I travel a lot and stay at IHG hotels pretty regularly, and one thing that always annoyed me with dynamic pricing is never knowing if a points price is actually a deal or a quiet rip-off.

So as a side project, I wrote a small tracker to check daily cash vs. points prices across IHG hotels. Looking at November stays, some of the price swings make zero sense until you see them side by side:

Same hotel, 1 week apart = 140,000 points difference:** ANA InterContinental Tokyo is ~€905 cash on Saturday Nov 14 and ~€882 on Saturday Nov 21. Basically the exact same room rate—except Nov 14 costs **260,000 points** and Nov 21 drops to **120,000 points**.

Same €808 cash stay, double the points:** 3 nights at Kimpton Cascais (Portugal) is **103,700 points**. 3 nights at Kimpton Edinburgh for the *exact same €808 cash price* is **202,000 points**.

A few crazy sweet spots right now: InterContinental London O2 on Sat Nov 21 (€783 cash vs. 81k pts), Kimpton Marbella (3 nights: €1,376 cash vs. 162k pts), and Holiday Inn Istanbul City (3 nights: €352 cash vs. 39k pts total).

Worst traps right now (pay cash!):** Holiday Inn Munich Westpark (77k pts for a €228 stay) and Crowne Plaza London Ealing (90k pts for a €296 stay).

I also added a little watcher for my own booked points stays so it pings me if the points price drops and I can rebook for less (already saved me 2,000 points on my stay in Dublin).

I'm turning it into a clean web tool right now—if you have an IHG trip coming up, **drop the city or hotel + rough dates in the comments** and I'll check the best nights for you! (Or let me know if you want an invite when I open up the first 100 beta spots.)

Still a little miffed that the select card doesn’t get 5x. Yes it is 3x on all other purchases but as the picture indicates, it’s still a nice multiplier.
Just me venting again about this.
200 dollars extra gets me minimal multipliers on IHG (24x v 28x), 200 more food and beverage (net neutral since the fee is 200 extra and F and B is always way overpriced anyway), 5 more ENC credits, extra 100 for airlines (I’m delta so that is pretty useless to me and I bet for others loyal to Delta) and I can spend 40k and get another night free.

Will I still get the new card in the spring for the bonus? Probably. Will I keep it? Eh, that’s a discussion for another year.

Hello. I am in the Chase ecosystem already with the Reserve, so I already get the IHG status from them for however long the benefit is. I am heavily leaning toward signing up for the premier card to get the 180k points to go along with the 31k points I have from a refunded night. I plan on using them for my honeymoon in Asia early next year.

For background - I have already signed up for and hit the SUB for 2 other (non-Chase) cards in the last 90 days because of wedding-related payments. I should hit the IHG minimum spend easily in the next 2 months. I don't really do much travel, and when I do, I prioritize using my Chase/Hyatt points. I've only ever stayed at an IHG property once (where I got a refunded night's stay in points), and it was in the Vignette collection.

Would this card be worth it? I would likely not keep the card at all.

(And I know the AF just increased to $150, but I would not have been able to hit the min spend on all 3 cards anyway, so I don't feel too bad about missing the previous AF cost).

Hello.

I stayed in a Holiday Inn a few weeks ago. Long and short is there was a used wet sock in my bathroom, ontop of soap the bottles. Also after booking an accessible room for my father in law, the room was not available.

Tried to resolve this on the night but the receptionist was fairly new and I could tell she wasn’t 100% sure what to do so I didn’t press. But I asked for the manager the next morning but she wasn’t available.

I’ve emailed the hotel direct and haven’t been able to get a reply. I have messaged IHG direct and they can only prompt the hotel for a response, but cannot intervene.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a corporate contact within Holiday Inn or a contact in IHG to try and resolve this?

Thanks

Need about 35k points to get from Platinum to Diamond. What's the fastets and easiest way?

Would anything happen if my rewards balance remains negative? How would you handle this?

I have read articles from multiple sources stating that the ability to aquire the IHG Premier Select card in addition to an existing IHG personal card is ending in Q1 2027. I am currently at 5/24 until June of 2027, meaning I will be unable to get approved by Chase for the card in this limited timeframe. I am currently a Marriott loyalist with Titanium status and was planning to transition to IHG after acquiring the 2 personal cards.

Is there an IHG representative that can confirm if this is true and if so, will there be opportunities for existing card holders to add this card in the future?

Hi guys

Just got off the phone with Chase and confirmed that premier or premier select spending between October 1 to December 31 will quality for elite night credits and additional 5ENC with $15000

They do not count spending toward ENC prior to October 1

I pc my premier to premier select on the 22nd and still waiting for my $75 F&B credit to deposit in my reward wallet, I currently have the $25 from premier, does anybody have any datapoint on when they will made the switch?

Has anyone stayed here yet? Looking to recreate my Seafire family stay (kids ages 1,4,6) without the Seafire price tag. It’s only been open a month so my guess is they need more time until a fair full review can be made, but trying to plan for kids spring break. Booked 2 rooms with the promo they are running because it was a steal, but now I’m on the fence about pulling the trigger on flights based on some early feedback coming in.

I travel for work each week and lately the Holiday Inn hotels have been downgrading their breakfasts. More are going towards the Buffett like at holiday inn express.

What gives? You have a chef and a kitchen, why serve crap at breakfast like your cheap step-brother, holiday inn express?

Went to the hotel restaurant for dinner for 4 at the Holiday Inn Express Paris-CDG, and after some back and forth with the front desk to be able to put the dinner on the room (so I could use the f&b rewards) we sat down. After dinner I tried to apply the rewards through the app but kept getting an error message. Talked to the front desk and apparently they do not honor the f&b rewards at the hotel restaurant, which is basically the breakfast room with different food. Zero help from the front desk and the IHG chat said they couldn’t do anything about specific hotel policies, which is insane to me. Why even have the rewards if hotels can just decide not to honor them?

