Use Your Points for IHG: Guide

Using points to cover hotel costs is a great way to save money on a vacation. Today we’re looking at how to earn and use IHG points to book free (or nearly free) hotel nights.

The IHG brand has a wide range of properties that appeal to all kinds of travelers. You can stay at a budget-friendly Holiday Inn, a fancy Intercontinental hotel, or even an all-inclusive resort. There’s something for everyone.

What’s more, IHG has some nice options for families traveling with 4+ people, even in places like Europe where it can be hard to find rooms that sleep more than 2!

Earning IHG Points

IHG Cards

The easiest way to earn a lot of points quickly is to sign up for an IHG credit card with a welcome offer. There are three IHG credit cards to choose from, two personal and one business card.

Having an IHG credit card also gives you access to the 4th night free benefit when booking award nights, which can help you save a lot of points. All the info on how that works is below.

Putting regular expenses on an IHG card, especially when you stay at an IHG property, can help you earn even more points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards®

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards® points to IHG at a 1:1 ratio. That means for every 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points you transfer, you would get 1,000 IHG points.

Transfer bonuses: Sometimes, Chase runs transfer bonuses where you can get a bonus of 50-80% when you transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to IHG. With an 80% transfer bonus, you would get 1,800 IHG points for every 1,000 Ultimate Reward points you transfer.

Hotel Stays

As a member of the IHG loyalty program One Rewards, you can earn up to 10 points per dollar spent on hotel stays with the brand. Elite Status members can earn even more points.

If you use an IHG card to pay for your stay, you earn additional points on top of what you earn as a loyalty member.

Note: In most cases, you need to book directly with the hotel in order to earn loyalty points on your stay. Rooms booked through a third party like Expedia, Booking,com, or a bank travel portal like Chase Travel℠ typically aren’t eligible to earn loyalty points.

What to Consider Before Transferring Points to IHG

Before we get to this section, I want to give you a bit of a disclaimer. However you choose to use your points to save money on the vacation you actually want to take is a win!

It is much better to use your points for a less than to hold out for a “perfect redemption” with your points sitting there, unused. 

That being said, there are some ways you can maximize your points to stretch them a little bit further.

Compare the Cash Rate versus the Points Rate

It doesn’t always make sense to transfer your points to IHG before booking, because the number of points needed is usually high. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still use points to cover that stay!

Sometimes it makes more sense to book the hotel directly and put the charge on a credit card, then use pay yourself back to redeem points to cover the charge.

Here’s an example:

This hotel near Universal Studios in Orlando costs 18,000 IHG points per night. This is booking directly through IHG. You could transfer 18,000 Ultimate Rewards points to IHG to make the booking. Taxes and fees are included, so you would pay $0 in cash.

But before you hurry to transfer your points, check to see what the same night costs in cash. We’re still on the IHG website here. This is the exact same hotel, on the exact same night. It costs $111 per night with all taxes and fees included.

If you want to save some points on this booking, you can use a card like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to book the hotel, instead of transferring points to IHG. Charge the $111 to your card, then redeem 11,100 points to cover that cost.

Many credit cards offer the option to pay yourself back, or redeem points as a statement credit to cover certain charges, especially those that code as travel expenses. The typical rate is 1 cent per point. So 11,100 points would cover $111. Some cards offer a higher value, more info is in this article.

In this scenario, you would still pay $0 in cash, but by using this process, you save 6,900 points. And that’s per night! The extra steps can add up to a huge point savings, especially if you’re staying several nights.

It won’t always work out this way. Sometimes transferring points to IHG will give you a better value, especially if there’s a transfer bonus. But it’s worth taking the time to compare the point price and the cash price because you may be able to save some points.

Plus, when you book with your card instead of transferring points, you still earn credit card points on the purchase–even if you later redeem points to cover that purchase!

