typical Thanks, this is really very useful information for me.
I do book flexible rates at the ALL website (as due to my schedule this autumn/winter 2021) I had to cancel and rebook a few times and always got full refunds. Getting a larger member discount on the room rate would be very good for me. I never eat & drink at the hotel so would not get a discount on that.

As a test calculation, I have compared the Rewards Points I have earned in 2021 (which began in September as Classic and ended in Decemeber as Gold) and those I would have earned if I was Gold for all the reservations. Then converted those extra Rewards Points to Euros (based on 2000RP = 40EUR) and then converted from EUR to GBP (with a crude guess currency exchange rate). It seems that I would have earned more than the £65 (cost of the ibis business card) by a little bit (few tens of £, but I'm not a big spender) which that alone would make this a sensible purchase. So the further romm rate reduction is another good incentive.

For my own ease, to get a ibis business card start date on 1st January 2022, what is the best date to apply? Perhaps it is instant or maybe it takes a few days - I don't know. I do not have any bookings yet for 2022 but my next will be in January 2022.

If you do not mind I have sent you a PM to compare a reservation with and without the ibis business card, just so I can get a feel for the extra discount. Thanks