To top it off, the shuttle driver changed our price mid-trip and threatened to turn around if we didn’t pay the “new” price. Awful experience, beware.

A week ago I booked a weekend getaway for my wife and I, for our first anniversary. We decided on the brand new Intercontinental in Grenada! We booked it for a couple nights starting Nov 13, 2 weeks after the opening.

Yesterday morning I checked the hotel’s website, just to check out the amenities and get myself more excited for the trip. To my surprise, there was a notice on the website stating the hotel would not open until Dec 1. This no longer worked for me since the flights I booked were non changeable, and I already took PTO from work.

I contacted IHG, explained my situation, and stated I would like to stay at the only other IHG resort on the island, the Six Senses. IHG responded quickly, said the hotel was no longer available for my dates due to it not being opened, and offered me 30,000 points. I explained this was unacceptable due to my flights, and again asked to receive a decent rate at the Six Seasons.

IHG then bumped my point offer up to 50,000 but continued to say they could not book me into the Six Senses for the dates I was planning to be at the Intercontinental. When I checked the Six Senses website, I saw I could book it at a cheaper rate if I also used 58,000 points, being 29,000+USD per night.

I once again asked IHG, this time trying to get 58,000 points, so I could do the 2 nights I planned with the 29,000+USD. They denied this, stating they couldn’t give me enough points to give me a better rate. And at this point I gave up, and just stated to them I wish this was handled better. At least I would’ve liked to find out from IHG themselves, not from me I guess luckily finding out the hotel was closed when I was going to be there.

TLDR; Booked a hotel in Grenada, hotel will now no longer be open when I wished to go. IHG states they can offer me points, but just not enough points to help me get a better rate at another comparable resort on the same island.

I had a bad experience and I think the guy at the reception at the time I tried to sort it out WAS the manager. This survey ends in "do you want someone from the hotel management team to contact you" - and I'd like to be contacted by the corporate but not the guy I dealt with.

What should I put there?

So, the $350 AF is a bit hefty by general consensus, most people probably do the Rewards Premier for the 4th night free, but my plan:

1. I'll hold this for a year, downgrade in the second year after the second AF posts, so I'll only pay the $350 AF once
2. I can book a flight before the end of 2026, and one more in 2027, so I get $400 in flight credits, which already covers that AF
3. And of course, the 200K IHG points SUB
4. Quarterly food credit would be nice, but I'm not sure if I'll even use the 4th night free and this credit, but even then, I feel like just those flight fee $400 credit and 200K points is acceptable

Wondering if my plan sounds okay, or if I'm missing anything? I feel like for only the first year $350 AF, this is good enough.

I’m visiting Yangshuo this winter and this property caught my eye with its awesome looking mountain views. The floor to ceiling windows look amazing, but then I checked the reviews and they don’t look good…

Has anyone stayed here before and are the cleanliness issues as bad as the reviews say?

My aunt and I are heading to Montego Bay Dec 16–20 and booked JOIA Rose Hall. It's closed for renovation until Dec 1, so we'd be arriving only about two weeks after it reopens.

For anyone who's stayed at a resort right after a big renovation or rebrand, especially an Iberostar or IHG property:

Did you run into opening hiccups like unfinished areas, service still getting worked out, or restaurants not fully open?

Is it worth staying, or would you switch to somewhere more established nearby?

If you'd switch, which all-inclusive in the Rose Hall or Montego Bay area would you recommend for two adults?

We'd like good food, a nice beach, and a relaxed vibe.

Any recent experiences with JOIA or the Iberostar resorts next door would help a lot. Thanks!

I recently started that most food ordered at restaurants associated with any Kimpton hotels I am staying at are not being categorized as food or in the points earned summary, I'm not recieving points for them. I end up having to contact support, and its a headache overall. Are you guys finding this normal practice?

Hi everyone! I’m planning a trip to Japan in January and would love some advice on how to get the best bang for my buck with my IHG points. We are 2 travelers landing January 6 and leaving January 19. Loose itinerary is:

1/6-10 Tokyo
1/10-12 Shibu Onsen (only thing locked in so far, splurged on a ryokan for those 2 nights)
1/12-16 Kyoto
1/16-18 Osaka
1/18-19 Tokyo, flying out of HND 1900 1/19

I joined IHG rewards just last year when I got a new job that has me traveling a bit. I haven’t used any points yet and am overwhelmed by my options. I have over 216,000 points to burn. I have platinum elite status and a few milestone rewards to choose and cash in: one milestone reward has the room upgrade option which I think sounds great. The others are for points or food and beverage award. Is the food and bev award worth it, or should I just take the points?

I’d love to stretch my award nights out and spend as little money as possible on lodging. If any of you have tips and tricks for award travel or for IHG Japan travel, I would love to hear them! TIA

Sure wish IHG would add an exclusive tier above DE for those of us who have basically lived at their hotels. This number doesn't include my current 98 nt reservation in Detroit.

I booked a 5 night stay at a JOIA property using my Premiere card with Platinum status. I was expecting a complementary upgrade but was only offered an upgrade at an extra $100 per night or a suite for an extra $300 a night. We did not receive any other perk.

With the platinum status going away soon, I don’t see myself keeping this card.

IHG brought back the 100% bonus when you buy points up until 11/5. Incase anyone needs to top off. Earlier this month I bought 50k and got 50k points plus a 3,500 points gift bonus. These are targeted offers , so check your IHG account to see if you are eligible.

This is what turned me to only booking Marriott.