IHG Rewards Club Award Category Changes Effective January 16, 2018

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:

Download (PDF, 560KB)

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.