IHG Rewards: Earn up to 4x points on stays [Worldwide]

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Back in the middle of June, IHG Rewards launched a new promotion in which it offered between double and quadruple points on stays made by 8 September 2020. At the time, a major downside to the promotion was the fact that it was only open to members based in the US, but now that IHG has remembered it has members elsewhere too, the promotion is now open to all.

The promotion

• Earn double points (2x) on your first two stays*
• Earn triple points (3x) on your third stay*
• Earn quadruple points (4x) on your fourth stay and on all subsequent stays*

*Subject to limits set out below

Headline terms & conditions

• Register by 8 September 2020 (here)
• Stay by 8 September 2020
• On your first Qualifying Stay (a minimum 1-night stay booked under a Qualifying Rate, with total spend exceeding $30) after registering for the promotion, you will be awarded double points, up to a maximum of 100,000 points for that stay.
• On your second qualifying stay, you will be awarded double points, up to a maximum of 100,000 points for that stay.
• On your third qualifying stay, you will be awarded triple points, up to a maximum of 100,000 points for that stay.
• On your 4th qualifying stay and for each stay beyond the 4th stay during the Promotion Period, you will be awarded quadruple points, up to a maximum of 100,000 points for each stay.
• The maximum number of bonus points that a member can earn through this Promotion, for all stays combined, is 400,000.

Link to full terms and conditions

The numbers

The doubling, trebling and quadrupling of points refers to base points only (elite bonus points are not boosted) so, as IHG Rewards offers 10 points per dollar at most of its brands, this promotion offers between 20 and 40 bonus points per dollar spent at all IHG brands other than Staybridge and Candlewood Suites (10 to 20 points per dollar).

I value IHG Rewards points at 0.4 cents each so, effectively, this promotion is offering additional rebates of up to 16% on stays through 8 September with a maximum available rebate of $1,600 (400,000 points).

If you hold Platinum elite status with IHG Rewards (the elite status that comes with the card_name) and if you use your card_name to pay for your stays, this is what you can expect to earn at most IHG properties:

• Stays 1 & 2: 35 points/dollar
• Stay 3: 45 points/dollar
• Stay 4+: 55 points/dollar

So, if you hold and use the card_name for this promotion, you could earn a rebate of between 14% and 22% (based on my valuation of IHG Rewards points).

Quick thoughts

There’s quite a bit of similarity between this promotion and the promotion IHG introduced at the beginning of the year except for the fact that the earlier promotion was based on the number of nights stayed while this one focuses on the number of stays made. That makes this the better of the two promotions for people who usually book 1-night stays and a worse promotion for people who book longer stays.

I should point out that there are two good aspects to this promotion that deserve a little bit of positive attention:

1. All stays during the promotion period will count as long as an IHG Rewards Club member registers by 8 September. You don’t have to register before you stay.
2. All stays count. A significant number of hotel promotions that we have been seeing in recent years have excluded the first night or the first stay from the deal but IHG has chosen not to do that in this promotion.

In the interest of balance, I should also point out that not a lot of people are likely to max-out this promotion (and that’s presumably why IHG designed the promotion in the way it has). It would take a good number of stays (each of significant value) to reach the 400,000 point cap that’s in place on this deal and that’s why it’s probably better to focus on the number of points/dollar that are on offer rather than the ultimate total number of points available.

Overall, this is a better promotion that we usually see from the like of Marriott Bonvoy but nowhere near as tempting as the 3x points promotion Hyatt is running right now. It’s ok but it certainly isn’t going to get very many people excited about traveling again.

Bottom line

Given the situation around the world right now I’m not sure there will be that many people making a significant number of hotel stays between now and 8 September, so I’m a little surprised that IHG didn’t come up with something a little more enticing – one of it’s “Accelerate” promotions would have generated a lot more interest than a rehash of its 1Q promotion. Still, I guess this is better than nothing.