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In a not entirely unsurprising move IHG Rewards Club has put through a series of changes to the number of IHG Rewards Points guest will need to redeem for free nights. Hilton was the last hotel group to tweak the number of points needed for an award night right at the end of 2015 so IHG is the first of the big chains to blink in 2016.
Recent changes to IHG Rewards has seen the loyalty program keep the number of points needed for stays at their more aspirational properties the same – but they’ve put that right this time.
UPDATE 8 May 2016: The full list of properties where award nights will cost you more has now been taken down by IHG but the big/more important changes are discussed below.
The changes are effective for bookings made on or after 17 February 2016. Bookings made before 17 February are not affected even if the stay occurs after that date.
In total 400 IHG hotels will see their award night points requirement change by between 5,000 and 10,000 points.
The good news is that some properties will be coming down in price while the bad news is that the a lot of the more popular hotels for high-end redemptions will be going up.
IHG Rewards 60,000 Points/Night Properties
It’s not surprising to see the list of IHG hotels that will now cost 60,000 IHG Rewards Points per night dominated by InterContinental Hotels:
And it’s especially unsurprising to see the two Bora Bora properties in that list.
InterContinental Bora Bora
I realise that this is a personal point of view, but I’m not sure there are many worse redemptions in the IHG portfolio than the two Las Vegas properties that now cost 60,000 points/night. Considering the great prices that are available, on a regular basis, for anyone paying cash I just can’t see how anyone spending their IHG Rewards balance in Vegas is getting good value.
Anyway, back to the points changes….
IHG Rewards 55,000 Points/Night Properties
Only 5 hotels are moving up to 55,000 points per night and, again unsurprisingly, they’re all InterContinental properties:
InterContinental De La Ville – Rome
USA Increases
In the US, 26 properties are increasing in cost by 10,000 points and, outside of the ones already mentioned in the categories above, they are as follows (click to enlarge):
Those are some serious points/night percentage increases! It looks like airport hotels and the Hotel Indigo brand have been hit the hardest.
IHG Rewards – Global Points Decreases
I’d love to announce that I have some good news here but, as yet, I haven’t found too much:
- 200 properties will cost less from 17 February 2017 – I guest that’s not too bad.
- 12 properties will cost 10,000 points less – all are in China and all are Holiday Inn Express properties
- 8 InterContinental Hotels will cost 5,000 points less per night – none are particularly exciting:
- Of the 200 properties that see points requirements decreasing, 47 are in China (24%) and 62 are in the US (31%).
Bottom Line
There isn’t very much to like about these changes. A lot of the aspirational properties are now 10% – 20% more expensive than before, a good number of properties will now cost 33%+ more than before and what did we get in return? Cheaper Holiday Inn Extra properties in China.
I’ve scanned through the 200 properties that are going to be a little cheaper from now on and nothing leaps out at me as being a good deal.
IHG Rewards points are now definitely worth less than they were yesterday and look to be heading towards Club Carlson value levels (0.4 – 0.5 cents). I’ll be taking a closer look at the numbers over the next week before I decide what I think the fair value is (I’ll report back here).
On a personal note I actually got very lucky in two different ways:
- I have an amazing IHG Rewards redemption booked for March/April which would now be out of reach thanks to today’s price increases (more on the redemption when the time comes)….and Joanna and I nearly cancelled it in favor of another trip.
- I decided not to pursue the latest IHG Accelerate promotion after it became possible to “buy” IHG points at 0.6 cents each – the math was just to close for my liking. The change in the valuation of IHG points as of today would have made the IHG Accelerate promotion a losing proposition for me.
It will be interesting to see how the other hotels chains react when it comes around to their turn to tweak their award charts. IHG has fired the starting gun on the bad news…let’s hope there’s not too much more to come.
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