Last Day To Book IHG Properties At Pre-Devaluation Rates

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IHG hasn’t been making many friends recently. We’re only a little over two weeks into 2018 and we’ve already been told that the hotel chain is significantly weakening its best rate guarantee and increasing the cost of an award night at 499 properties worldwide.

The changes to the cost of IHG award nights comes into effect from 16 January 2018 (tomorrow) so you have less than 24 hours to make any reservations you think you may need at the older rates (don’t forget that IHG Rewards award bookings are fully refundable).

Changes To IHG Award Night Costs 2018

In a nutshell:

• 499 IHG properties are increasing in cost
• 192 IHG properties are decreasing in cost
• 184 IHG properties are increasing in cost by 10,000 points
• 315 IHG properties are increasing in cost by 5,000 points
• IHG has increased the cost of an award night at top-tier properties to 70,000 points
• 12 IHG properties will now cost 70,000 points per night
• All 192 IHG properties which are going down in cost will be 5,000 points cheaper

These are the 12 properties at which an award night will cost 70,000 points from tomorrow (an increase of over 16%):

Unsurprisingly these are all InterContinental properties and are mostly the more aspirational properties in some of the more expensive parts of the world.

In the case of the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa I wouldn’t worry too much about the increase in cost as consecutive award nights at this property as are rare as a blue moon.

Here’s a list of IHG properties that will cost 60,000 points from tomorrow and, as all are former 50,000 point properties, the increase in cost here is a worrisome 20%.

The increase in cost at the InterContinental Grand Stafford Hong Kong means that both Hong Kong InterContinentals are going up in cost in this set of changes but, for me, the biggest hit here is the increase at the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam.

InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam

At 50,000 points per night the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam was a sweet-spot in the IHG portfolio – it’s a great hotel, in a good location in a very cool city to visit (here’s a review of the property). At 60,000 points per night it’s still a good redemption but it always hurts to lose a sweet-spot.

Lastly, here’s a look at all the InterContinental properties that are seeing their points cost/night move in this latest IHG reshuffle:

If you were in any doubt at so how good or bad this set of changes is then this table should help clear things up for you.

33 InterContinental properties are seeing their award cost/night change and, of these…..

• 30 InterContinental properties will cost more
• 3 InterContinental properties will cost less

Of the InterContinental properties increasing in cost…

• 5 will cost 25% more
• 8 will cost between 20% and 22% more
• 14 will cost 17% more

Those are significant increases in cost.

Bottom Line

With the number of 100% bonuses that IHG has been offering on points sales recently this devaluation isn’t all that surprising….so I hope none of you were stockpiling IHG rewards points unnecessarily.

As bad as this news is, it’s worth remembering that IHG has well over 5,000 properties worldwide so only around 10% will cost more….it just happens that most of the properties increasing in cost are where a lot of us want to stay 🙂

Still, if you have a sizeable balance of IHG rewards points now may be a good time to see if you can use them towards trips you’re planning or trips you’ve been thinking about taking.

You can always make provisional bookings at properties that are going up in cost and then cancel them if your other plans don’t fall into place as IHG Rewards bookings are flexible and cancelable without penalty.

You may be lucky and find that the IHG properties you’ve been considering aren’t getting more expensive from tomorrow….but I suspect most are.

Book award nights At IHG.com