While most banks, airlines, and hotel programs have been cracking down on “gaming”, IHG has taken the opposite approach. They’ve regularly run promotions that are like games. They target different customers with different challenges in order to earn bonus points.
The problem for me has been that most of my offers in the past have been terrible. With the latest IHG Q3 Accelerate promo, though, I like what I see!
To register for this promo and to find out how many points you can earn, click here.
The following bonuses are based on the offers targeted to me for travel between September 1 and December 31:
6,500 bonus points from one stay
As you can see in the image above, several of my offers allow bonus point earnings on a single stay:
- Stay once, get 2,000 bonus points
- Book and pay for one stay with your IHG credit card, get 1,500 bonus points
- Stay once in September and get 3,000 bonus points
Nice. If I book a single one-night stay in September and pay with my IHG card, I should earn 6,500 bonus points.
36,700 bonus points from 3 stays
If I were to do three stays, I could earn even more:
- Stay at 3 brands, get 19,200 bonus points
- Achievement bonus: Complete 3 of the first 4 offers and get 11,000 bonus points (I would earn this by staying at 3 brands and paying at least once with my IHG credit card)
With 3 stays, I could earn an additional 30,200 bonus points for a total of 36,700.
Even more points possible with 3 stays
I don’t think it is likely that I’d complete these two options:
- If my 3 stays were to span 5 nights, I’d get an additional 10,000 bonus points
- If 2 nights were in New York City, I’d get 3,000 more points
The usual points too
In addition to all of the promotional points listed above, I’d of course also earn points from the stay itself (10 points per dollar at most brands, 5 points per dollar at Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites) + a 50% bonus thanks to my Platinum status (which I have because I have the IHG credit card). And, I’d earn an extra 5 points per dollar when I pay with the IHG credit card.
With these standard earnings, if I were to spend 3 nights at $100 per night, I could earn $300 x 20 = 6,000 points.
Worth mattress running?
A mattress run is where you book and check in to a hotel just for the points and/or to earn status. You can literally walk up to the front desk to check in, then leave the hotel without even stepping into the room.
The other day I wrote that I’m planning my first mattress run in years. Between a targeted offer and a public offer from Wyndham, booking a night just for the points is well worth it. Is that true with this IHG promo too?
Let’s assume that I go for the 36,700 bonus points that I can get with 3 one-night stays. According to our Reasonable Redemption Values, IHG points are worth about .54 cents each. That means that one can reasonably expect to get .54 cents value per point. With 36,700 points, I can reasonably expect to get about $200 in value.
For a 3 stay mattress run to be worthwhile, though, I would have to pay far less than $200 in order for it to be worth the effort. There is no reason to spend $200 on hotel nights just to get $200 worth of points. That’s going backwards. I’d want to get $200 worth of points for $100 or less, and with minimal fuss. Is that even possible? Probably not.
So, I wouldn’t exclusively mattress run, but if I had a couple of qualifying stays that I would have done anyway, it would be worth mattress running for that third stay. I’d have to make sure each stay is with a different brand and would ideally have at least one stay in September.
How about you?
Did you get a good 3rd quarter IHG Accelerate offer? Are you planning to mattress run? Comment below.
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One of mine is “when you book 1 Bonus Points Package stay(s)” What exactly qualifies for a Bonus Points Package stay? Is it as simple as choosing a rate that has breakfast added on or something similar. Thanks!
When booking hotels on IHG.com, select a hotel and view the room rates. Some will look something like this:
Bonus Points YOUR RATE by IHG® Rewards
Club BONUS POINTS: 1,000 Bonus Points for Every Night
One of my offers is for a points and cash booking.
If I made a one night points and cash booking in September would that night trigger the stay once and september bonuses and count towards the stay more bonus? Or would it only trigger the points and cash bonus since normally reward nights don’t count.
The way that IHG does points and cash bookings, I think that the stay would count exactly like a reward night stay. I don’t know whether or not a reward night stay triggers the other bonuses
My September offer is close with a few exceptions. I’ll earn 100,000 bomus points if I stay 50 nights during the period, and since I don’t have the credit card, I don’t have those bonus offers. I can earn 14,400 for staying at 9 holiday inn express.
