If you would like to find the smallest of COVID silver linings, you can find it in the fact that I, an employee at an IHG property, stumbled across this thread and believe I have an answer for you.
It looks like it's 15% off of the regular Best Flexible Rate--which is just the base rate that we sell. The shareholder discount does have a harsher cancellation policy than normal however. It requires full prepayment from the time of booking, and the terms indicate there is no refund in the event of cancellation. This puts it in the ballpark of the Book Early & Save discount that anybody could book online prior to COVID and especially so if you piggyback your IHG Rewards member discount on top of that. The terms also state that you are required to present a voucher. Speaking as someone who has worked at IHG hotels for approximately 10 years, I encountered this discount code for the first time only today, and I don't know what type of voucher I'd even be looking for. If you use this discount at a specific hotel with a stickler at the front desk and you don't have a voucher, it'll likely affect your experience there.
Based on the above, I don't personally believe it would be worthwhile to purchase IHG stock in order to have the discount available to you. An IHG Rewards member discount of an advance purchase (Book Early & Save) rate will get you within $5 max of a shareholder discount. In addition, for the former, it's easy for you to book, any front desk agent should know exactly what they are doing with it, and it doesn't require you to purchase stock you otherwise might not want. For the latter, you have to purchase stock, lack of familiarity with the discount is likely to negatively affect your service experience, and it's not as easy for you to book.
That being said, a conversation about buying stock at different exchanges for yourself or your kids in order to garner discounts is not exactly a conversation a large cross section of society (including myself) is normally having, so I'm pretty sure I'm replying to a bunch of people who are smarter than me and whom I can only aspire to be like.....so feel free to come to your own conclusion regardless of my own.
Happy travels to you all.
Last edited by Patroclus; Jan 22, 21 at 10:37 am