AND you’re able to earn loyalty points on the stay with the IHG One Rewards loyalty program. If you book the stay as an award night by transferring points, you typically don’t earn points on the booking. (You can still earn points on other charges for an award stay, such as room service or laundry.)

Combining IHG Points with Friends and Family

Normally, you have to pay a fee when you transfer IHG points from person to person, but there are a few ways to avoid that fee.

If you have Diamond Elite status, the fee is waived. Diamond Elite is the highest level of status in the IHG One Rewards program. It can be hard for the average person to earn that high level of status, much less maintain it. Thankfully, there’s another way to avoid the transfer fee that’s much easier!

IHG Business Rewards – free transfers!

With an IHG Business Rewards account, you can transfer points to other members for free. Up to 500,000 points per year.

Anyone who books hotel nights for themselves or others is eligible to create an IHG Business Rewards account as an individual booker.

In the terms and conditions for the program, it states: “An individual booker is a person who books Qualifying Spend at Participating Hotels on their own behalf or on behalf of someone else.”

To join IHG Business Rewards, all you have to do is visit the Business Rewards page and sign up. 

Transferring Points

Before transferring any points, both the sending and receiving accounts need to be open for at least 30 days.

Once you’ve joined IHG Business Rewards, visit the points transfer page to initiate a fee-free transfer. You’ll sign in with your details and fill out the points transfer form.

You must visit this link to get the free transfers: https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/us/en/account-mgmt/redirect/points?action=free-transfer

You’ll need the name, e-mail address, and IHG One Rewards number of the person you’re transferring points to. Points can be transferred in 1,000 point increments.

After you submit the form, you’ll get to a final page to confirm that the details are correct. If everything looks good, hit “transfer points”, and that’s it! Point transfers process within 72 hours.

How IHG Points Pricing Works

IHG uses dynamic pricing, so point prices vary depending on several factors. Prices change regularly depending on demand.

The cheapest rates start at 5,000 points per night. The nicest hotels can be upwards of 100,000 points per night.

Points can only be redeemed for standard rooms. These are sometimes called “classic”, “essential”, or something else. They’re typically the cheapest rooms that the hotel offers.

Points + Cash

IHG gives you the option to book a room using a combination of points and cash. This can be a good way to save some money if you don’t have enough points to cover the entire stay. 

Note that when you book with points + cash, you’re essentially buying the rest of the points needed to cover the stay. If you decide to cancel, you’ll be refunded in points only.

Fourth Night Free Perk

If you have any of the IHG credit cards, you are eligible to get every 4th night free on award stays.

This is a really nice benefit that can lower the total cost of a hotel stay by quite a bit.

The way it works is that when you book a standard room with points for 4 or more nights, you’ll pay the points price for the first 3 nights, and every 4th night is charged 0 points. The discount does not average the cost per night, but applies to the 4th night. You can maximize this benefit if the 4th night is the most expensive night of your stay.

When you search for a stay of 4+ nights and have a card with this benefit, you’ll see the average pricing per night when you search. The price that is crossed out is the average night for 4 nights if you didn’t have the 4th night free. 

When you get to the final booking screen you can see the actual points you are paying for each of the nights and the 4th night will show as 0 points. 

You can also use this benefit multiple times. Every 4th night is free, so that means on longer trips, the 8th night, 12th night, etc., are also free!

Notes: This benefit only applies to stays booked fully with points. Cash bookings or points + cash bookings are not eligible. Stays must be for at least 4 consecutive nights booked at the same hotel, on a single reservation.

Taxes and Resort Fees

Taxes

When you book a Reward Night through IHG, taxes are included. 

Iberostar Beachfront Resorts have a local tax that is not included. You’ll have to pay that at the resort.

Resort Fees 

Resort and amenity fees are not included. That means if you’re staying at a property that charges a nightly resort fee, you’ll be responsible for paying that fee at the resort.

You can see any nightly fees right on the search page, so there are no surprises.

