage of rooms to be set aside for reward bookings?
I am surprised that booking 3 rooms has used up the inventory (on those dates) at this particular IHG property.

[ChrisC]

Did you check for each individual night or for the entire stay? If there are no reward nights for even justone night it will show as none available for the entire search period.

[Aston100]

ChrisC wrote:

Did you check for each individual night or for the entire stay? If there are no reward nights for even justone night it will show as none available for the entire search period.

Very good point.
So I checked each individual night from my 7 nights and there is no availability on points. The night before and the night after do show availability though.
So I would conclude that there were precisely 3 rooms left on those 7 nights and I booked them all.
Doesn’t tell me if there are only ever 3 rooms available each night as the norm.