When I first got into the travel hacking world, I gravitated toward two hotel programs: SPG and IHG. This may seem really odd, as they are pretty much polar opposites. But I guess that is exactly why. The holes in one program are filled by the other. SPG provided high-value points that took a little more effort to accrue. IHG handed them out like candy and has this awesome Point Breaks (well…maybe I should use past tense there – SEE: I’ve got a bad feeling about thew new IHG Point Breaks) list.
With IHG in particular, I went my merry way earning and redeeming points for multiple trips in 2015 and 2016. My wife and I each nabbed the IHG Mastercard with an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 points, which gave us enough points for several nights. I read up on all the tips and tricks that I could find. In some people’s opinion, it was the best program out there.
But the longer I have been a member of IHG Rewards Club, the more disenchanted I have become with their program. The last two years have been particularly grim, as some hotels have experienced massive devaluations (SEE: Ouch. Book now before the massive IHG devaluation!). The latest devaluation of Point Breaks is the final nail in the coffin. IHG as a real loyalty program is basically dead, and here’s why:
Top tier elite status means almost nothing
With most hotel chains, top tier elite status is something that is quite rewarding. With Hyatt, you get free breakfast, great room upgrades, and a number of other perks, such as waived parking fees and resort charges in some cases. Marriott and SPG offer great room upgrades and good treatment to elites from most reports. I’ve also had good experiences as a Hilton Diamond, but this doesn’t seem to be quite in the same league as the other hotel top tier elite statuses (or maybe it is because most of my stays are domestic at Hampton Inns, Hilton Garden Inns, and Doubletrees).
With IHG, their top-tier Spire Elite status gives….well…hmmmm. I don’t really know. There is no free breakfast. There are no guaranteed room upgrades (and they don’t offer them on award stays!). There are a lot of perks laid out on the IHG Rewards Club page, but it is mostly filler. After being Spire Elite for a year (due to a fluke where my credit card signup bonus still counted toward the status), I realized it wasn’t really different than being a basic member, aside from the points earning bonus. We’ve received one nice, but pretty useless, upgrade to a two bedroom suite at a Staybridge Suites where my wife and I were basically crashing for the night and just needed a bed. All of our other room “upgrades” have been marginal. Sometimes I wonder if the front desk is just feeding me some hogwash.
So, with a pretty useless set of elite “statuses”, there is not point to being loyal to IHG. Aside from the $49 night with the card, my association with the program is mainly to earn points as cheaply as possible during Accelerate and use them for reasonable value. But that has its own woes…
Devaluation after devaluation
Sure, all hotel programs go through devaluation. I suspected the Hilton program would experience what I’ll call the “Delta effect” after doing away with their award chart. Thankfully, this hasn’t appeared to be the case from what I’ve observed, and I find the Hilton program is solid in general. Not so, IHG.
Rather than a creeping devaluation, IHG is seeing a flat out obliteration of its value. Some hotels, such as the Intercontinental Park Lane London, Intercontinental Hong Kong, and other nice ICs in major destinations have seen 40% price increases in just 2 years. This is pretty outrageous. There are other hotels that have seen nearly 150% price increases, such as the Holiday Inn Sydney (in Canada). My wife and I stayed there in 2015 for just 10,000 points, which was a nice deal. Now it is 25,000 points. I wouldn’t ever pay that.
If IHG keeps this up, I will dump the program entirely. It’s teetering on the verge.
Just not enough quality hotels
If I could spend 35,000 points on a night at a nice property, I might take the low value of the points in stride. But when a vanilla Holiday Inn Express is charging the same amount, it’s insulting. Especially when cash prices are often super low.
(SEE ALSO: Man IHG points really ARE worthless)
Is this a joke?
Sure, a Holiday Inn Express has the essentials and it’s an adequate property for our family’s needs. But forking over 40,000 points for a night? No way. That’s not how I want to spend my points. I’ll look for cheaper places.
Add to this the fact that there are many Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels that are super tired and in need of a renovation. I’ve stayed at a couple great Holiday Inns (SEE: Holiday Inn Old Sydney Review), but also some very lackluster ones. Dan can’t stand the brand (SEE: Holiday Inn North Phoenix Review – why I hate Holiday Inns). Hotel Indigo seems like a good brand, but I have yet to stay at one. The only midscale brand I am keen on in the IHG portfolio is Staybridge Suites.
(SEE ALSO: Staybridge Suites SFO airport review)
There is really nothing to love about IHG hotels aside from some Intercontinental properties. But now so many of the nicest properties cost an obscene number of points.
One bright spot…for now
The only facet of the program I am excited about for 2018 is the fact that Kimpton hotels have finally been brought fully into the fold. Sure, they are at the higher end of the points spectrum, but at least they have some more character. There are a couple bloggers who have loved being Kimpton Karma members (Lee @ BaldThoughts comes to mind).
I hope we can visit a few before IHG decides all of them will require 80,000 points per night. After everything else that has happened, I wouldn’t put it past them.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, I’m done with treating IHG like a real hotel loyalty program. In my experience with Starwood and Hilton, they actually can foster some loyalty through how they treat you. IHG doesn’t even try. So why call IHG Rewards Club a club of anything? Unless they mean clubbing their members every chance they get.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Bloggers always overlook the fact that IHG has the VERY BEST LOYALTY PROGRAM OF ALL — Royal Ambassador. I stay in hotels 100+ nights per year and have tried top tier with all the prgrams. By far, Royal Ambassador is the best. The only downside is that you must stay at IC hotels to get the beneifts. Obviously, IC’s aren’t everywhere, so we use Hyatt as our back up program. Works great!
If you stay that much and can get that status with IHG, I’ve heard it’s worth it, too. Not everyone is in that situation.
