IHG One Rewards is pricing many hotels at about half their usual award rate. This isn’t true everywhere or for all dates, but does appear to be worldwide.
You’ll find some Kimptons at 45,000 points; Intercontinentals between 35,000 and 45,000 points; Crowne Plazas from 25,000 points and Holiday Inns from 20,000 points. Again, not everywhere, but there are reports of Maldives and Bora Bora properties showing up at just 35,000 points.
Since IHG One Rewards no longer has an award chart of published prices, it’s not fair to say that something is mispriced. Reward pricing is lower than usual, but we have to assume this is just a nice sale – since the way that the program works is ‘the price is the price.’
If Hyatt were to price redemptions lower than usual, and there is no sale, it would be a clear mistake. They publish their redemption prices. Marriott, Hilton, and IHG can vary their pricing at will.
It looks like right now IHG is varying their redemption prices downward – by a lot – but since they haven’t marketed this as out of the ordinary I’ll assume it’s a flash sale. Get your reservations in. And consider repricing any existing reservations. But don’t be surprised if they have ‘seller’s remorse’ and try to renege later, so don’t make non-refundable plans around these bookings for a bit. I don’t expect this to last.
(HT: strayersong)
Don’t be shocked if you get an email in a few days that the reservation has been cancelled and points used returned to your account. Most things that are too good to be true really aren’t. Suspect an IT issue that caused the lower redemption levels and, if that is the case, IHG is well within their rights to unilaterally cancel any reservations made under the mistake rates. Before anyone says “they can’t do that” airlines have won the right to cancel mistake fares and that would also apply in this case.
No problem with people jumping on this but expect it to be taken away and don’t book airfare or other reservations you can’t cancel and get back the points/miles/cash used for them.
Not only that premium rooms pricing at that rate too
I just booked a regular “suite” room for 15K + $32/night next January for a photo shoot in Fla., which is definitely their high season. I hope it sticks.
You saved me 80k pts which I used for another 4 days in Paris in March
Hotel I was looking at in middle east is actually MORE (10-20%)
Just a data point: I had a reservation at the Intercontinental in Montreal for 33K points and now it’s 32K. Thanks.
Booked 4 nights at IC Tel Aviv for summer 2023: comes to 27K a night after the 4NF and 10% back (I have both IHG cards). What a stealllllll
@ Gary — This is clearly not a bug. IHG promised members would receive point sales, and this is it! I am impressed by this new benefit.
Hotels see the writing on the wall. Pent-up demand has subsided and business travel will never return to 2019 levels. When you have capacity as far as the eye can see, this is what you do.
They patched it.
Sale over
45k for kimptons in key west peak season
This was a mistake. It wasn’t intentional. They’ve restored previous rates; in many cases increased them further.
The 42 k for NYC IC Times Square is a drop from the 53k it was over the past few days
Its really supply and demand and their dynamic pricing at play
50% off no way
.In summer IC Times Square tops out more recently at 50 to 54 max
They forecast strong sales and closer to arrival the rates on award prices in points
may drop when occupancy doesn’t pan out
While I despise IGH customer contact centers I am happy hotel customer and appreciate the new program improvements as minimal as they are.Appreciate my Ambassador status and Chase Credit cards value as well.Because of the dynamic award redemption you must garden your reservations regularly or lose out potentially
Rebooked 4 nights at CP Melbourne Australia, saved 16K points.
Then having seen a price drop for Kimpton Muse NYC (and others) just went to book there, and neither Kimpton nor the other midtown hotels are showing me the reduced rate. Party’s over already?
Adding to my comment above, I have still not received email confirmation of the new booking, which is a bit concerning. IHG usually sends out confirmations as soon as the booking is complete.
@ Gary — Thanks! Managed to get in 1.5 million points worth of bookings. This sale seems associated with an INCREASE in award pricing, which took effect in the last hour. Now seeing IC Paris at 108,000+ some nights.
….and, it’s gone.
Glad I stopped by blog this afternoon. Amazing deals in London for May 2023. Went to book more and points were back up to “normal” levels.
@Gene: Was not as quick as you but managed to make several bookings including IC Paris 4 nights for 120k (4th night free) and IC London 4 nights for 120k (4 night free). Was in the process of making another booking when the prices suddenly increased. Still pretty happy. Hope these bookings are honored.
Sounds awesome, but I’m just not well-versed enough with IHG to know what to book. Plus, any nights I book for already planned trips would be at an opportunity cost of hitting Hyatt Globalist again (and Marriott and Hilton are my backups).
FOMO sigh…
You saved me 80k pts which I used for another 4 days in Paris in March
Thank you for this! I was able to rebook a stay at the Clement Montery for about 2/3rds of the original pricing. Looks like it came and went very quickly. Glad I read your blog first thing this a.m.
Anyone note if kimpton seafire or kimpton Aluna in Tulum included in this glitch? I got to the party late and trying to see how hard I have to kick myself…
After I booked the IC Times Square this AM for the 42 k it went Up to 45k after Gary’s posting still lower than the 53 k yesterday. It’s crazier than the stock market ihg!
Dynamic pricing is a blessing and a curse but with Hyatts seasonal pricing and now Marriotts extortion redemptions I frequently book IHG where there may be much better value
Hilton maybe also but I laugh when I see Hilton Garden Inns for 80k a night
Good luck to them No friggin way Did I say he#l no?
I couldn’t pull the trigger quick enough to rejigger plans (which currently didn’t include IHG), but did get to use a 35K cert plus 5k points at the Kimpton La Peer, which is normally out of range of that.
Thanks Gary! I was able to book 3 weeks worth of stays at the Atwell Suites in Miami during peak winter months for 9750 points per night (including forth night free benefit). I quickly bought more points (100% bonus) when I saw this post. That comes out to less than $50/night! Hotel is pricing $300+/night during this time. Received confirmation emails. Amazing!