IHG Rewards Free Night Promo: Here’s how it works and why you’ll want to play
Earlier in the week I wrote that IHG Rewards – the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and related brands – would be bringing back their fun, complicated, and rewarding “Big Win” promotion for the fall under a new name.
IHG’s Into the Nights Promotion turns out to be easier and more rewarding than past versions. Registration is required and the promotion period runs through the end of the year.
Different members get different offers. Generally unengaged, irregular guests with the chain get easy offers and regular guests get tougher offers. (Members opening a new account seem to get the easiest offers.)
I haven’t been an IHG regular in quite some time so here’s what I received:
Bottom-line: If I download and use the IHG app to make at least one of my reservations, and book 3 nights over two stays — each of which includes a Saturday night — at Holiday Inn properties then I will earn my choice of:
- 60,500 points, or
- 2 free nights at any IHG participating properties and 10,500 points.
In general I value points more than free nights, since the former won’t expire. But the free nights offer here is super generous. Three paid inexpensive nights generating 2 free nights at any hotel plus bonus points on top of the normal points earned is probably the third most generous hotel promotion I’ve ever seen.
IHG confirmed for me that these free nights work just list their co-brand credit card’s annual free night: usable at any participating IHG property (as long as reward nights are available) and expire after 12 months.
Beating this would only be —
- Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights (two stays earned a free night at any Hyatt in the world when paying by MasterCard) back when Priceline stays counted and even the free nights themselves counted, as long as something was charged to the room – like a single phone call. But that was a decade ago…
- Hyatt’s ‘Next Big Thing’ where every two stays at a cheap Hyatt earned a free night at any Hyatt plus 13,500 United miles and other bonuses plus double elite night credit stacked. (There may even have been a cheap airport hotel I knew of which credited phantom stays..) But that was five years ago…
It seems like everyone in the family could sign up for this promotion, whether they have existing non-frequent IHG stay accounts or need to open an account for the first time. Then find a couple of cheap Holiday Inns to check into on Saturday nights.
Spending say $300 should earn back points worth at least a third of that amount plus earn 2 nights at any Intercontinental. Do that for all members of the family and you potentially have pre-paid luxury Intercontinental nights (that will expire if unused) in expensive destinations at a cost of ~ $100 per night.
Last summer I wrote that this promotion bucks real industry trends by embracing gamification.
I expected this promotion to be good for folks already staying at IHG Rewards properties, and certainly not to make ‘mattress runs’ make any sense. But for many members the promotion turns out to be better than that. It’s certainly worth directing incremental stays to the program, if you receive a good enough offer. And it may even be worth booking hotel nights you do not even need and will not use, depending on your situation, how much you’ll value those free nights.
- You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
I don’t see how you are getting anywhere close to 60,500 points based on what is shown here. It that a typo?
You say 2 free nights at any hotel, but it clearly states “at any IHG participating properties”. Do we know which those properties are?
@Mark it’s 25k points or a free night x 2 plus the points per activity
@Mark
If you complete that list of items you will get 10,500 PLUS either the 2 free nights or 50,000 points bonus.
@Gary — “It seems like everyone in the family could sign up for this promotion, whether they have existing non-frequent IHG stay accounts or need to open an account for the first time. Then find a couple of cheap Holiday Inns to check into on Saturday nights.”
Each person’s offer is different, so I don’t think you can say that everyone can sign up for THIS promotion. Sadly, my offer sucks — 21 nights, 7 different ICs, blah, blah….not gonna happen.
How, with generally lower awards and similar qualification requirements, are you seeing this as the “most generous and game-able” in five years? The points earning potential on the Big Win the prior two times around were much higher in many cases and just as game-able in combining one stay across multiple qualifying actions (e.g. book via app, Saturday night, specific brand).
So, what’s really different this time around??
Strange, on both mine and my wife’s accounts, under “My Offers”, we both see 2 items that say:
“25,000 Points or 1 Free Night(s)
Complete 1 offer and earn 25,000 bonus points or 1 free night(s)”
And over to the right they each say
“0 of 1 offers complete”
Okay, makes sense. Then right under that it says
“Unlock bonus offers
for the opportunity to earn additional rewards”
But I don’t see anything else – so no ‘offers’, but I have 2 entries that say complete an offer for 25k points or 1 night….am I missing something? Or just out of luck that we didn’t get any offers?
