OPENROAD

If I am doing a two night stay at say the Mark Hopkin Intercontinental, book each nights stay separately, first night I book and pay for Club Room and second night on points, are they likely to make me move rooms for the second night?

scubaccr

at best you'll keep room for second night BUT without lounge access that you get first night.

booking multiple cats higher room type before an award night is highly likely to result in hotel telling you a)pay upsell for award night b)else have award cat room.
If 4x Paid and 1award IC would let you keep room without saying anything but not likely at paid:award ratio of 1:1 or less

foc lounge access at IC's is only for Royal Ambassador elites, and even then only on paid nights.

lwildernorva

I've done this twice in the past three years. I was not asked to move either time. As scubaccr notes without lounge access both nights, however.

beachmouse

2-3 years back, those national park hotels were often screaming good redemption deals where you could get something like the $275K+ tax in peak season HIX Springdale-Zion NP for 20K points a night. Sadly, the mothership finally figured out that those award nights were pretty undervalued in a lot of those national park areas where demand is high and vacant privately held land (and in the case of the Tusayan-Grand Canyon area, water rights for new construction) is scarce and they've been 'readjusted' but it still beats the high cash price for what, despite it being a well-kept property in an amazing setting, is still a HIX.

Keep an eye out for new properties where they often have somewhat better introductory rates. I'm currently sitting on an award reservation for a HIX in Amsterdam next year where I paid 20K a night, the cash rate is going something like 220 euros a night, and they've apparently recently adjusted the award night cost to 30K a night for new bookings.

Super Mario

I have regularly gotten .7 - 1+ on stays. My upcoming NYE stay is 1.4 cents, counting 4th night free, but not counting two 10% rebates. For those .5 or under, it makes sense to just pay cash.

Some of the upscale properties are very underpriced in terms of points. Bora Bora being one of them that is 1+ cent and always sold out.

rbAA

IHG points are cheap to get and I'm using them for midweek stays in the SF Bay area where even the suburban HIX's are $200+, or the San Clemente HIX on weekends where the rates approach $200 per night. So, 1 cent per. PB's were a good use but now there are few properties I would consider or need.

harryhv

Now that Pointsbreaks is dead, IHG Rewards is revealed as the scattered remains of a loyalty program. Maybe you'll strike lucky with IHG and get showered with points from promos, but good luck getting them credited - I'm currently trying to follow up 90,000 points from promos completed 8 weeks ago.

Even the OTA;s are more attuned to loyalty. Book through hotels.com and get a free night every 10 nights. Or use Orbitz and get frequent 10% discount-codes. OK, if you use an OTA you won't get the status-benefits like free breakfast - oh wait, IHG doesn't give that anyway, hmm, that's only a gold benefit at Marriott and Hilton.

Also it's wrong to say you're getting 0.7c of value because the cash rate is x - ithe real value is what you would actually be prepared to pay for that room, rather than what the grasping hotel is asking in their silly cash rates. The one saving grace is for cheaper hotels where there's a lot of local taxes in the rate, the taxes aren't charged on redemptions.

Super Mario

Are you implying that you're earning more free nights through hotels.com than with IHG? I know with accelerate, I definitely get more than 1 free night for every 10. In either Q1 or Q2 I received a free Saturday night at IC San Juan with my points from 6, $100 HI stays. Not to mention they upgraded me to a club room (not typical I know).

BrightlyBob

craigthemif

Hotels.com gives a lower rebate than the major chains (base points + tier + promos + cashback) in most scenarios.

It's not even 10th free - it's actually 11th night free...

However, if you have no status, are too lazy to use a cashback website, stay in hotels a couple of times per year, etc. then you should follow the non-stop advertising to hotels.com or Trivago. (which should be your first clue that they are minting profits at your expense)

vsevolod4

Many pundits value them at 0.6 cents per point. You can stretch the value far more when selecting PointBreaks, as many have noted.

But then you earn a lot more points than in other programs:
- 10 points per dollar just base. That's 6 cents per dollar
- if you're Spire (very easy to achieve) another 10 points.
- if you pay with the higher of the two IHG credit cards, another 10 points (and including taxes, VAT, parking and other charges which don't necessarily earn regular points).
So now you're getting an 18% rebate (in addition to eBates or Mr. Rebate, etc.).

And that's just the beginning. The promos are generous and while YMMV, you can often double your value.

So while each point is not worth a lot, you end up with far more points per dollar than in Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and other programs.

For example, I've had 34 free nights and 104 paid nights this year (plus 83 carryovers), and I've added 462,854 points this year to date. So I've gotten 1 free night for roughly every 3 paid nights, and I still added $2777 in points. That's a hell of an earning potential.
Sure a few of the free nights were from credit cards and promotions, and some were pointbreaks, but this is pretty generous overall ...