Two words from my first mattress run ... kinda weird!

A mattress run is generally understood as a hotel stay (usually cheap) booked exclusively for the purpose of earning reward points and/or to maintain/achieve elite status. The stay may or may not pay for itself through points earnings, but it is often part of an overall program or goal. 

In my previous travels, I've chosen hotels based on the points, promotions or other benefits they've offered. But those don't really count as mattress runs, because I'd be travelling in any case, and it was only a choice of one hotel over another. However, last week, I was pretty much compelled to do a genuine mattress run. Here's the why and how I went about planning and executing it.


The rationale

IHG's Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion is currently on, and is applicable on stays up to 31 August 2016. My personal offer included two goals for a total of 8,000 points for a stay in June 2016 (one of those was part of the 5 goals I need to earn my overall achievement bonus).

A stay in June would earn me an easy 5,000 points, and equally important, it would count towards being able to achieve some of the other goals I had to complete, such as
  • stay 5 nights and earn 7,500 points
  • book 2 stays through the app and earn 3,200 points
  • book 2 stays on member-exclusive rates and earn 4,000 points.

Also, I'd already completed 2 stays under IHG's OTA Book Direct promotion, one each at the Holiday Inn Express Gachibowli, Hyderabad, and the Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, Singapore. A third stay would earn me 15,000 points. While in theory I'd receive these 15,000 points on my next stay before the OTA Book Direct promotion ends on 15 September 2016, I don't know if I'll have another stay with IHG by then.

The economics of the run

The Holiday Inn Express in the suburbs of Chennai usually has an all-inclusive paid rate in the region of Rs 4200 a night. However, for the only days that I was able to do the run, it cost Rs 4800 a night, compared to the Crowne Plaza Adyar Park (formerly, the Park Sheraton) at Rs 5500 a night. The Crowne Plaza is much closer to where I live, and so I chose it over the HIX, for a stay on a Saturday night. Also, my rate at the CP came with breakfast included (IHG Gold, which I have, doesn't give you breakfast or lounge access, which was an additional bonus!

I worked out the possible options to earn maximum (but not necessarily all) points at the lowest cost, and concluded that I'd book a stay in June, using the IHG mobile app, for a Member Exclusive Rate. That would get me points at Rs 0.232 apiece, compared to our valuation of IHG Rewards Club points of Rs 0.26 apiece. However, if I'd tacked on a bonus points package rate, the earning cost would've actually been more (Rs 0.248 a point), which I therefore rejected. 

I also considered adding on the Sunday night, which would've helped meet one more goal, but the cost was in excess of Rs 7,000 (all in), which made it inefficient.

And finally, the missus had some work of her own on the night of my stay, so I actually ended up staying the night at the hotel (as opposed to just checking in and getting out).

And that's how I ended up booking one night at the Crowne Plaza Adyar Park, using the IHG mobile app, for a stay at the members exclusive rate.

Final results

All told, I spent Rs 5,500 for this stay, and earned a total of 23,665 points. 


Of this, 15,665 points have already posted. 


The remaining 8,000 points are part of the Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion, which tracks separately, and should post in a few weeks' time.

Conclusion

The Crowne Plaza Adyar Park itself is a Category 4 hotel, requiring 25,000 points for a night's stay. From my mattress run, I earned (or will eventually earn) 23,665 points, which is almost the entire stay cost paying for itself! My wife joined me for breakfast the morning. Since only my breakfast came complimentary with the room rate, I'd have had to pay for her. However, the hotel ended up comping that too, so in effect, I'd say the stay paid for itself and a bit more.

I'll be writing about the stay in a separate hotel review soon. But it did get a bit embarrassing at check in, when the agent checked my address on file and looked at me rather quizzically, several unsaid questions running through her mind. What was I doing here? Is there a terror aspect involved? Or a one-night stand perhaps?

In all, I can tell you that it feels reasonably weird staying at a hotel in your home city! But I guess the points and miles hobby does require some sort of thick skin!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris

Image
I checked out of the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile yesterday morning, and checked into the Le Meridien Etoile, just around the corner from the Hyatt, in the evening after a day's sightseeing. Hyatt was kind enough to hold my bags for the duration of the day (which is a surprise in today's world of terror threats), and I'm grateful to them for that. The Le Meridien has standard and chic rooms as two of their base category rooms. As I mentioned in the introduction post, I booked a chic room on an award. Here's a review of the hotel and room, but not breakfast (that didn't come with the room, and we planned to head to the airport a little early in any case). Index of posts Bonjour Paris: Introduction and summary of posts Review: Chennai to Colombo on Sri Lankan A320 regional business class Review: Serendib Lounge, CMB airport Review: Colombo to Paris on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Review: Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris Re...
Read more

Defunct airlines of India - Part 1

Image
ASan and I met for lunch over the weekend. If you knew us personally, you'd know that we're both forever thirsty, if you get my meaning. You'd also know that there are always discussions around ideas for posts. Most of them are flights of fancy (pun intended!), and almost always unviable. But two men with some alcohol in them can dream, can't they? Anyway, this time the discussion finally got down to something that interests both of us, though in very different ways. ASan is a bit of a history freak, getting dreamy and bleary-eyed when you talk of anything 20 years or older (he thinks he’d have fit better into society a hundred years ago, than now). And I'm an AvGeek to the core and a huge  fan of REG Davies. So when the talk finally came around to Indian airline companies that used to be, we hit paydirt! After some decent and serious research, we think we've come up with our own Indian Aviation History 101. Given the volume there is to share, we’ll be splitting...
Read more

Kolkata's new terminal, and what a relief! (And lots of pictures)

Image
For the longest time, Kolkata (CCU) had pathetic terminals – both for domestic and international flights – and it was high time they did something about it. Now, the Airports Authority of India must be complimented on the new Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. The airport is really fresh, swanky, and actually makes the flying experience in and out of CCU a whole lot better. The new terminal is an integrated terminal for domestic and international flights, and set out in an wide “V” with unequal arms, the longer arm being the domestic side. The terminal building itself is at one end of the runway, and is to the right of the old terminal, when viewed from the city side (left from airside). This picture, courtesy Wikipedia, shows it quite clearly. I flew in on SG 323 ( trip report here ), and on reaching CCU, we parked at the apron, though sufficient aerobridges appeared available. Cost cutting I suppose. The bus then took us to the terminal building, and this is what greet...
Read more