genie00

Was entering random dates for the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Tampa N - Busch Gardens (11310 North 30th Street , Tampa, FL 33612) and noticed that I can't find ANY Rewards Night available from now till February 2017! I tried weekdays, weekends, but nothing came up.
Have you ran into this problem at this particular hotel or any IHG property before, where you weren't able to find Rewards Nights no matter what dates you entered? Is it possible that some hotels block award nights??

miadukes

That is the cheapest hotel in the area, it WAS 10k and now its 15k from what I saw last week. Maybe the blocked it until it hits 20k hahahahaha

but no I have no idea, when I encounter that randomly i start my searches from scratch and then the rewards show up.

eta: you might want to refresh and check again, ihave no problem pulling up april

genie00

Thanks, miadukes! Still not finding availability on random dates on April...

Saral

Have you tried searching with no options other than the date ie. no bed preferences or anything like that, that usually works for me

MD/DC Flyer

No problem finding rooms using the app - you might want to try that.

tropicalmn

Just did a search only the standard room is generally available for reward night.

LaphroaigAndRibeye

I just did a random search of May 9-24 using points and all nights are available. I think you may be bumping up against a technical glitch of some sort. When in doubt, you can always call IHG Reservations to clarify. I've seen this happen several times before and sent disgruntled emails to hotel management only to find that they do in fact have reward availability open that I was just not seeing.

genie00

Thanks to everybody who replied! I think I finally figured out what is going on. I had been searching for 1 room/2 adults & 1 child (since we travel as a family), and nothing was coming up at any random date I entered. But since you all were finding availability, I tried random searches for 1 room/1 adult, and voila, everything is open! Random searches for 1 room/2 adults have plenty of availability too.
I guess that particular Holiday Inn only offer rooms for Reward Nights for max occupancy of 2. Still not cool since the location close to Busch Gardens make it more appealing to families than business travelers.

sdsearch

And for a good reason: It's a dumpy property that looks like its concept dates from forever ago.

The rooms are laid out in a giant block-size square, with a most mediocre restaurant (not up to typical Holiday Inn restaurant standards) in a separate building in the middle of this square. The only elevator is at the opposite end of the square from the lobby. All room entrances are to an exterior walkway around this square (the walkway faces inward, overlooking the restaurant building). The restaurant only servers burgers, pretty much nothing else. WiFi was pretty spotty in my room at the front (the lobby side) on the 3rd floor.

If it's really gone up from 10k to 15k, that's a crime. It should go on permanent PointsBreaks until/unless it's torn down and rebuilt, IMHO.

LaphroaigAndRibeye

I see reward availability at the same 20K level for a room with two queens and an occupancy of 4 which comes up when searching for 2 adults 1 child. So even that should be bookable with points.

Try through IHG reservations if you're still having trouble with your dates and see if they can help.

genie00

Thanks Steven6702, but I think you are looking at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Tampa-USF-Busch Gardens (20K points), not at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Tampa N-Busch Gardens (15K points). At the latter, I realized that if you need 3-4 people in a room, you have to choose a suite. Standard rooms only allow up to 2 people, and that's why I wasn't seeing any availability when searching for Reward Nights.

LaphroaigAndRibeye

Makes sense! Not sure how old the child is or what sort of sleeping arrangements you have in mind for them but you could inquire as to whether they could add a rollaway or put you in a room with two beds and see if they'll allow 3 people to occupy it. Chances are they have it set to 2 intentionally, but never hurts to ask.

Another possibility is to check and see if they'll allow you to do a paid upgrade on top of the reward booking. Since the difference between the bookings seems to only be $8/night on many nights, and not much more than that for especially nice suites, I think your odds of this are decent if you send the hotel a note to inquire; try the email link on their website.

Final option: Based on reviews, they appear to have a semi-decent track record for upgrades. Your post/profile don't mention a particular status level, but if you are not Gold+ and have a few weeks before your stay, consider jumping on the IHG credit card bandwagon. They're running a 60K points bonus right now (could cover 4 nights here) and that will give you Platinum status, which you could then try to leverage into an upgrade with this hotel. (Also comes with an annual free night certificate which can be extremely valuable; I'm using mine next week for a night in the Intercontinental Park Lane in London, which was selling for over $500 when I booked it.)

By the way, one more note on this place... The prices I'm seeing for rooms there tend to average around $128-$136 depending on the day. 10K would have been an absolute steal at nearly $0.0136/point. Even at 15K you're still redeeming at an average $0.0875/point, which is among the highest I've see at any IHG hotels worldwide.

genie00

Thanks for all the tips, Steven6702! I am currently a lowly Club (been Platinum & Gold before), but got the IHG credit card a few days ago since I am planning many IHG stays this year. Hopefully I'll be able to negotiate something with the hotel after my new status posts ;-) I was able to sign up with a 80K bonus through a targeted offer I received last month.
Enjoy your stay at the IC in London!

MrTemporal

I hope not. I am switching from a competitor's award CC because they often either do not have a property where I need to stay, or they have the property but there are no award nights available.

I was hoping that IHG, having more properties in various small and medium sized towns would not have this problem.

Kiwi Flyer

Some hotels block award nights. Earlier this year I was searching for award at Auckland CP and no awards available at all to the end of booking window.