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Good news! In the recent post “What are IHG points worth now that the gloves are off?” I detailed an analysis showing that IHG had devalued their points and free night certificates. Now, thanks to reports of IHG rolling back the devaluation, I’ve found that IHG point values have largely recovered!
I was in the fortunate position of being able to reproduce a detailed analysis that I conducted only 5 days ago so that I could objectively compare IHG point values now vs. then. Even better, I was also able to compare to a nearly identical analysis conducted in June 2020. This gives us a good picture of how point values have changed over time. For full details about how the analysis was conducted, please see my previous post on this topic. In this post, I’ll present only the results…
Mean and Median Results
| June 2020 | 4/4/21 | 4/9/21 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point Value (Median) | 0.64 cents | 0.43 cents | 0.64 cents |
| Point Value (Mean) | 0.67 cents | 0.54 cents | 0.58 cents |
| Cash Price (Median) | $213 | $238 | $238 |
| Cash Price (Mean) | $229 | $237 | $233 |
| Point Price (Median) | 35,000 | 47,000 | 40,000 |
| Point Price (Mean) | 34,603 | 48,952 | 45,286 |
A different story is told whether you look at the median or mean results. The median is the halfway point: half of the awards offered equal or better value and half offered equal or less value per IHG point. As you can see, the median point value has completely recovered from last weekend’s devaluation. Last year (before the devaluation), I had observed a median value of 0.64 cents per point and now I see the same. The mean point value (sum of values divided by count of values), though, is still way down from last year. This makes sense: there continue to be some properties where the point price is far too high. The mean calculation is heavily influenced by outliers like these whereas the median calculation is not.
40K Certificate Results
| June 2020 | 4/4/21 | 4/9/21 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percent Usable | 63% | 41% | 51% |
| Mean Room Rate | $177 | $176 | $194 |
IHG credit cards offer cardholders annual free night certificates good for hotel nights that cost 40,000 points or less. For each of my analyses, I calculated the percent of data points in which a 40K certificate could have been used. In June 2020, I found that 40K certificates could be used 63% of the time. This dropped to 41% on April 4th but then rebounded to 51% on April 9th. The April 9th percentage is considerably lower than the June 2020 percentage, but I believe that can be explained entirely by hotel pricing. The median cash price of hotels between then and now jumped from $213 to $238. And since IHG charges points roughly in relation to cash prices, we would expect some of those hotels to no longer be available at 40K or less.
New Reasonable Redemption Value
With hotels, I like to use average observed values as our Reasonable Redemption Value for points. Prior to last year’s analysis, we used a very old observed average of 0.57 cents per point. Last year’s analysis popped the RRV up to 0.65 cents per point. And our April 4th analysis crashed the RRV down to 0.5 cents per point [which was my “thumb in the air” consensus number between the observed median (0.43) and observed mean (0.54)].
While I could easily argue that the RRV should be put back to 0.64 cents per point, the fact that the mean is so low compared to last year gives me pause (previously 0.67 and now 0.58). Also, given the recent volatility in point values, I’m hesitant to return our IHG to the previous 0.64 cent per point high. Instead, I’m once again going with a “thumb in the air” consensus number between the observed median (0.64) and observed mean (0.58). Our new IHG Reasonable Redemption Value = 0.60 cents per point.
As I wrote last time, I realize that this is a weird time to assign hotel point values. The pandemic has led to unusual travel patterns. What we observe today may not correlate at all to what we see in the future. That said, with IHG changing things left and right, the best we can do is use the latest bits of information to get a “good enough” result. We’ll continue to re-analyze IHG point values as needed going forward.
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[…] Rewards is postponing the points devaluation so I guess if you are bored or something: Chase IHG Premier 125,000 Points + Free Night Certificate […]
I am currently holding a dozen IHG reservations for the next two months. Compared to last week, two went up in price and one went down (which I then rebooked). It did seem like I was seeing more unusually high priced properties for (which I never booked ) so that maybe why I am not seeing any “relief” in my personal bookings. In any case, IHG’s devaluation and subsequent re-valuation is complicated and not straightforward.
Yeah the spiked Holiday Inn I was just checking after the devaluation is still at the same price. Im over this crap with IHG.
Dead to me.
The “retreat” you’re speaking of may be limited. I’ve had 4-5 properties in mind that I’ve been monitoring over the last week. They’re all at the new reward rates. 30%+ jump for all.
I’m not seeing improvement in the Holiday Inn at Jekyll Island Georgia. Very short time ago could get rooms for 30,000 for April dates. Now a date I’m looking at in April is 60,000. Other dates have only points plus a $90 co-pay. Hope there are some silver linings somewhere, but still looks pretty bad to me.
I think part of the explanation for the reduction in point value even after the rebound is how IHG compensates hotels.
A hotel will get a small fixed fee (available on Loyalty Lobby in an August post. Not sure I can link it without getting this caught in the filter but the title is “IHG’s Reimbursement To Hotels For Award Stays (Sometimes Very Low Amounts)”) about 20-30% of their ADR. The one exception is if a hotel has 96%+ occupancy that night, at which point all reward rooms are reimbursed the ADR amount.
IHG likely expects hotels to be more full now than they were. Let’s say there’s a hotel with an ADR of $100 and reimbursement rate of $30.
There are other bonuses IHG gives, such as when the hotel has more than a certain percentage of occupied rooms as award rooms in a specific period, but I wanted to keep the math simple.
The best value going forward will likely be hotels that are unlikely to be full in the period you are staying there, as it will cost IHG way less for reimbursement. That makes IHG a poor choice if you want to do peak stays like Miami over Christmas, but a great choice if you want to do off-peak stays like Miami mid-week in September.
Tell that to the hotel in Springdale, UT. I was eyeing the place in late March for a one night stay when it was at 40k and since 4/1 and still today it’s at 70k for the one day I need.
[…] IHG Reverses Devaluation? It appears that IHG might have listened to the grumbles of loyal guests. See this post on Frequent Miler. […]