FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 13,043
The flexible-date calendar that supposedly shows award availability often doesn't work properly.
That said, IHG have a no blackout date policy, which is entirely different from a "if there's a standard room it's yours with points". How that works I don't really know - a hotel could get away with only a couple of award rooms per night, as long as something is available daily (and somebody else might already have grabbed). Or, they might only release award rooms when occupancy is almost full (so that the hotel gets maximum compensation)