@jay, I see that too.
Jay & Sam, I see exactly the same as you do. Not surprised with the IT skills of Priority Club.
Gary: are you understanding this to mean, for the Holiday Inn stay(s), to exclude HI Express as far as the hotel-specific bonus?
So how and when do I choose 2 free nights over 50,000 points? I would hate the be credited the points instead by accident…
Looking at the terms and hypothetically using Gary’s offer list, would it be possible to just:
1) Book 2 reservations, both for one Saturday night
2) Book 1 reservation, any day of the week
I don’t see that it mentions the reservations have to be consecutive days…is that accurate?
Will govt rate stays count?
Gary, do you know if this promo is only good for reservations made after the announcement date?
I have a six (6) night stay already booked at a Crown Plaza in Louisville, Ky for later in September. Do you know if that will qualify? I am IHG Platinum
My offer reads:
“Complete 4 of 5 offers and earn 28,300 bonus points or 2 free nights”, for a total of 50K points.
But I think the “2 free nights” means enough points for 2 nights at a low level property, not 2 free nights anywhere. Because the offer I see reads:
“at least two free nights or 50,000 points”
It doesn’t say 2 free nights anywhere, it seems to mean you can get 2 free nights for 25K points per night at many low level properties. The top end ICs require 45k to 50K points per night. I hope your interpretation is correct, but it doesn’t seem to read that way in my offer at least.
Gary – I don’t know if you saw my post about this this morning, but one reading of the terms and conditions suggests you can get 50,000 AIRLINE MILES. That would certainly be worth more than 50,000 IHG points, though potentially not as valuable as 2 free nights, depending on where you took them.
Also Jay / Sam / Vicky – I see the same as you on my account. My wife’s account shows a promo that is similar to Gary’s in that it should only take 3 stays to achieve
@Robert Hanson: Good point…I don’t see that the 2 nights are good for any hotel! My hunch says you can potentially redeem up to 2 nights, given the different tiers to redeem those points
@Robert In my offer at least, it doesn’t matter which type of property you stay at:
“Stay 2 Saturdays at any of our IHG hotel brands”
@Points with a Crew — Good catch; however, you earn 25k miles or 50k IHG points. IMO, the miles are more valuable.
Contrary to your experience. My new promo was worse than either Big Win (the last Big Win wasn’t worth completing).
For 50K points I need 20 nights, 18 with breakfast package, and three Saturdays.
Not much hope for gaming that.
When I signed up for a new IHG account, my offers are blank
It says complete one offer per free night but it has no actual offers
Opps One of my nights must include a “bonus points package with breakfast”. At my local HIE I find a non-refundable rate of $99. But when I specify a “bonus points package”, the rate jumps to $160. So 2 Sat nights, one non-ref, one bonus points, with tax will total $285. Probably cheaper than the $ cost for a European or Asian IC that runs 50K points a night. But I wouldn’t normally book a $400 room for cash, so I’m not this is really a deal.
I don’t see anything in your offer about the free nights or 60,500 points after 3 nights with 2 stays. All I see is the 10,500 points if you add up all the little points categories
My wife’s offer is the same as Jay’s:
“25,000 Points or 1 Free Night(s)
Complete 1 more offers and earn another 25,000 bonus points or 1 free night”
So potentially 50K points for completing both of the two offers. But no mention of what those offers are, and no obvious way to find out. What the (heck)?
Same with me as Robert’s wife and Jay’s.
25k for completing a secret offer that they don’t reveal to us.
subscribe
@ Beachfan Maybe that’s the game. In order to get the bonus points, you first have to figure out on your own what the offer is. If you guess correctly, you get the points; if you guess wrong, you don’t. I’m willing to bet IHG will win that game, but probably only 100% of the time.
@Jennifer True, I did have to sign her up for email offers, so that may be it. Maybe she will now get an offer sent to her. But I’m already signed up, and I haven’t gotten anything sent to me about this promotion.
Edit:
I registered this morning, and I just got this response:
“This email has been sent to confirm that you have been successfully registered for the promotion outlined below.
