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At the end of last year, we flagged a very generous IHG Hotels offer, where you could earn a free night certificate after 2 stays at IHG’s new (former ‘Principal’) hotels in the UK
After spending a little bit of time working out how best to take advantage of the offer myself, I realised that it was probably even more lucrative than we first thought, because it looked like it could be stacked with other IHG offers: ‘Reward Nights Faster‘ and the MasterCard Partner Rate.
The one unknown at the time was whether stays at the new hotels would actually count towards the brand/stay/etc bonus points targets that make up the Reward Nights Faster promo, because the ‘Principal Hotels’ brand wasn’t explicitly included in the terms and conditions (and The Met Hotel in Leeds is technically brandless at the moment).
I can now confirm that stays at The Met Hotel (and therefore at the other relevant hotels too) does indeed count towards the Reward Nights Faster bonuses, as you can see below:
In case you missed it before and have no idea what I’m waffling on about, here’s a quick recap of the various offer details and how to stack them:
Free night
“It’s on us. Travel in the UK and experience the best Britain has to offer. When you spend two nights at any of our stunning new properties listed, you’ll get a free* night (*room rate only) at one of over 5,000 IHG hotels worldwide.
So, whether you decide to spend a couple of nights here or two nights there, you’ll still get a free night anywhere.“
The eligible properties are:
- Kimpton Fitzroy London
- The Met Hotel, Leeds
- Principal York
- Principal Manchester
- voco™ St David’s, Cardiff
- Principal Edinburgh Charlotte Square
- Principal Edinburgh George Street
- Blythswood Square Hotel, Glasgow
- Wotton House, near Dorking, Surrey
What do I need to do to get a free night certificate?
- Register for the offer here.
- Book 2 nights at the selected UK properties between 17 December 2018 – 31 March 2019 (note that these DO NOT need to be consecutive nights. Booking 2 separate stays is absolutely fine).
- Redeem your free night before 31 October 2019. Free night can be redeemed at over 5,000 hotels
At the time I noted that The Met Hotel in Leeds had some very good rates available – particularly single rooms on Fridays and Mondays, starting at ~£40. Even if you had no need to actually stay in Leeds, you could therefore potentially ‘mattress run” to earn a free night certificate for ~£80, which you could then use at any IHG hotel in the world – potentially saving you £100s.
Deal Stack!
1) IHG has since launched its new general promotion, ‘ Reward Nights Faster’ which stacks nicely with the free night certificate offer. Everyone is targeted with different offers, but I imagine most people should at least be able to get double points (and perhaps something much better) from their stays.
2) I discovered that my favourite regular hotel discount – the IHG Mastercard Partner Rate (full details) – applies to stays at The Met Hotel, despite it being new to the IHG booking system. The partner rate is open to everyone and knocks up to 30% off the price of IHG hotels in Europe when you book 21+ days in advance.
At one point you could book Sunday nights at The Met for as little as £28, though starting rates appear to have crept up to £34.65 now:
That still means you can have a couple of staycations in Leeds and earn a free night certificate to use at any IHG hotel in the world (including expensive Intercontinentals in London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, etc) for under £70!
Bottom line
This is truly great offer if you fancy a trip to Leeds, or can mattress run without too much inconvenience.
Anybody bumped into a fellow ‘travel hacker’ at The Met yet???
We need badges ! Then we will recognise other travel hacker mattress runners. But if you do like I did, quick check in, cuppa in the room, and then leave, you might not be there long enough.
Haha!
So what are the cheapest dates available now ???
When I checked several dates, it was always a sunday that came out cheapest.
Sundays are normally best, but Fridays can be surprisingly decent too – if you you actually want to stay and have a night out in Leeds.
Checking in this Sunday and leaving almost immediately for work, Same again for the following weekend to get my ‘stays’ in before the end of March…
Stay there sun and Monday and it will be under £90 and the voucher will be in your account after a few days once stay is confirmed.
Easiest free night offer I have seen in a while, now Of to book IC park lane for free
That is if you use the MasterCard discount, the hotel is going to be a indigo so is probably going to register as that on the accelerate program
IC Park Lane is a bit poor unless you are IC RA. If you have spire status, then CP City possibly a better option as lounge and nicer hotel. The best you’ll get at Park Lane is one or two glasses of champagne and a small room. It’s a bit like the Met in Leeds in that respect. IC O2 – in my opinion – better than IC PL. But the CP City would be my choice out of the three – if you are spire.
Do you get lounge access at the Cp city? As looking to use the free night and want the best value
As spire I meant
I’m not sure that the situation is now, but I used to get in as Platinum back when that was the top tier.
Reading trip advisor it seems many are being given the option of club if you have spire which is good and something some CPs follow thankfully
Agreed – I really like the CP City, though haven’t been for a couple of years. The IC is a nice hotel and a good location for first time tourists, but nothing special.
I’ve had one night at the IC PL when I was Spire with IHG, but on a redemption they gave me a room on the top floor with a balcony with a view over Buckingham Palace and everything else in that direction.
We came back to the room in the evening and asked at reception if they could send up a couple of glasses as we’d bought ourselves a bottle of prosecco to have on the balcony. The lady on reception asked if we were celebrating and my partner said it was her 30th birthday treat. Half an hour later someone showed up at the door with a bottle of Moet in an ice bucket, and a birthday card.
I’m 100% sure that my experience is a one off and when we go again it won’t be the same, but every so often people must get lucky and get the same kind of room that I did.
Thanks for the tip on CP London City instead of the InterContinental. Being newbie to all this, I would have gone for the InterContinental.
But on the advice here, I used my free Luxury night voucher at the CP City this weekend, and had an upgrade to a club room, plus the lounge.
Great to hear John! – what’s the lounge there like these day?
Joe we only went in for a quick look, as in the evening we were headed out early so missed the free alcoholic drinks time. But it was spacious enough and seemed well appointed; definitely busy the next morning, but we also skipped the lounge breakfast as we were told that we could use the main restaurant buffet for only £5 per person as a club room perk.