Booked 5 nights so far! Indy airport and Bloomington, IN candlewood. Far from the highest end properties, but saving me quite a bit of cash!

Hi, has anyone stayed at the IC Phnomh Penh and could give me some advice of the quality?

Has anyone stayed at the Colombia properties on the list?

I was asking this because in previous PB was a rumour of chinese programmed robots booking large quantities and Im curious if these are still active.

A message immediately above yours, posted 6 minutes earlier, addresses your request.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24423265-post251.html

In short, the Ritz it ain't, but it's a perfectly nice hotel in a lousy location.

Moderator Note:

We received a couple of reports regarding the recent discussion about IC Phnom Penh.

I will leave - for now ! - the discussion about Cambodia and the IC Phnom Penh in this thread. I will move them in a couple of days to the IC Phnom Penh thread, which was highlighted in this thread.

FLYGVA
co-moderator IHG Forum

The HI Mexico Coyoacan is available on Pointsbreak for 5k points and they opened up all suites for booking as well. This includes the Jacuzzi suites and the 2 double bed suites.

http://i.imgur.com/0MzXepf.png

I've stayed at the Crowne Plaza Bogotá Tequendama (not the Suites one on PB), but it's next door, it has the same type of architecture, and I wouldn't be surprised if it also shared the management. The hotel is tired and old-fashioned, but not bad, and I got upgraded to a Club room with lounge access (Plat, paid stay).

It's in the old financial centre, within walking distance (15-20 minutes) of the cathedral. The area looks safe, with some shops and restaurants, but my customers in Bogotá advised me to avoid it, especially when it gets dark, and to stay in the new "happening" area, where the price of the HIX is similar to that of both these CPs.

If you're planning a tourist stay, I don't think it's a bad place, but you may need to take taxis most of the time.

The Bogota Tequendama gave me the upgrade on a PB, and the lounge access, which is in the other building across a shopping mall walk. I'd recommend the 7th Ave. walk to the historic center. Only in daytime.

The HIX is my go to location, with PB more often than the IC does. The HIX has friendly people working there, is in the safest area, and offers some good paid discounts, especially for weekends, which I've combined with PB stays to make a long visit.

Sigh. Not much in Europe on the renewed list. Oh well.

Not much, but I was happy to find at least one that really helps me save some dough.

Lhasa Visa anyone?
 

So have your sorted out your visa? Or any others pls? Am I allowed to book my own hotel even if join a tour daily?

Following up my own post: The discussion not merely focused on the pointbreak aspect of the IC Phom Penh have been moved to the thread about this property http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...er-thread.html

Thank youz

FLYGVA
co-moderator IHG Forum

Looks like the Fraser/Winter Park Holiday Inn got pulled off the PointBreak list... disappointing to see, does this happen much with hotels getting taken off the list?

All the time. Hotels sell out their quota of pointsbreaks. Sometimes within hours of going live. By the end of the three months, only about a quarter or fifth of hotels are left and usually the least desirable ones.

If you see something you want, book it before it goes. It is always free to cancel and you get your points back.

I'm a bit disappointed that the Points Break locations are dynamic, as discussed previously. The locations sell out of their quota...surprisingly, less than 2 weeks after the list for the quarter has been posted. Gee Thanks!!

On the other end of the spectrum, do new locations get added, or does everything just dwindle down to the least popular locations. Most of these aren't even close to an airport.

Nope, they dwindle. You have to bookmark it on your calendar when the new list gets released and act quick.

For me, this list was great. I have 5 nights booked in Bogota and 10 nights in Medellin. Both pretty nice hotels in a great location.

Only time I booked a PointBreaks before was 8 night at the Intercontinental Kiev, which was amazing.

Yes I think Europe doesnt tend to be such a good offering as other parts of the world for pointbreaks..

Because hotels in Europe aren't cheap - their 'normal' prices are higher than Asia and the US. Plus the hotel locations are tend to be in bigger cities = more expensive.

I did make use of some PB in Europe, and $35/night is unbeatable.

We could say the same of Singapore's hotel prices.

I think I'd modify this generalisation. There are at times both jaw-droppingly expensive properties, and surprisingly good value ones, in all three areas.