Member: Robert Hanson
Member Number: xxxxxxxxx
Promotion: Into the Nights”
IHG is so royally screwed up. Just saying “into the nights” is not “outlining” the offer. If I don’t get what I expect to get, I can’t use this email to back the offer up, as it doesn’t in any way say what in fact I am supposedly registered for…
Gary: How confident are you that you can choose 2 free night anywhere certificates rather than the bonus points?
When I looked at my offer and selected the Nights tab of the Earnings section it showed my bonus points (20 something K) and then “Potential Nights” as 2. It sure looked as if they were suggesting that my points had the potential to get me that many nights, not that I was getting free night certificates of any kind.
Those of you complaining about not getting a great offer, why not just open a new account? IHG doesn’t commit to honoring elite benefits on award nights anyway.
Gary – any chance you can use your leverage to get some answers as to why there are no offers populating in many peoples accounts? I’m one of them, by the way.
@Wandering Aramean it’s the two free nights option, not the points option, that provides the leverage here.
@Gene what @Jeremy Jordan said
@robert Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are different brands
@Jana miller – as long as they are points-earning rates booked through an IHG channel they should be qualifying
@Points With a Crew – that wasn’t my read
@Nick F- there were definitely some technical glitches when the promo was launched yesterday, I’d give it a couple of days
@Gary @Jereny Jordan — There is a chance that your new (and maybe your old) account will be closed if you do this. And, there is a huge uptick in benefits on award stays these days, especially in Europe. For example, I just stayed in the Penthouse Suite with free minbar at IC Amsterdam last week on a points stay. I also hear that IC Paris Le Grand is again granting free club access to RAs on award stays.
Glad you got a good offer, Gary, but the article title is pretty misleading. It’s only generous if they’ve given you a good set of offers, some of us have been given rubbish ones that we don’t have a hope of achieving (and I’ve only had one run of 3 IHG nights on a redemption in the whole of this year!) – I was hoping the article had some great insight (“here’s how to play it”) but it doesn’t appear so.
Zero nights from me to IHG for this one, I’ll stick with Hilton’s bonus points offers, it’s not that generous but at least I’ll get something extra for my stays!
Congrats on the offer – mine isn’t that easy but I love the fact that it seems it’s any IHG property incl. Tahiti 🙂
My friend got this offer (there is nothing to scroll or click) any ideas?
http://imgur.com/SiqfHOZ
@TJ –
re-read the thread – that’s what quite a few of us are seeing. Not sure if it’s a glitch or if we’re just SOL 🙂
I’m super stoked for this. I’ve got a whole bunch of hotel stays coming up that I’m not wedded to, and I’m going to shift it all to IHG (which is great for them) and pick up some sweet sweet rewards (which is great for me)
You might want to check you promo again today. My wifes account had the promo change overnight. You can see her before and after requirements here. http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/ihg-rewards-club-%E2%80%9Cinto-the-nights%E2%80%9D-promotion-september-4-%E2%80%93-december-31-2014.97424/page-2#post-2430416
she can now secure her two free nights and bonus points in just one stay.
I’ve heard people called and were told the free nights are good anywhere, and are good for one year, but I for one would like to see this in writing, via the T&C of the promo.
@DJP_707 I do have it in writing (email) from IHG
My offer doesn’t suck as much as my last Big Win offer, but I’m not going to do it unless my work puts me in HI for 5 nights (one of my requirements). Not worth it to spend my own money for 50K IHG points (my offer).
Hmm. 50K or 37.5K+2nts. Definitely going for 2 nights. But don’t like the options
Take the survey
Book once via the app
5 nights anywhere
2 Saturdays anywhere
2 IC Resorts. Terms do not say two “different’ IC’s. Does say alliance properties count, so I could do relatively cheap Venetian/Palazzo mid-week stays if I hurry while it’s still hot in Vegas. Hmm.
It’s the IC thing that bugs me. Wish I’d gotten Holiday Inn option, there are still dirt cheap summer rates abound in Phoenix for a few more weeks.
@Gary – can you post a screen shot of the email? That would help everyone feel better about this.
Have you found terms and conditions for these? Such as, can you redeem the certificates for someone else (so if my dad were to do this but couldn’t use up the free nights in time, could he use them to book hotel nights for me?), or must the hotel night stay be completed before the expiration date, or only used? For that matter, when are the certificates issued? Shortly after you complete the terms, or shortly after the promotion ends? I’m fairly surprised I could not find any terms and conditions specifying pretty basic details like this.
