So, how did I do on my first mattress run?

Readers may be aware that I did my first ever mattress run at the Crowne Plaza, Adyar Park in Chennai, about three weeks ago. To recap, 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 or 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.

After posting about that experience, as also my review of the hotel, I've received questions around whether it is really worth mattress-running these days. Now, most experiences and outcomes in the points and miles hobby can be summed up in one acronym - YMMV (or, Your Mileage May Vary). So, rather than recommend whether or not to mattress run, I present to you, the results of my run. 

While I've added my conclusion at the end of this post, you may have a different view to it overall. So, YMMV indeed!


So, what was at stake?

IHG announced their Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion earlier in May this year.  My goals this time round were:
  • 3,000 points: Stay once
  • 7,500 points: Stay 5 nights
  • 3,200 points: Book 2 stays with the IHG app
  • 3,000 points: Stay a Sunday night + another night (Saturday or Monday night)
  • 2,000 points: Book a Bonus Points Package
  • 4,000 points: Book 2 stays for member-exclusive rates
  • 27,300 points: To complete 5 of the 6 offers above
  • 5,000 points: Stay once in June 2016.

I therefore figured, that if I booked one stay in June, and one more within the offer period, I'd be able to earn 47,500 points (that is, all but 7,500 points that I'd get after 5 nights). The only conditions were that these had to be booked using the IHG app (no problem there) on member-exclusive rates (again, no problems), at least one stay had to be a Sunday night + another night (expensive, for a mattress run), one of them a bonus points package (depending on the cost, this may be worth it).


The other thing on offer was the opportunity to earn 15,000 points straight out, for my third stay under the IHG OTA Book Direct promotion (where I'd completed 2 stays already, and so earned 15,000 points till then).

So with a single stay in June, I'd be able to earn at least 23,000 points, broken down as
  • 15,000 points under the OTA Book Direct offer
  • 5,000 points for staying once in June, under the Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion
  • 3,000 points for staying once under the Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion.

Also, I'd also be part-way through the other goals.

And finally, I'd also be earning points for the stay itself (IHG rewards 10 points per $ spent, plus I received a 10% bonus as a IHG Rewards Club Gold member). Also, any in-hotel spends on F&B would earn me a 2x bonus.

What did I do?

My calendar in June was rather packed after the 19th, so the stay had to be before that. After some research, I had the to choose between the Holiday Inn Express Old Mahabalipuram Road anad the Crowne Plaza Adyar Park, both in Chennai, where I live. The HIX was priced about Rs 700 lower than the Crowne Plaza, but the CP was a 10-minute drive from home, whereas the HIX would've taken at least 90 minutes to reach. Clearly, convenience mattered, and so I chose the Crowne Plaza. 


I was able to book an all-in rate of Rs 5,500, which included breakfast for one (they ended up comping a second breakfast as well). Note, that the Crowne Plaza is a Category 4 hotel, requiring 25,000 points for a night. I value IHG points at Rs 0.26 each, so 25,000 points has a value of Rs 6,500, against which the paid rate was clearly cheaper by over 15%.

What did I end up earning?

So far, the following have posted from this stay.


Just as I expected. I've also progressed proportionally in respect of the other goals, under the Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion.

How it all adds up

So in all, I've earned a total of 23,665 points for a spend of Rs 5,500 (I won't value the comped breakfast for this purpose). That means I've effectively "bought" these points for Rs 0.23 each, which is better than my valuation of Rs 0.26 a point. That's doesn't appear to be much, but it is a clear 11% "discount". Even with a 100% bonus (as with their recent points sale), IHG points would cost Rs 0.385 each, so my cost was actually a further 40% cheaper (though the number of points was extremely limited).

My conclusion

At the time I planned to do this mattress run, I didn't see any paid stays with IHG coming up till September 2016, which is when the IHG OTA Book Direct promotion ends (and mind you, Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion ends 31 August 2016, which is earlier!). Also, 5,000 points were to be had simply by staying once in June. In all, I'd have lost the opportunity to earn 23,000 points. Now, one can argue that I needn't have spent Rs 5,500, but the truth is I need those points for an upcoming award stay. 

In terms of value, and because they comped one person's breakfast (Rs 900 net), I effectively paid Rs 4,600 for 23,000 points, or Rs 0.20 per point, which is excellent. And I'm not even counting the fact that this stay contributes in some part to the rest of my Accelerate 2016 Summer promotion goals.


With 23,000 points I can easily get 2 nights at a Category 1 hotel, where I'd definitely end up paying more than Rs 5,500. I could also get 4 nights (with 3k points to spare) under IHG Points Break promotions (see how our reader made use of this to book a 2-night stay in Indonesia).

What do you think?

I know I've been rambling on about my "success story", but I'll stop here. What do you think I should have done (or not done)? Alternatively, would you have taken up this mattress run with the same stakes? Do leave your thoughts and views in the comments section below.

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