IHG Rewards Club made web page available for 2018 award category changes earlier this week (read more here), but forgot to inform members when these changes would actually take place!
Members have until January 15 to book using the current rates. The new rates are effective as of January 16, 2018.
You can access IHG’s page for these changes here.
READ MORE: IHG Rewards Club Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
There are total of 691 hotels changing award categories that represent roughly 13% of the 5,200 IHG hotels.
- 192 hotels will cost 5,000 points less
- 325 hotels will cost 5,000 points more
- 184 hotels will jump 10,000 points
We made the following PDF to make it easier for out readers to digest these changes:
Conclusion
You always have to keep in mind the number of points that you earn for your IHG stays when you compare the number of points required for free nights between chains. For example the number of Starpoints requires is usually low but their basic earnings are only one fifth of those compared to IHG.
When I made the Royal Ambassador piece earlier this week (access here), I “audited” my stays for the year. I had only redeemed one award night because I usually have access to very good rates and I don’t exclusively stay with any one chain.
rather amazing how little discussion this site generates any more….. IHG the brand is in serious trouble. When I first got into this hotel travel hobby, about a decade ago, IHG was our learning tool, our go too brand. Now, we rarely, if ever stay with IHG. Their retail rack rates have been steadily going up while quality competitors have been steadily becoming more reasonable. Worse, the IHG “into the chaos” promos have been getting more and more insulting…..and even if we byte, then what to use the points for anymore….. better deals elsewhere.
Thank you so much for the pdf list. I downloaded it for future reference.
You aim for a specific target….and they screw you 🙁
Should give a 12 month lead-time to changes 🙁
Not only would that be nice but the fact they just changed the targets so much last year too. This is being panned by most travel sites as a poor move on IHG`s part, but that’s nothing new. I wish I could understand this corporations end game as a loyalty program it less so nowadays.
Thx, John. The Monterrey CA Intercon is quite a shocker… it’s a dump and should really be rebranded as a lower end Crown Plaza. It’s surely not in the same category as the Intercons elsewhere.
Other than my 2 free nights a year I am so done with IHG… Two hikes in two years and completely devalued the program. The only reward cards that make sense anymore are cash since it never fails that the hotel and airline cards continue to deflate the programs almost every year. It is ashamed that IHG used to be a decent program — now pretty worthless.
This change is very bad.
Many hotels up from 10k to 15k
No hotels down to 10k…