Beginner's guide to loyalty programs - IHG Rewards Club
After two posts on the series, we nearly forgot about the beginner's guide! This is the third in a series of posts for beginners, aimed at introducing them to the key aspects of each of the significant hotel loyalty programs. We'll deal with IHG Rewards Club in this post.
About IHG
IHG or the Intercontinental Hotels Group, is possibly the largest hotel chain in the industry, with over 4,900 hotels as of September 2015, across 100+ countries, offering upwards of 725,000 hotel rooms a night. The chain has 12 brands across various segments, as follows:
- Intercontinental
- Kimpton
- Hualuxe
- Crowne Plaza
- Hotel Indigo
- EVEN
- Holiday Inn
- Holiday Inn Express
- Holiday Inn Resort
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations
- Staybridge Suites
- Candlewood Suites
About IHG Rewards Club
Rewards Club is the IHG’s loyalty program, with 4 levels:
From the lounge at the InterContinental Warsaw
IHG Rewards Club used to have various promotional offers (4-digit codes) that one could register for. While not every code worked for everyone, there were times that one could simultaneously register for something like 20-plus promotions. Many of these required a single stay to earn points on and/or were repeatable. This was a good way to earn a fairly large number of IHG Rewards Club points at one go. Unfortunately, these have largely dried up over the last couple of years, with only very few such offers being available these days. Further, IHG is known to crack-down on accounts that they consider are being inappropriately used, which can then be shut down unilaterally with no recourse.
IHG also runs periodic promotions - usually quarterly. These need registration, which doesn't cost anything - so do register for as many promotions as you can. The last few promotions have been structured as a series of goals, where achieving each goal earns a certain number of points, plus an overall bonus for achieving a part or all of those goals. These offers are customised based on tier level and the member’s stay history. Do bear in mind that there are often specific terms and conditions to each of the goals, and non-participating properties. Promotions (particularly for new members) have also been rather lucrative, offering free nights stays upon completion of a pre-determined number of paid stays.
IHG has co-branded credit cards outside India, that earn points for signing-up for the card, as well as on spends. They also often provide elite status, subject to conditions. In addition, using those cards at IHG properties can earn accelerated points.
Finally, there are some partners, such as the Citibank PremierMiles credit card in India, from where you could convert loyalty rewards in that program to IHG Rewards Club points.
My room at the Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport, Mumbai
IHG also offers Points Break rewards, for specific hotels selected on a periodic basis (usually every 2 months), where a room night is available for 5,000 points. Because these are extremely low-priced awards, they are often sold out fairly quickly, so be sure to keep a keen eye on these. There are also restrictions on how many award bookings at a particular hotel can be made, under Points Break awards.
Unlike most other chains, IHG does not offer a 5th night free on award bookings of 5 nights or more, which is a negative for this program, and something different from virtually all of the other big loyalty programs. The good thing, however, is that reward nights do count towards elite qualification and retention.
You could also transfer IHG Rewards club points to partner airline programs, but these often offer rather poor value.
- Club: On signing up
- Gold Elite: After 10 nights or 10,000 base points in a year
- Platinum Elite: After 40 nights or 40,000 base points earned in a year
- Spire Elite: After 75 nights or 75,000 base points earned in a year.
In the past, IHG used to make available various offers for accelerated moves to higher tiers. I’ve myself used one such offer to move directly to Platinum a couple of years ago, when Platinum was their highest tier. They also used to offer status matches quite readily to other programs. Sadly, both of those seem to have largely dried up, and I haven’t seen any of either fast-track offers or status matches in the recent past.
You can check out the benefits by level, on the IHG Rewards Club page here. Admittedly, IHG is the only hotel chain not to offer complimentary breakfast even at their highest level. Same goes for lounge access, which makes this possibly the stingiest hotel loyalty program! Having said that I’ve found (including recently) that at some of their hotels, you could get lounge access just by asking for it at the front desk while checking in.
You can check out the benefits by level, on the IHG Rewards Club page here. Admittedly, IHG is the only hotel chain not to offer complimentary breakfast even at their highest level. Same goes for lounge access, which makes this possibly the stingiest hotel loyalty program! Having said that I’ve found (including recently) that at some of their hotels, you could get lounge access just by asking for it at the front desk while checking in.
There is also another program - the InterContinental Ambassador - that one can purchase, for use exclusively at Intercontinental properties. While being a member of this program automatically gives elite status with IHG Rewards Club, that's where the crossover benefits end.
Earning points
Members earn 10 base points per eligible $ of spend. Gold, Platinum and Spire Elite members earn a further bonus of 10%, 50% and 100% respectively (bonus points don't count for tier qualification).IHG Rewards Club used to have various promotional offers (4-digit codes) that one could register for. While not every code worked for everyone, there were times that one could simultaneously register for something like 20-plus promotions. Many of these required a single stay to earn points on and/or were repeatable. This was a good way to earn a fairly large number of IHG Rewards Club points at one go. Unfortunately, these have largely dried up over the last couple of years, with only very few such offers being available these days. Further, IHG is known to crack-down on accounts that they consider are being inappropriately used, which can then be shut down unilaterally with no recourse.
IHG also runs periodic promotions - usually quarterly. These need registration, which doesn't cost anything - so do register for as many promotions as you can. The last few promotions have been structured as a series of goals, where achieving each goal earns a certain number of points, plus an overall bonus for achieving a part or all of those goals. These offers are customised based on tier level and the member’s stay history. Do bear in mind that there are often specific terms and conditions to each of the goals, and non-participating properties. Promotions (particularly for new members) have also been rather lucrative, offering free nights stays upon completion of a pre-determined number of paid stays.
IHG has co-branded credit cards outside India, that earn points for signing-up for the card, as well as on spends. They also often provide elite status, subject to conditions. In addition, using those cards at IHG properties can earn accelerated points.
Finally, there are some partners, such as the Citibank PremierMiles credit card in India, from where you could convert loyalty rewards in that program to IHG Rewards Club points.
Spending points
IHG Rewards Club points can be used for award nights at their hotels. Hotels are bucketed into categories (1 through 9), staring at 10,000 points a night for Category 1 hotels, moving up in multiples of 5,000, up to 50,000 points a night (Cat 9). Some of their aspirational award properties are at Category 9, but given the types of promotions that IHG runs, it is often possible to earn 50,000 points for relatively minimum effort and spend.
IHG also offers Points Break rewards, for specific hotels selected on a periodic basis (usually every 2 months), where a room night is available for 5,000 points. Because these are extremely low-priced awards, they are often sold out fairly quickly, so be sure to keep a keen eye on these. There are also restrictions on how many award bookings at a particular hotel can be made, under Points Break awards.
Unlike most other chains, IHG does not offer a 5th night free on award bookings of 5 nights or more, which is a negative for this program, and something different from virtually all of the other big loyalty programs. The good thing, however, is that reward nights do count towards elite qualification and retention.
You could also transfer IHG Rewards club points to partner airline programs, but these often offer rather poor value.
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