Is this the cheapest you can "buy" IHG Rewards Club points for?


I've been hunting hotels for a friend of mine who's visiting Chennai and has requested me to look after his hotel bookings. Naturally, I'd want to review more hotels; so what if I'm not the one staying in the room? At least I have unfettered access, right! 

Anyway, I was looking at a few hotels across all the major chains. The roving eye is always on the lookout for a deal, right? And that's exactly how I spotted this opportunity to "buy" IHG Rewards Club points at what I think is the cheapest you'll ever get them for (though you may not be able to get much, in the first place!). Let's take a look.


The city is Chennai. The hotel in question is the Holiday Inn Express on Old Mahabalipuram Road, which was one of my options for my recent mattress run. And here's exactly what I'm talking about.

First, the normal paid rate (which itself is quite volatile based on stay dates - this one is for mid-August 2016). The paid rate is Rs 2,826 a night (we'll handle the taxes later).


Next, take a look at the rate that includes 4,000 bonus points per stay. For a one-night stay, the paid rate is Rs 4,000. 


That means, for an extra Rs 1,174 + 15% taxes of Rs 176 (which works out to Rs 1,350), you can effectively "buy" 4,000 IHG Rewards Club points. That's nearly enough for one night on Points Breaks, where an award room night is available for just 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points.

That works out to Rs 0.338 per point. IHG normally sells points at Rs 0.77 a point, if you buy the highest possible number of points (25,001-60,000) points, and that's the cheapest price in normal times. Even IHG's promotion for up to 100% bonus on points purchased offered points only at half that price, or about Rs 0.385 a point. That's till higher than Rs 0.338 a point!

Holiday Inn Express, OMR (pic courtesy: Make My Trip)

Sure, there's a limitation, in that you can earn 4k points only once per stay. Multiple stays (as long as they aren't on consecutive dates) will each earn 4k points, if booked on that rate. 

Interestingly, I found similar rates for 4k bonus points at the Holiday Inn Express Ahmedabad, though the effective price per point under that rate was not as low as Rs 0.338. (There's a 1000 bonus points per night for Rs 300++, but that's only if you book the most flexible rate, which is itself quite high compared to the base room paid rate). However, I wasn't able to locate such rates at overseas hotels (at least the ones I searched).

I know 4,000 points isn't much. But if you're in the info-tech space and travel to Chennai frequently, this is a convenient hotel to stay if your workplace is near this hotel. And a convenient place to earn 4k points for a very small additional cost, per stay! Heck, I may consider a small mattress run myself, if I ever find myself marginally short of up to 4,000 IHG Rewards Club points!

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