Huge changes to IHG rewards night requirements; Good news for India

IHG Rewards Club has made some changes to reward night requirements in respect of 400 of its hotels, and some of these are rather exceptional changes. However, from an India perspective, the changes are all only good news. And all of these changes take effect from 17 February 2016, which means existing bookings continue to be valid at the old rates. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself...one thing at a time.

What has changed

IHG Rewards Club has changed the number of points required for an award night, in respect of 400 of its hotels worldwide. Of these, exactly 200 hotels see an increase in points required, while another 200 see a reduction. You can read the full list at IHG's page specifying the changes, or you could refer to this sorted out list that I've prepared.

Here's a summary of changes:

• The United States has the most changes, with 132 hotels increasing in points and 62 reducing.
• China seems to be the biggest gainer - 47 hotels see reductions, while only 6 see increases.
• India is #3 in terms of number of hotels seeing points reductions.
• The UK and France are the other 2 regions in the top 3 where there are points increases - 23 and 10 hotels each, respectively.

As mentioned earlier, existing bookings till 16 February 2016 remain unaffected, since these new requirements take effect from 17 February 2016 only. However, any changes you may want to make after that date will likely attract the new rates.

Category changes

IHG used to have 9 categories of hotels, with category 9 hotels requiring 50,000 points for an award night. That upper limit has been breached. In effect, IHG now has 11 categories, thought not quite announced as such. Accordingly, 5 hotels now require 55,000 and thirteen hotels now require 60,000 points a night.

Sadly, this increase includes some of the aspirational holiday locations, such as InterContinental Le Moana Bora Bora, InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa, and the InterContinental Hong Kong (all requiring 60k points now). Here's the full list of the 55k and 60k properties.

In India

When I wrote yesterday about the upcoming changes to IHG's reward night requirements, I imagined that with only 28 hotels in India (0.5% of IHG's global portfolio in terms of number of hotels) the effect of changes wouldn't be much. I was wrong. Twelve of the 28 hotels now have reward points reductions, with no increases. That's 6% of all hotels that have undergone category reductions! Wow!

Lounge at the Crowne Plaza Gurgaon, one of the hotels with points reduction

Here are the details.

In effect, each of these 12 hotels is going down in category by one level, making them 5,000 points cheaper than before, for an award night. What's even more interesting is that the above list of 12 includes 8 hotels in the luxury segments (InterContinental and Crowne Plaza). Not that I'm complaining!

There could be many reasons for these changes, but based on a quick review of the above list, it looks like either these are relatively new hotels into the IHG portfolio (eg, CP Chennai or IC Chennai), or hotels that aren't seeing much demand (CP Rohini, CP Okhla). The surprise on this list is the CP Gurgaon, at least to me personally.

Conclusion

While there will be mixed reactions in general, to these changes, the India story is quite positive. I was planning an award stay in March, and I think I'll hold off until the new point requirements kick in on 17 February 2016, to make that booking. 

IHG Crowne Plaza Greater Noida

On the other hand, if you're looking at booking award nights for one of the hotels where the points requirement is increasing, now is probably a very good time to look up availability and see if you can make your reservation before the points requirement increases.

What are your thoughts on these changes? With the trend being what it is, do you see yourself redeeming more award nights in India than internationally?