Yes - forgot about SG - it's like HK, haven't seen any hotel on PB list.

True.

Yikes, hotels are dropping like flies. Is it pretty much that once they are gone the list is updated daily? (ie this list)

http://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/glob...ds/pointbreaks

I just got approved for the IHG credit card today, and hope to be able to maximize my 70,000 point bonus on PointBreak hotels in the future (likely much further in the future, when we have the vacation time and additional miles to book an international trip on a whim). Look forward to following this thread so I'm prepared when the time comes. :p

I had to be in Southern California for interviews, for 3 out of the last 4 weeks. I used 105k IHG points to stay at the HIE in Moreno Valley.

Location was not ideal - at least an hour drive to LA -but the hotel is of a high standard(one of the best of the many HIE's I have stayed in) and I only needed to go into LA about 7 or 8 days out of the 21 I was there.

Ultimately my alternative was about $1500 on renting an apartment so I am happy I got good value for my IHG points even with gas costs etc. :).

That breakfast every day for a long period is not healthy tho... Those cinnabons are evil...

Sorry for the bump, but did anyone go to Lhasa or is planning on going to Lhasa? I'm still price shopping and its getting close to May and I need to get my permit ASAP. If anyone could PM me their recommendations and what price they paid would be great.

By the way, the next PointBreaks list will be released late May. Stay tuned. (It's not going away.)

^^^

IHG Steve, if you know or can find out, can you advise what months it will cover?

I found out the hard way that once you book it's impossible to shorten your stay on the front end unless pointbreak rewards are still available there to cancel and re-book.

Technically you can check out early and get points refunded but I just had a nightmare in Bogota where I checked out 5 days early and points weren't refunded. Serious language problems both at hotel and phone csr's makes it rough.

Better to reserve one day at a time as silly as that seems !

Thanks Steve, glad to know points breaks are not going and also your presence on here is appreciated! Keep up the good work.

You cant do that any more . No more than 2 reservations at a pointbreak property during the promotional period .

Personally I would also vote for pointbreaks being non refundable to stop people speculatively reserving then cancelling as cancellations do not go back into the available nights .

Well, I am not for that.

I speculate but the rules are clear that you can have no more than 2 reservations and if you place more, it is against the rules and IHG would be free to close your account down and confiscate your points.

I hope that is enough for many to abide within the rules.

I'm not sure if that would be in IHG's best interest. I would guess that it would depend on how far out the average PB reservation is cancelled. Since they don't go back into the PB availability, it would seem like IHG would benefit more from being able resell cancelled rooms at non-PB rates - as long as they aren't all cancelled last minute. There's still a ton of hype and anticipation surrounding the PB lists' release whether or not people actually use the stays ;-p.

Great news, but please increase number of nights and hotels.

It's just hard to imagine why someone will try so hard to sell his/her PB nights - it's troublesome to advertise these nights + lately the hotels that are on PB are not the most expensive ones anyway + you have to live close to one in case they ask for you or you want to make sure they swipe their own CC as deposit. Too much risk and time cost involved.

I think 2 ressies per hotel is ok, but making it non-refundable is a bit extreme and inconvenient.

Please can IHG return to bi-monthly Points Breaks

Reason being after 6weeks apart from USA there is nothing left for second half of the PB period and we are waiting 6weeks in the hope (instead of just 2weeks) that there may be a location we can use next time around

So long as PB users are told that PB reservations are non-changeable up front (except for total cancellation and refund of points).

If someone checks out early they should get a refund of points, but in my experience in Bogota I didn't.

Best way to use the 2-booking rule, especially on long-distance foreign stays is to make the first res for one night, then the rest of it on the 2nd res. That way, if your flights mess up, and you arrive a day late, or you might want to stay longer at your last stop, you don't lose the whole PB stay. This worked for me in EZE last time. Losing a PB night ($25-$35 value) is the least of my worries when travels go awry.

How poor are the summer pointbreaks historically? I can't remember whether it is poor properties or poor and scarce.

The selection in summer time is very poor in Europe and the USA/Canada. Because it is peak family travel time. But you will have some choices in middle east and Asia to say at least, and sometime very good ones in Latin America.