I am a fellow RA as well. When I book for paid stay, RA status ensures red carpet is rolled out at the various IC hotels through fantastic upgrades, comped mini bar, etc. In summary, on paid stay, I reckon they treat RAs fantastic manner. However, when I redeem my points, the same carpet is pulled from beneath one’s feet; since IHG leaves it to discretion of individual property to offer the benefits, I have seen little to no perks other than a measly one category upgrade in many properties during redemption stays. If IHG is serious about promoting loyalty, they should first ensure these benefits are applied in uniform manner for both paid and redemptions and not leave it to discretion of each property which is recipe for unfulfilled customer expectations. Hey, end of the day, if I stay 100+ nights and accrue those points, I gotta redeem it sometime and don’t want to be treated in shoddy manner at that time.
My experience as an IHG Platinum has been different. I almost always get a free upgrade, even on free stays. True, I rarely get a free breakfast, but I rarely got one as a Hilton Diamond and in the US, I’ve gotten a free upgrade exactly twice dispute numerous stays, all of which were paid, and only got a free breakfast once, and it was nothing special. I am much happier with IHG than Hilton, and the Hilton point prices where I stay are crazy high with no 10% rebate.
I’ve gotten more upgrades as Hilton Diamond for sure, so I guess our experiences are opposite. And I’m surprised about the breakfast. I’ve always gotten free breakfast. It’s a published benefit.
Totally agree! I am a Spire elite and SPG platinum member. Like you, I have almost given up on IHG, especially with their lack of valuable benefits and the constant devaluation. What I hated the most was having to bargain for late checkouts time after time – it is like they are doing you a favor if they give you a 2pm checkout! The other benefits are just useless. The ironical thing is that I am part of the IHG online community in which they solicit feedbacks from the elite members. But nothing positive ever came out from those feedbacks. I will just concentrate on SPG and IHG will be at most, my backup program in the future.
As a Spire and Ambassador I see good benefits. Ambassador upgrades are guaranteed and you are treated better in my experience at IC hotels. Spire doesn’t hold as much weight but I almost always get upgrades at the MANY HIX, Staybridge, HI and Indigo’s. Indigo is a good hotel chain but they seem to be trying to charge too much on award nights at some Indigos. In many locations Indigo is basically a fancy Holiday Inn Express with no free breakfast. The Indigo in Waco Texas is an example of this. On the other hand the Indigo in Paris Opera area is a bit more upscale but I’d rather have free breakfast and not pay 90 euro for dinner. It’s still a fancy HIX in my book.
I find very good value in IHG and have stayed free all over the world. I think adding formal free breakfast at some hotels would be a good idea but many give elites this anyway. I would also like to see them tighten requirements to become an elite member.
Agreed, there’s little value there.
There is a definite value in IHG, but not in the same way as other loyalty programs. Their credit card can come with bonuses as high as 100,000 points. Each year you get a free night at ANY category hotel for just paying the $49 annual fee. They also offer great promotions such as Priceless Surprises, where people won over 100,000 points just for mailing in index cards. There is also the Accelerate promotion, which can also be a great deal at times. My wife earned 33,000 points for one $69 stay at a Holiday Inn Express last fall. My wife and I have used points to stay at some beautiful IHG hotels all over the world and barely spent anything to earn those points.
I would never transfer 30-70,000 Chase UR points over to IHG for a room, but they do offer a lot of opportunities to earn points and easily get free nights.
I agree that even as a top tier elite I rarely get upgrades and don’t even get a free breakfast, but I can’t complain when the rooms are free.
I, too, find value in IHG. But as a *loyalty* program, there is very little to inspire actual loyalty. Banking points during promotions and burning them during Point Breaks is a great way to maximize value. But it hardly denotes any loyalty to the program. If those went away, I would drop them completely in a heartbeat.
Great point Ian…. which happens to echo what I’ve been writing here and elsewhere for months…. The IHG program is in death-spiral mode.
The only thing you can do to show your displeasure is to mention it to upper level management and then QUIT GOING THERE! This is with every loyalty program. Use your accumulated points, drop the cards if necessary, and find a new one.
Very true. If I can find a good way to burn our 250k IHG points, I will. I’ll keep the cards for the annual $49 nights. Just waiting to for that to be gutted, too.
my wife and I are both Spire Ambassador and have been since 2012. this last round of point breaks convinced me to use up our million points and look elsewhere.
I agree that the program is going downhill . I am a platinum ambassador and find that you are treated differently for a reward stay and a paid stay . Recently at the Makkah IC i had to move rooms after my paid stay ended and was downgraded for the balance of my rewards stay . The two thing that makes me unhappy is that why cant I remain in the upgraded room for the balance of my stay and the no breakfast policy for higher end elites.
My experience as an IHG platinum elite & RA has been very positive! I have the IHG Chase card for $49 a year & enjoy the yearly free night. All the Holiday Inns & Staybridge hotels I’ve stayed in always offered free breakfast for everyone. Some weeknights at Staybridge even offer a free light dinner. Since I travel for leisure, I find staying at a IHG hotel close to the airport usually includes a free shuttle to & from the airport.
As for the points, I use the option to get free gift cards to give as gifts at Christmas.
The IC in Boro, Boro in fantastic! Arriving guest were met at the dock by the General Manager, given refreshments, one-on-one tours of the resort & generally treated like royalty by the friendly staff. My RA status did give an upgrade with all the trimmings. The clear blue water & the over water bungalows with see through coffee tables to the water below were breathtaking. The brochure pictures can’t compare. However, these stays require more points than the free night allows. Still, it was worth the experience.
My only suggestion would be for IHG to offer more in room whirlpool tubs at all their hotels!