I read an article from Inside Flyer last year about Hotel Runs, where you make a booking with no plans to stay, just to get the points. Never considered it until now, but my current Accelerate scheme makes it worthwhile I think, and was just after other opinions. I was not going to complete my current Accelerate - ends 30th April 2018, but this booking will now tick 2 more items off the list, AND crucially mean I get the bonus for completing 6 out if 7 challenges. So an additional 26200 points, as well as the small number I get for the actual stay. On their current purchase options with 80% bonus, that would cost me approx. £156 I have booked a local Holiday Inn for Friday 27th April for only £38. So I'll check in, maybe even eat something light and low cost, as they have an offer of 1000 bonus points if I eat with them.
Nice one. I wish I had a nearby Holiday Inn charging £38. It's definitely worth the mattress run though. And a bonus that you're using the App for such a cheap stay - so you miss out on relatively little cashback.
£38 for 26,000 IHG Points sounds like a cracking deal to me and well worth the effort of popping in and out of somewhere local. I'd personally give the meal a miss - I don't think I've ever eaten well at a chain hotel and it's almost always overpriced!
Well I have arrived. And will follow your suggestion not to eat anything; I had only considered soup, but won't be here long enough. Just doing a few hours work on the laptop in the room. Got an exec upgrade, so free bottled water and chocolate ! And a huge bed I won't be using. Struggled on check-in, having never done this before, and ended up being con-erced into letting them pre-authorise my card in case I added anything to the room bill. I was too embarassed to explain I won't really be staying; thought it might even cause problems with the bonus points. But having realised they can't do anything about it now, I will settle the bill as I leave in a few hours.
I wouldn't advise actually checking out! - it just creates confusion and there's really no need to do it. It all gets sorted automatically these days anyway, so unless I think there might be some sort of reason why the bill might be wrong (or I've got late checkout and want to let them know when the room is free) I rarely bother checking out anyway. Just wander out when you're done, and keep an eye on your ihg account/credit card statement in a few days to make sure it's all fine.
DEFINITELY DO NOT CHECK OUT! It will screw up the IT systems and you might not get the credit you are there for. Trust me (and Joe), you will only be charged the amount you expect. Pre-authorisation is standard, but never an issue.
It was pretty simple, after my initial confusion at check-in with an inexperienced person, who insisted on doing a pre-authorisation for my card, despite the room being paid in full. So I sorted out the pre-auth before leaving, without checking out, and left the keys in the room. The points for the stay have been added to my IHG account so it's all good. Just waiting for the bonus accelerate points to show in a few weeks now. Looking at my current Accelerate target, I might have to do something similar by end of August if it helps me reach that max target.
Fascinating! I wonder if there are any mattress runs made near 0 in cost by stacking hotel promos? The Hilton one got me excited!
Yep, there was certainly the possibility to do it a few months ago using Points with Hilton (actually at a minor Points 'profit' if you had Diamond status), if you could find Category 1s that suited. My personal favourite ever though was racking up 4 IHG Free Night Certificates (which could be used anywhere - including Intercontinental Park Lane, Le Grand, New York, Bora Bora, etc) for under £35 each, at the same time as enjoying 8 nights in the Algarve! Basically, the hotel rate was about £16 per night and you got a certificate for every 2 stays. All it took was a bit of shuffling the reservations around on 2 accounts and explaining to the front desk that I didn't want any of the reservations merged.
Beauty. Where'd you use those Into the Nights? IIRC we used 2 in Melbourne for the Australian Open, 1 at the Intercon Hong Kong and another Intercon I can't recall...
Aye, that was certainly a nice one! I could be wrong, but I think 1 was at Park Lane, 2 at Hong Kong, and 1 at Le Grand. Approx standard cost: £1000+ easily. I paid less than £140 and had a lovely week in the Algarve on top!
Well done on the mattress run, and receiving the bonus points, I havent done anything like that yet but will do if the sitution calls for it.
