VictorHugo

Same with me.

I'm based out of Asia and my fair share of work trips are on Asia only. I can't pursue loyalty with Hyatt and Hilton, due to the abysmally low footprints of both the brands in Asia. Marriott and IHG are the other two major options left for me. However, Marriotts in my regular locations costs a bomb - Fairfield/Courtyard costs more than a Crowne Plaza! I personally value CP way above a Courtyard any day.

Not to mention the fact that IHG properties in Asia (probably except for Japan) haven't saw an increase in point rates even in current scenario.

Also with the 5k/10k bonus points rate, I can accumulate a good amount of points at a relatively cheaper price points.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with IHG at the moment. Even if IHG devalue more than 50%, I don't find a reason not to stuck with the brand as long as I make a better deal. Of course, YMMV.

Beetles

Some of the hotels in Singapore are starting to creep up in price. The HIX Clarke Quay is pricing at 22k/night on the dates I’m looking at. It was pricing at 17.5k/night a couple weeks ago. These are still lower than the normal 37.5k of course. The IC is still pricing below 40k/night which is still a bargain compared to the normal rate.

So I think the vaccines and talk of places like Thailand fully reopening in January is causing some speculative bookings at places we aren’t hearing much about full reopenings quite yet.

JapanFlyerT

I agree with almost everything you said, with the exception that the Courtyards (at least in Japan) are much nicer than the Crowne Plazas I have seen. Of course, Courtyards here are fairly new, have lounges and free breakfast for Plat and above elites, while ANA CP are 20 years old or more and don't offer much in benefits. The price difference can be double, I agree.

Fanjet

Ok. I did the research into the hotels I'm mostly familiar with (Central Europe). This is what I've found:

The hotels which were normally 10K points (and there several of them left in that region) are now 11K points.

Last year, when the pandemic hit and they halved the award points at several hotels there, the ones which were normally 20K points-- and went down to 10K points-- are mostly still at 10K points. The ones which were normally 25K points-- and went down to 12.5K points-- are now at 13K points.

I haven't seen any hotels go way beyond their normal award point level, except for the IC Budapest. Which IIRC was at 35K or 40K points before Covid, and now is at close to 60K points on some of the days I checked. Ironically, I found several dates where the ICs in Berlin, Warsaw, and Vienna were in the low 20K range.

So, there seems to be no logic or pattern one can follow in all of this. And I guess we'll have to see if things eventually iron out, so-to-speak.

beachfan

Lisbon ic went from. 40k to 55k when the room rate is 198 euros. I was going to use ma chase nights here. Now the Crete will be of little value if these stand.

ABZLocal

Could it be somewhat loosely related to the number of rewards bookings already on the system? I've checked a few nights I have and they are pricing higher. Although the same weeknight in the same month are also higher admittedly. A different month they seem much more reasonable out of the limited selections I've tried.

Fanjet

Just out of curiosity. When people are seeing these outrageous point levels at hotels. Are they for standard rooms? Because Hilton does this dynamic pricing as well. (And also doesn't tell you what the award level categories are for hotels anymore.) But they always cap it at what the hotel level is. Meaning, it can be priced lower, but not higher. And the way they work around this is to just raise the hotel's award category level without any notice. HOWEVER, they will put in award redemptions for higher category rooms. So, when the standard rooms are gone from inventory, these higher levels will show up in the search scroll. And some of them are insane, like 150K points for a night at a hotel, when all other hotels in the area are at 20-40K points, for example.

beltway

Hilton eliminated award category levels more than four years ago.

hopkinsa

Yes, they are for standard rooms. The HIX I booked for 40k a couple of weeks ago that is now charging 70k, is still only allowing points bookings for the same standard 1 king or 2 queen rooms. You still cannot book the suites with points.

gbdbld

IHG issued a statement and said the points increase are exactly what they intended to do: Disappointing: Huge IHG Rewards Club Devaluation | One Mile at a Time“We rolled out our Dynamic Pricing models to our hotels around the world last year which enabled the amount of points required for IHG Rewards members to redeem a Reward Night to flex up and down, just like cash rates.

Previously, Reward Night point amounts were static throughout the year. This model allows point amounts to decrease when demand is lower, providing greater value to our members.

Conversely, redemption amounts may also increase based on demand  and other factors and can update as often as daily. Reward Nights are not defined by categories or with minimum and maximum point amounts.

Under our new model, the number of points required for Reward Nights will vary with demand and seasonality.”

demue

If this is intended as implemented right now then either there are factors featuring into the equation that we don't know (e.g. more sophisticated then thought factoring things like occupancy levels, forecast etc.) OR IHG is even more incompetent than I thought was possible.

I'm on the fence here which one it is when looking at examples like the one below, IC Davos is 79k IHG points for a weekend night with a paid rate of ~500 CHF and then a few weeks later it costs 50k points when the same type of paid rate is ~1,300 CHF. Hmm, floating with paid rates you say, surely seems to be working perfectly, but this way I don't mind of course.

Call me cynical, but I really think they are just issuing a statement that all is well and working as intended while actually having no clue yet if that is really the case or if there are things that don't work as it should.

Ohh and if IHG decides to abolish max points caps for chains then it would be nice if they could manage to communicate that more clearly to their rewards (not loyalty, that one is dead) program members. IIRC, they never went on record to state that with dynamic pricing the max caps would be abolished.
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agjil

I am very confused about this change, as the ratio of points required versus actual price varies quite a bit among different properties.
If they introduced a true dynamic pricing model, the rate of points required per dollar should be uniform across the entire IHG portfolio, no?

beltway

Welp, there goes the value proposition for almost all Chase co-branded IHG cards. (The DW & I have 4 between us.) The anniversary certs were hard enough to use before; unless there's a substantial increase in the certs' point value, I can't see much use for them going forward.

gbdbld

Yeah, I will still keep the $49 select card. But for the $89 premier card, will cancel. You can probably only stay at a candlewood/HIX at the exit of a freeway now.

Brendan

I am lucky that I used up the last of my IHG points for a one-nighter @17,500 points in February. I now have a whopping 3K +change !