Very helpful and reassuring. Thanks for sharing your call.

I'm a little late in joining the Big Win this year.
 

I'm a little late in joining the Big Win this year. Here's my offer:

Survey: 100 points
4 Nights Total: 8,000
2 Saturdays: 8,000 points
2 Mobile Bookings: 8,000 points
2 Holiday Inns: 8,000 points
Win Big: 32,000

Total: 64,100, approximately $450 worth of points

I can probably stack these on top of each other and use only 4 nights.

That's a pretty decent payout, if you can book the 4 nights for a cheap rate.

That's a pretty good offer. I value the points at $0.006 so I'd rate it at about $385 instead of $450. Add in the base points, elite bonus, credit card bonus, and other bonuses, though, and you're looking at earning a total of anywhere from 70-80k points. That's up to $480 at my rate or $560 at yours. Do it in 4 nights and you're earning $120-140 of points per night. And yes, it's totally feasible to achieve your goals with 4 nights.

Anyone know if there's an online directory of *only* holiday inn hotels?

I found this:

http://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/hd

but the results seem to include HIX as well - which is most of the hotels.

Thanks!

I am not sure if the following website is 100% up to date and accurate, but it has helped me in the past. You can search by chain and state.
http://www.allstays.com/hotels-by-ch...ay-inn-map.htm

Thanks - very helpful!

... or try this one:
http://www.ihgbusinesssource.com/finder.aspx

I had a minor issue checking into a Candlewood Suites yesterday. My sisters's family came into town and I booked a small suite for $94 for her family of 4. I tried to check in for her but apparently the person before us wasn't able to check out so there were no available non-smoking rooms. The clerk gave me 2 options-- a smoking suite or 2 adjacent non-smoking studios. I chose the latter option. To make this transaction, she needed 2 different confirmation numbers (one if which was my original conf) so I'll be charged $47 for each of the 2 rooms instead of $94 for one.

Are there any implications with regard to points and the Big Win here? I'm probably going to lose some points from the Chase portal I used but that's small compared to the Big Win.

In case you were counting on this satisfying some "booking method" task, the fact that the hotel changed the reservation may not make the reservation count as one booked by your original method.

Even more significant: Are the new $47 rates "qualifying" rates? They may not be, and if so, nothing might count.

I don't need this reservation to satisfy "book with IHG", but I do need it to count as a qualifying stay. I booked it originally as AAA rate, I'll make sure it stays the same.

Well, completed all required stays to get the big win, except waiting for the ihg.com bonus.

On one of the promotional e-mails, there was a listing for 2 stays at HI, although this particular offer does not appear on my summary page. Is this a mistake?

I've had two separate stays and have been amazed everything is posting correctly. Even the "Mobile App" booking shows 1/2, since I used the Android App on my phone to make my last reservation. I have two more planned stays that I can easily arrange to meet all but one of the remaining requirements of my offer. I'm scratching my head on how to get a fifth night though, as I don't really have a need for any more hotels by the end of April but hopefully a work trip will pop up before then.

Do multiple rooms on the same reservation count?

Ie, I have a booking of 4 rooms x 2 nights; would this count as 8 room nights, 8 nights towards my 28 required for the big win?

Big Win Spring 2014
 

In January I booked two separate reservations via ihg.com for stays at the Tel Aviv David Intercontinental Hotel. One was an award night and the other was an advanced purchase. For Big Win purposes, I am told that my advanced purchase is a "non-qualifying" stay. I can understand why an award night would not count. But shouldn't an advanced purchase booked through their website count? Is this a system-wide issue or one with this particular hotel? So far I am not off to a good start with their promotion.