If you are a member of the IHG Rewards Club and want to make the most out of your reward stays at InterContinental Hotel Group stays, check out my ProTips for the best redemptions of your IHG Rewards Club points! Make use of promotional redemptions, get a 10% discount of any redemption and find the best value redemptions – your hotel reward points will go a lot further!
- IHG PointBreaks Promotion – Every quarter, IHG Rewards Club runs the PointBreaks promotion and makes a list of usually more than 100 hotels around the world available for only 5,000/night. The regular minimum for 1 free night at a category 1 hotel is 10,000 points/night and some of the nicer hotels during the promotion can be 30,000 or 40,000 points/night, giving you a discount of at least 50% on your redemption rate.
That makes IHG PointBreaks one of the best promotion among hotel rewards programs and reason for many to be a member! While the list of hotels might not always work for you, at those prices, you can plan a whole vacation around available hotels! You can find an example for the PointBreaks promotion here!
- Get a 10% discount with the IHG Rewards Club Mastercard – I like the IHG Rewards Club credit card for the 80,000 point sign-up bonus (enough for 16 PointBreaks nights!) and the annual free night certificate. But it also gives you 10% of your reward redemptions back. So, the price for a top-of-the-line hotel like the InterContinental Bora Bora drops from 60,000 points/night to 54.000 points!
- Find the best value redemptions – I value IHG Rewards Club points at 0..5 cents/point. If you want to get the best value for your points, make sure to check the value of your redemptions before you decide to book with cash or points.
In the example below, the InterContinental Paris is available for $381 or 60,000 points. I value 60,000 pt/night x 0.005$/pt = $300/nt, so using your points is better value than paying cash.
On the other hand, the Holiday Inn Paris is available for $180 or 40,000 points. At a value of 40,000 pt/n x 0.005$/pt = $200/nt, so you’d actually get a better deal by paying cash for your stay!
- Use your points for reward stays, not shopping or gift cards – along the same idea of highest value for your points, don’t use them for gift cards or shopping. A $50 gift card will cost you 20,000 points – a value of only 2.5ct/pt or less than half what you’d get for a reward stay! And getting products is even worse – you need 382,000 points for an ipad Pro 10.5in WiFi – it’s available for $749, so you only get 1.9ct/pt, a terrible value!
- Stretch your points with point & cash or points purchase – so, you don’t have enough points for a stay and rather use them for a gift card? Well, you can still get better value buy purchasing missing points! IHG Rewards Club frequently sells them for 0.6ct/pt or less in special promotions. They are always available for 0.7ct/pt or less with their points & cash rates. That allows you to book a free night with as few as 5,000 pt/nt and pay the difference in cash – still better than redeeming for goods!
These 5 tips can give you much more value for your points and make your IHG Rewards Club more rewarding for you! Good luck and let me know what your favorite redemption is in the comments below or if you have any questions!