TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
The dawn of a new year usually sees a rise in the number of people planning and booking travel, and with IHG currently running a winter sale for stays in Europe, there’s a good chance that quite a few people are considering an IHG property for their next trip.
What a lot of these people may not know is that they can currently get up to 12% cash back on their new booking.
TopCashback is offering up to 12% back
If you’re considering making an IHG booking, make sure you head over to TopCashback first and click through one of the links that you’ll find there as that should net you a rebate of up to 12% on select (not all!) bookings.
Get 12% cash back at the following brands:
- EVEN Hotels
- AVID
Get 10% cash back at the following brands:
- Candlewood Suites
- Crowne Plaza
- Holiday Inn
- Holiday Inn Express
- Hotel Indigo
- InterContinental
- StayBridge Suites
Get 6% back on most other IHG bookings (see exclusions below).
Keep in mind the following:
- All bookings must be made through IHG’s US website
- Stays at properties in Israel will not earn cash back.
- Kimpton (properties in North and South America), Mr. and Mrs. Smith properties, Six Senses properties, and Army Hotels will not earn cashback.
- The following non-commissionable rates will not earn cashback:
- Rooms offered at specialty or pre-negotiated rates (including discounted group rates)
- Rooms rates in which the customer is required to be affiliated with or employed by a particular company or organization in order to receive the rate
- IHG Friends & Family or Employee discount rates
- IHG Rewards Club bookings (including points+cash bookings)
- Any changes made to a reservation after a booking has been made will result in the cashback being declined.
- IHG points purchases will not earn cashback
- Bookings made using a promotional/coupon code not posted and approved by TopCashback will not earn cashback.
Link to the TopCashback portal
Rakuten is offering 10% back (other brands included)
For anyone who prefers earning Amex membership rewards points rather than cash back or who is wanting to make a booking at an IHG brand that doesn’t earn at least 10% back through TopCashback, using Rakuten will be a better option.
Currently, Rakuten is offering 10% cash back on bookings made with most IHG brands and that cash back can be taken in the form of Amex membership rewards points (1% cash back = 1 point) which some people will find more valuable.
These are the cash back offers currently on offer through Rakuten:
- Avid hotels 10.0%
- Candlewood Suites 10.0%
- Crowne Plaza 10.0%
- EVEN Hotels 10.0%
- Holiday Inn 10.0%
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations 10.0%
- Holiday Inn Express 10.0%
- Hotel Indigo 10.0%
- Iberostar Beachfront Resorts 10.0%
- InterContinental Hotels and Resorts 10.0%
- StayBridge Suites 10.0%
As you can see, there’s a lot of overlap between the brands included in the TopCashback deal and the Rakuten deal, bu there are a couple of brands at which Rakuten is offering the better cash back rate.
Also, if you value Amex membership rewards points at more than 1 cent each (as most people do) and don’t mind earning points instead of cash back, the Rakuten deal is the one to go for.
Why these are good deals
Not only will clicking through the TopCashback portal or through Rakuten earn you up to 12% cash back on eligible IHG bookings, but you’ll also continue to earn IHG Rewards points and credits towards IHG elite status as well as enjoying any elite status benefits to which you may be entitled.
The portal links take you directly to the IHG website, so all stays booked in this way are treated like any other booking made directly with IHG – there’s no downside to using the portal.
Don’t forget that you can also boost your earnings further by booking using the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card.
This card comes with a $99 annual fee, a good welcome bonus, and it offers an earning rate of up to 26 points/dollar on IHG spending (when you take into account the bonus points earned for having IHG One Rewards Platinum status that the card offers).
Tips
There’s no trick to earning the cashback on offer (you just click through to the IHG site using the link on TopCashback), but there are a few things you should keep in mind:
Firstly, before making any purchases, make sure you check what Amex offers are available in your American Express account, and make sure that you load your Amex card with any relevant offers before using that card for your booking.
Secondly, before making any purchases, make sure you check what offers Chase has targeted you for and make sure that you load your Chase card with any relevant offers before using that card for your booking.
Thirdly, if you don’t have any relevant Amex or Chase offers that you can use, make sure you use a credit card that will reward you well.
As I’ve already pointed out, the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card will help earn you up to 26 IHG Rewards Points per dollar on most IHG bookings or you could choose to use the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card which will both earn you 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on all eligible travel spending.
Finally, don’t forget to sign up for IHG’s latest promotion and, if you’re planning on booking a European property, make sure you check out IHG’s European sale.
Be careful
Before you book, make sure you read through the terms and conditions carefully to check that you understand what may cause the cashback to be declined.
Also, as always, I suggest taking screenshots of any cashback process you engage in (regardless of the portal you’re using) to make sure you have ample evidence of the amounts due to you should any issues arise with the cashback being posted.
Bottom line
This could be a very easy 10 – 12% cashback for anyone looking to book a stay at select IHG brands so with registration for IHG’s January promotion now open and with a European sale running, this could be a good time to follow up on any bookings that you’ve been considering… just keep them flexible in case a better deal is just around the corner.
