yurtripper

Let me guess... you're the guy who got Indigo Krakow in Q1 that way!

I'm the guy who missed out on that one. I figured out afterwards that the way you just described is the best option.

The_Bouncer

This list looks a bit meh. As others have said, a couple of decent looking options in Europe, but most of them are not well located. A quick weekend in Brno and/or Strasbourg are on the maybe list for me.

Dabrowa Gornicza looks like a barren location at first, until you realise it's within an hour's drive of Katowice, Krakow and Auschwitz. If I thought I could get any more than 3 days off in a row in the summer, I would be straight on it. Sadly the drive from my home (10 hour's or so) is too long for such a short trip.

JustinIreland

Generally the way that it works for check-ins and upgrades in my experience is that often they are assigned on day of arrival in the mornings, now it's not always like that but often it is in my experience.

Berlin is an expensive city, I stayed in the HI Berlin City East Side, and it was an excellent hotel, at regular rates the hotel on the PB list isn't really worth it but for Points it can probably be worth it,

Brno isn't bad but I was there a few weeks ago so don't need to go again, Budapest is 40-60 minutes on a bus or bus+,metro combination and not included on any transport tickets and tickets are not so easy to buy because they're for outside the city boundaries, so I felt it wasn't worth the hassle and stayed in an ACCOR hotel instead.

vesnushka23

hey guys,
this will be a super dumb question, but could you give a link to "rate/room select screen"? or a screenshot.

I want to be prepared for Monday

JustinIreland

Make sure you pick reward nights on the rate choice as well., because that'll make it show up first in the rates list and also make sure you are logged into your IHG account so literally you can hit book room, and then tick the box for the terms and hit reserve on next page and done.

I got a few days in Indigo Krakow and the service and welcome there was very very good, they seemed to push the boat out even more for Reward Nights than for normal guests, few freebies, points, discounted breakfast, upgrade, free room service, newspaper, late check out offer, can't speak highly enough of the place.

Really though on PointBreaks and Reward Nights in general it's a case of YMMV, some hotels push the boat out even more than for paid stays whilst others won't give you more than a non Rewards Club member.

UniqueDragon

Is 5000 point rate available now? I randomly clicked a few for May, June, July dates, none of them is bookable for 5000 points.

Or do we have to wait after 4/24?

JustinIreland

Won't go on sale until Monday,

EmailKid

Which time zone?

Currently in flyover country, so hate to have to stay up until 1 a.m. Central Time @:-)

mareh

The time it becomes bookable varies, but it usually doesn't happen before mid-morning EST. Sometimes, it's later than that.

Enigma368

I've given up long ago on good locations in major cities for pointsbreaks and I think you should too. I now assume if I get one in a city I want to visit, it will be in a non central location. A suburban hotel in/near a major city is still a bargain at 5k a night.

Enigma368

5+ years ago Berlin was a fairly cheap city for hotels but now it is distinctly in the moderate price bracket.

I would not call it an expensive city as it is still much cheaper than most other major Western European cities e.g. Paris, London, Rome, but definitely more expensive than it used to be.

TravelPhotographer

Crikey, one American Candlewood Suites already
unavailable mid May to points guests...

swaigiux

I'm always upgraded as a Platinum. No lounge however

sobe_dude

Berlin is not that expensive, at least it wasn't two summers ago. I found a 4 star hotel in my preferred location (the former center of West Berlin) for about 70 euros/night. The HIX in that area would have been about 90 euros, while the Crown Plaza about 120. The HIX did not have an in room safe, Crown Plaza and Intercontinental were more than I was willing to pay for a city like Berlin, that's why I went with a different chain. Still the HI Berlin City East side is good for 5000 points, as long as you are OK with its not so great location. I do not see any hotels on this list with awesome locations.

sobe_dude

The list of US properties has been really bad for a long time. Canada used to have some well located properties few years ago, but not lately. I remember booking Holiday Inn Centre Ville and Intercontinental in Montreal for 5000 points. Now the list in Canada is just as bad as the US list.