Anniversary Free Nights

Two of the IHG credit cards come with an annual free night certificate. These aren’t actually “free” because you have to pay the annual fee of $99 to get them. But if you’re going to stay at a hotel for at least one night anyway, you can consider the annual fee as prepayment for a discounted hotel room.

You can easily redeem the free night for a hotel room that would otherwise cost $200-$400, making the annual fee well worth it.

You can earn an additional free night certificate by spending $60,000 on the IHG One Rewards Business Card in a year.

How Free Night Certificates Work

Free night certificates are good for standard rooms that cost 40,000 points per night or less.

If the room costs more than 40,000 points, you can “top off” the certificate by paying the difference in points.

To use your free night certificate, log in to your account and go to the search page. Select your free night certificate under the “rate preference” drop-down tab in the search bar.

IHG Hotel Sweet Spots 

All-Inclusive Resorts

IHG has several all-inclusive hotel brands, including Iberostar Beach Resorts, Six Senses, and some Holiday Inn resorts. Using points to book one of these stays is a great way to save money on your vacation.

With an all-inclusive stay, not only is your hotel room covered, but meals and many activities are also included! We compiled many of them here. 

Holiday Inn Vacation Clubs

Holiday Inn Vacation Clubs are timeshare properties, but you don’t have to be a timeshare owner to book a room there. You don’t have to attend a timeshare presentation either! You can book them with points just like you would any other hotel.

Standard rooms at these hotels are typically one-bedroom villas with a full kitchen and separate living and sleeping areas. They can easily sleep 4+ people. See our map here. 

Not only do these resorts give you more space, but having a kitchen makes it easier to prepare some meals at your resort, helping you save money on food costs during your trip. 

Hotels for 4 in Europe

If Europe is in your travel plans, IHG is a great program to look at! That’s because they offer a large number of hotels in Europe that can sleep up to 4 people.

It can be hard to find hotel rooms in Europe that accommodate more than 2 people per night, so this is extra helpful for families. Especially if you have younger kids and you don’t want to book two separate rooms! 

How to Find the Best IHG Hotel for Your Next Stay

The easiest place to start your search is on the IHG website. Enter your destination and preferred dates in the search bar. Under “rate preference” select “Reward Nights” to pay with points. If you have any free night certificates available, those will show up here as well.

You can browse results with a map view or a list view. Filters are available to help you narrow down the search.

If you find a hotel you like, don’t forget to compare the points price with the cash price to see if paying with cash and then redeeming points to cover the purchase would make more sense.

Award Search Tools

Award search tools like MaxMyPoint, Awayz, or rooms.aero can help you search multiple options at once. This can be a time saver if you’re flexible on things like dates or destinations. Most of these tools have free and paid versions. 

A nice perk that many of these tools offer is the ability to set up alerts. 

If the hotel you want is not available for your preferred dates, you can set up an alert to notify you if it becomes available. This can be especially helpful for popular properties where reward nights book up fast.

You can also set alerts for price changes. That way, if the hotel you want is too expensive, you can get an alert if the price drops.

Don’t Let Your Points Expire

It’s important to note that IHG points typically expire after 12 months of inactivity. But there are several ways to keep your points from expiring! 

If you have Silver Elite status or higher with the IHG One Rewards loyalty program, your points don’t expire. This is the first tier beyond just being a member, so it’s not hard to maintain Silver Elite status.

All of the IHG credit cards give you at least Silver status, so if you hold an IHG credit card, that is one way to keep your points from expiring.

You can also complete different activities to spend or earn points to keep your account active and your points alive.

Booking an award night, transferring points to another member, buying points, or redeeming points for merchandise are just some of the things you can do to keep your account active. 

IHG points offer a real opportunity to significantly cut down on your hotel costs. By understanding how to earn and, more importantly, how to use them strategically, you can unlock some fantastic travel experiences. Don’t forget to take a look here at our IHG card guide. Then take these tips, start planning, and make those IHG points work for your next trip.