I haven't really seen any discussion on this, but in the last couple of years it seems harder to get good value from your IHG points. IHG often sells points for a half-penny each, so that's basically what I consider them worth. To use points, you want the room rate (including the often nasty taxes) to be worth materially more than a half-penny/point award redemption. That seems harder these days, and I'm finding more redemptions where buying IHG points at this price is more expensive than just paying for your room (especially since you'd earn points on a paid rate).

I did recently find a US redemption at a new IHG hotel which the website noted as "new" and marked as something like a "special value" redemption. It was: my IHG points were worth a little less than a penny a point at this property. But this is getting unusual. I also try to redeem points when IHG offers 15% off redemptions, but even with this bonus, the redemption opportunities tend to be modest.

Given this "devaluation," I'm finding the IHG program to be less useful to me, and I'm staying in fewer IHG properties. In the US, I most often stayed at their HIX and sometimes their Staybridge Suites. I used to alternate between these award redemptions and redemptions for similar hotels in the Hilton program, but Hilton devalued a few years ago and the IHG properties became more attractive. Now, I'm finding Wyndham and Choice redemptions to be better than IHG redemptions for US motels. There are several ways to gin up points in Wyndham and Choice at good value. These hotels are usually not quite as good as IHG properties (and you really have to do your research to avoid the bad ones), but I will take a slightly more modest motel at half the redemption cost of a typical Holiday Inn Express.