Hi Guys,

I've read quite a few other threads but most people around here are travelers. So I've moved back in with my parents in central Jersey recently and started dating a girl I knew from high school. Problem is we both live at home and can't go over each others houses due to conservative parents. I work but am pretty tight on cash. Still we've been booking hotel rooms every other week for the past few months. My only condition is to not have a smelly bathroom or disgusting room. Priceline gave me on of those with their pay-before-you-know program.

I'm trying to get as many free nights and cheap rooms as possible. Usually we stay on Friday or Saturday nights and always stay for only one night. First I used Hyatt's bonus point program where you get 1000 to 2000 extra points per stay at select hotels. Even then it took 3 stays just to be able to book a category 1 hotel (not many options). I always stayed at their cheapest hotels, though even these were much better than IHG's hotels. Then I saw IHG's Pointbreaks program. To rack up points PC has those 3000 or 5000 bonus point stays if you pay a premium on the best rate available. So if a room is $75 w/o tax, I usually end up paying $100-$110 w/o tax to get the 3k or 5k bonus points. On top of that they are giving 1k points away per stay as part of some promotion. So for my last two stays I've racked up 15k+ points, good for 3 Pointbreak stays. or 1.5 Holiday Inn stays.

Does any other hotel have something that can compete with the Pointbreaks program? That's the main thing that makes IHG good for me. Otherwise the bonus points you earn by paying so much more per stay aren't worth it.
Finally, IHG hotels never have mini-fridges or anything above the bare minimum which becomes annoying when they state you are staying at a 3 star hotel (like Crown Plaza). I shouldn't expect much for the price, but at least they should admit their hotels are not 3 stars.

Thanks for any help