My offer was 41,500 points for 1 stay made under the right conditions like paying for it with my IHG credit card and using points and pay so I am definitely going for it.
Big score there!
I already have an upcoming stay (free night certificate) at an Intercontinental in October that was reserved a month ago. Would this stay count since it is in the promotional period???
Thanks.
My experience has been that reward nights do not count for Accelerate.
Laura is correct — award stays do not count (unless one of your offers is specifically for “using points” or making a cash + points booking.
I will get 30k points for 1 Points and Cash night in September paid with my IHG card.. it’s a win!
Awesome!
Having not used an accelerate offer before, I’ve a bit of a noob-ish question. Most of the offers have a ‘book now’ button next to them. So if I click the book-now button next to the 2000 (stay once) award, but I book a stay in September and I use my IHG credit card, does it automatically activate those bonuse categories as well (even thought the booking is through the 2000 pt (stay once) button?
Thanks for any and all advice. 😀
You don’t actually have to click through the Accelerate webpage links. Just make your regular booking through IHG.com logged in with your account. It’ll all register once the stays are completed.
I di not follow the IHG rewards program much, but does this possibly mean an IHG points devaluation is on the near horizon?
IHG has been running these promotions a few times per year over the past 2 years at least (since I’ve been paying attention). For the few hotels that I regularly redeem points for, I have not seen any devaluation. I cannot say for sure as I always try to find the best redemption and, for me, since most of the points have been earned with reimbursed corporate travel, I come out ahead with any redemption!
As Michael said, this is a just about quarterly promotion they have been running for quite a while now — the offers are targeted, so there are many different versions. Greg’s offer is much better than mine this quarter, but I’ve received offers in the past where I’ve earned 40-50K for as little as two stays. I don’t think there is any indication of devaluation based on this offer (though, of course, a devaluation could still happen at any time).
I dunno if it’s just me, but these offer charts confuse me. I was thinking that when it says complete 3 of the 4 offers, it would include the “September Bonus Offer”. Is that not the case? (Therefore the 3 offers of “Stay Once, Get 2,000 points”, “Spend on your IHG Rewards CC” and “September Bonus Offer” would all qualify as 3 offers for one stay. Right? So 17,500 for one stay? The chart listing of offers says it’s a listing of “My Offers”.
It’s not you, the chart is a bit confusing. While my offer has 10 bonus opportunities, it states “Complete 5 of the 6 offers and earn (an additional) 9,000 bonus points”. These “6” offers are listed in gray just above this statement (at least on the email I received). The remaining below (Big Apple, Sept and Reg. bonus) do not count toward the 5/6. I hope this helps. Have a good weekend.
Michael is correct — the September Bonus Offer is separate.
Thanks for posting Greg. I received a 67,200 offer this week (Ambassador Elite…not sure if this is the difference in promo or not). 32,000 for 16 nights but only 10,800 for trying 3 different brands. For the past 2 years I have spent many nights at IHG properties and have found the offers achievable. I have performed 2 mattress runs at the cheapest Express I could find (usually at my local airport on a Saturday…check in and then go home) just to meet a last night requirement. In the end, 95% of my stays are company paid so one or two nights of sub $80 “stays” is well worth all the bonus points for the last 5 or six promotions. The only one I missed was this past Spring (ends in a few weeks) as my business travel dried up the first part of the year (I think I’ve accumulated 6900 bonus and not worth a mattress run). I should make this new one for sure.
Side note: I scored two huge redemption (in my mind at least) recently. 40K points for ocean front suites in Ocean City MD that list for $525 on the nights booked. Also booked the Hotel Indigo in Rome Italy for 50K with rooms averaging $560 (current exchange) for an upcoming trip. To me the redemption ratio cannot be beat.
Keep the posts coming as I enjoy each one very much!
Nice job on the redemptions! Have you gone to Ocean City yet? Do they still have the 2-story lasertag place somewhere near the end of the boardwalk? Fun times as a kid there!