IHG made some remarks last year (read more here) that they intended to move variable award pricing in 2019 (apparently delayed), and this already applied to two InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Macao where the points price fluctuates.
IHG Rewards Club, however, has now rolled out this pricing method that some could call dynamic to a broader number of hotels in Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan). The goal must be to price all awards globally using this method.
You can access the IHG Rewards Club here.
READ MORE: IHG Rewards Club Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
IHG has communicated in China that the dynamic pricing varies based on market, brand, hotel location, and check-in date.
Here are a couple of examples from Taipei:
Regent
Midweek
Friday
Saturday
The price for Friday using points is double, even when there is hardly any difference in the underlying rate.
Kimpton
New Years Eve
New Years Day
The price for the New Years Even is more than double that of January 1.
Conclusion
Based on the few searches I made, not just the ones above, it appears that IHG Rewards Club may try to increase the price of the nights where they potentially need to pay higher award reimbursement to the property.
There were no much rhyme between the base level point price and the room rate (Regent and Kimpton often had the same while the former costs were at least 50% more than the latter).
IHG’s award pricing has been out of whack already for a while. There are numerous examples where the PAID RATE is lower than the CASH portion of the Points & Cash, which makes very little sense.
If, and this is a big IF, IHG Rewards Club reasonably implements this trying to get people to redeem on lower demand days, it could be win-win for all of us. There is always a chance that they try to devalue the points that we have (remember when the highest point coast was 30K per night – not that long time ago).
I have requested clarification from IHG spokesperson and will do an update next week
Considering that in the past the Regent Taipei is 60,000 pts for even the least busy night, I’d call this a positive for now, assuming they don’t pull a Hilton and make the max points per night extortionately high. I also like that the points price is not tied to the room rate like Hilton but rather based on expected demand, so, for example, IC hotels are going for 12,500 pts over CNY period in Shanghai while the cash prices stay rather high. I wonder how this will work with the US credit card 4th award night free benefit.
Not sure but curious myself also how the annual free night capped at 40000 pts will work as well.
IHG is also making Spire elite status easier as well at 55000 pts.
I think some Marriott hotels do that too. Booked London Regent Park on 8/31 at 40000 pts, yet 8/30 was more points.
IHG is just hopeless, better get rid of them.
I would like to see them leave the current system but add more dates and hotels to the points break promo.
IHG hasn’t done much of anything in the last decade to improve the value proposition of the program. Repeated devaluations, continually worse Points Breaks before killing the program off, the free credit card night going from any hotel to a limited subset, Royal Ambassador conditions worsened, and Accelerate promos are gone. Perhaps I’m being forgetful here, but I can’t think of any Rewards Club moves that the company have made during this period that actually were purely for the benefit of the customer.