My wife got zero offers, how generous IHG!
Offer summary
0 Available
0 Completed
0 In Progress
All depends on your offer… I have to complete 7 nights … Not re
Something worth mentioning..in some cases, not all offers/tasks need to be completed in order to obtain the two free nights. In my case, I need to complete 3 of 4 offers to get the bonus and 2 nights.
Terms and conditions?
There isn’t even a clear description of the offer on the IHG website. And the email IHG sends you when you register doesn’t say what you are registered for. It just says that “you are now registered”.
But registered for what? Is it 2 free nights anywhere, or enough points for 2 free nights somewhere? Why are we expected to jump thru these strangely varying hoops now, and find out what we get for it later?
Gary has an email. Ok, but what does it say? And if/when IHG doesn’t fulfill what it says, assuming it’s not as vague as the description on the website, what do we do? Email IHG and say: a blogger said he got an email from you that promised “something”?
I’m getting fed up with these “take a chance” offers. First AMEX with “if we identify you as having an American Express card” (how can they NOT identify you, since the app requires your SS#, home address and phone number?) “you may not qualify for the bonus”.
What, sign up now, get a hard pull, put spend on the card, and find out later if you are going to get a bonus or not? Now IHG is getting in on the “take a chance” game. But this doesn’t just involve a app, this involves some serious spending to qualify for an unclear result.
I’m doing a one person boycott. Any “take a chance” offer that requires money, significant effort, or a hard pull, is going to be ignored.
I have no idea what they are talking about. My wife’s offer sounds great, but …
Complete 1 offer and earn 25,000 bonus points or 1 free night(s)
AND
Complete 1 more offers and earn another 25,000 bonus points or 1 free night
What does it even mean? Complete what offer?
@Frank, exact same thing here.
I just called IHG. The woman said she couldn’t find my offers either and that it will refresh and update my page “in 24 hours, that is on September 12”. I said that sounds more like a week than 24 hours … and she said “Yes”.
I would get everything in writing before I trusted this “offer”.
I’m another one with zero offers available.
Offer: Stay at 2 Holiday Inn hotel(s)
Do Holiday Inn Express count for this?
@James – Holiday Inn Express does not count. The website says “Stay at 2 Holiday Inn hotel(s)” but in the email I received, it’s clearer – “Stay at 2 Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn® Resorts or Holiday Inn® Club Vacation hotels”
From all the confusion in the comments above it sounds like this was promotion was not ready to go live. Hopefully IHG will get things sorted out with clear terms published so folks can decide if any of this is worth doing based on their own personal offer.
@Dave M – Thank you!! Greatly appreciated!
I’ve stayed at 2 IHG properties this year. When I logged into the IHG offers link, I have ZERO offers, and ZERO potential nights. Great.
@Jack – Why should this promo be different. I haven’t seen a big IHG promo yet that looked like it was really tested very well. The Big Wins certainly also had problems.
I actually titled it GET UP TO 10 FREE NIGHTS. (its actually 12 with the bonus)via the points redeemed on pointbreaks.
Ive had IHG platinum benefits and suites (even suite upgrades) granted ( even in IC’s) in most countries save USA. Mostly on pointbreaks. Gary’s youtube vid is pretty much spot on with ways to get it done. Lets face it no one likes a dog kennel over the dragons den.
It is a VERY generous offer. I pre-registered before they emailed me a mission impossible one to accomplish.
@Gary you should know better than me, with complex promo’s one has to spoon feed and butter the toast on both sides and serve breakfast in bed with most members of a audience.
I usually screenshot as much as possible from the offer ad page to the personalized offer top middle and bottom, if there are clear T and C’s too.
I will sign up my whole family, neighbours and grandparents this mattress run offer is so good.
Glitches, we love them. If only everyone knew how to generate a free night at a time at hotels with system glitches. The industry will be in mayhem. Some thiings are best not written about. http://www.traveloyalty.co.za
I actually titled it GET UP TO 10 FREE NIGHTS. (its actually 12 with the bonus)via the points redeemed on pointbreaks.
