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IHG One Rewards appears to be running a secret ‘flash sale’ (or possible award pricing glitch…) that has created some incredible deals.
Pricing isn’t totally consistent (perhaps not all hotels are participating), but as you can see in the examples for New York below, it is possible to save a lot of points/money:
Compare those points rates to the cash rates:
In the most extreme example you could book the Even Times Square Hotel for 20,000 rather than £350 ($425) per night. Normally, you’d look to get about £80-£100 of value from 20,000 IHG One Rewards Points, so this is remarkable value.
Don’t have enough IHG Points?
If you need to purchase points to take advantage of the flash sale, IHG is offering a 75% bonus at the moment.
To get the best price you need to buy 26,000+ (pre bonus) points – so at least 45,500 in total. If you did so, you would effectively pay ~0.47p (0.571 cents) per point, so this could be an attractive option.
Please do bear in mind though that the flash sale could end at any moment, so I would only recommend buying points if you have a decent alternative use for them, or can afford to take the risk.
You can purchase points here.
Bottom line
I’ve only had chance to check a few different destinations out, but the best value seems to be IHG’s lower and mid range brands in expensive cities.
Let us know what bargains you spot in the comments below!
I booked a few rooms 🙂
7 nights at Crown Plaza Tel Aviv at 25,000 points on a £350 per night room.
6 nights at the Intercontinental Da Nang at 35,000 points on a £600 per night room.
3 nights at the Intercontinental Le Grand Paris at 40,000 points on a £350 per night room
5 nights at the Intercontinental Rome at 40,000 points on a £350 per night room.
6 Nights at the Holiday Inn Express Waikiki, Hawaii at 20,000 points on a £226 per night room.
I was tempted to book the IC Sydney for a few days over New Year for a bargain 35,000 points but it was not cancelable at all and I didn’t want to take the risk.
Actually, the IC Rome was £500 per night not £350 😮
Do I have to maintain a cool professionalism and pretend I’m not jealous? Not just great redemptions, but all fantastic places to visit too – well played.
Israel and Hawaii are places I’ve never visited in the past, mainly due to their obscene hotel prices. No excuse for not going at at those rates though!
That’s phenomenal Joe. On the back of that, I’ve just booked a King Bed Studio Suite Balcony at the Atwell Suites in Miami for one night in November (that’s all we needed!) for 8,000 points and $32.00. Or I could have gone for 3,000 points and $64.00. I’ve just checked the cash rate and it’s $274.00 per night. Result!
I’d rather have Andrew M’s bookings though!
Haha – yeah, sadly I used most of IHG points ages ago so was limited to something similar. Still, can’t argue with trading 8,000 points for the best part £200!
🙂 Exactly! And likewise!
I’d only recently had a to and fro with IHG Customer Services about the timing of their change over to One Rewards which coincided with what would have been the annual member benefit of the 25k points that I had normally opted for. Eventually they ‘relented’ and credited 5k points to my account taking me up to a balance of 9,365. Good timing as it all turned out!
We stayed at the IC Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort for 6 nights back in 2018 and it was stunning. So, so envious!
There’s no award nights available at holiday inn express waikiki now. Only cash rate of $247usd per night.