Ive had IHG platinum benefits and suites (even suite upgrades) granted ( even in IC’s) in most countries save USA. Mostly on pointbreaks. Gary’s youtube vid on getting upgrades is pretty much spot on with ways to get it done successfully. Lets face it no one likes a dog kennel over the dragons den.
It is a VERY generous offer. I pre-registered before they emailed me a mission impossible one to accomplish.
@Gary you should know better than me, with complex promo’s one has to spoon feed and butter the toast on both sides and serve breakfast in bed with most members of a audience.
I usually screenshot as much as possible from the offer ad page to the personalized offer top middle and bottom, if there are clear T and C’s too.
I will sign up my whole family, neighbours and grandparents this mattress run offer is so good.
Glitches, we love them. If only everyone knew how to generate a free night at a time at hotels with system glitches. The industry will be in mayhem. Some things are best not written about.
Here is “My offers”
20,300 Points or 2 free nights
Complete 4 of 5 offers and earn 20,300 bonus points or 2 free nights
0 of 5 offers complete
Points Value Offer Name Progress
13,200 Stay more
Stay 6 nights at any of IHG’s 4,700 hotels worldwide
7,200 Book on the IHG App
Sign in to your IHG App and book 2 stays. The IHG App allows you to get mobile-exclusive rates, access your virtual membership card and more.
7,200 Change your View
Stay at 2 Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn® Resorts or Holiday Inn® Club Vacation hotels
2,000 Apply for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card
Apply here for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card and earn 2,000 points. Plus, you can earn an additional 60,000 points if you’re approved for the credit card.
100 Take our survey
Take our survey. We want to hear what you think.
Unlock bonus offers for the opportunity to earn additional rewards
ALL: You’ll just have to COMPLETE the bonus offer to know what’s IN the bonus offer.
@Nancy Pelosi And then hope the website roll out goes as planned. ROTFLMAO
Registered my wife for the “2 unknown offers” offer yesterday. She got an email today saying she had updated her profile, I guess meaning I had agreed to have emails sent to her. But no “thanks for registering” email. Nothing about this offer at all.
Logged onto her account today, it still shows 2 unknown offers. it does not show her as registered,yet the ability to register is no longer there. The title of the page is, get ready for it:
“Never more together than right here, right now.”
I don’t think “together” means what they think it means.
If anyone gets confirmation on the “two nights” and where they can be used, please post. A lot of us have what would be worthwhile offers for a mattress run IF the two nights are not at HI, etc. Thanks! (Now, back to my Hyatt Place for this month’s run. ; )
@Jack nailed it – this promotion was not ready to go live.
Those (understandably) worried about the lack of T&C’s – now take a deep breath, and wait for the T&C’s to be posted in your account.
Gary – do you think that any of the cashback sites like ebates etc. can be used to set up the bookings, and still get credit for completing the tasks. They seem to lead to bookings on the IHG site.
@aubergine – yes
My offers finally populated and unfortunately appear to acquire multiple stays (rather than nights).
Stay twice and get a free night or 25,000 points or 10,000 miles (1,250 AIR MILES or 160 Airpoints). Must book direct.
Stay twice again and get a 2nd free night or 25000 bonus points or 10,000 miles. Must book direct.
My offer is for 102,000 or 51,000 and 3 free nights. I have to stay 4 nights, including 2 Saturdays, 2 times at intercontinental, and one breakfast rate. not bad if I can use the 3 free nights at any hotel.
I’m really torn. I have to complete all 5 of my tasks to get the 2 nights. The reservations and 3 nights are easy, but I don’t have a smart phone, so I can’t download the app and make a reservation from it. Damn it. So close. But, I’m not willing to buy a smart phone just for 2 nights in (an amazing, I know) IC. Damn, damn, damn.
It’s been widely reported on FlyerTalk that many people who signed up for this promo have seen their individual promo change from what was initially shown on their account. This happened to me too. Initially I received a promo very similar to the one posted above by Gary Leff – easy to achieve, and I made some travel plans based on it. But then a different version of the promo was shown, with higher requirements, and I will not be able to earn the 50,000 points so easily. Instead, I will only be able to earn points for some of the individual tasks. It is probably either an intentional “bait-and-switch” by IHG or else some really massive screwup. NOT GOOD in either case. 🙁