Offer: Stay two nights at any IC Hotels Group brand hotel from Tuesday, May 4 to July 3, 2009 and earn one free night. Nights do not need to be consecutive nights or even at the same hotel.
Promotion Registration is required at www.priorityclub.com/register4FreeNights
and registration is necessary before making your paid hotel night reservations in order for them to be qualifying nights for the free night promotion. Qualifying nights are any InterContinental Hotels Group hotel in the brands: InterContinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites, and Candlewood Suites. Hotels in Japan are excluded from this offer.
Free night may be redeemed from July 3 through December 26, 2009 and free night is valid for any IC Hotels Group hotel, except for hotels in Japan. There are no other hotels specifically excluded from free night redemption, however, capacity controls may effectively limit some hotels from redemption once allotted rooms have been redeemed.
Maximum free nights a Priority Club member may earn is capped at 4 nights after 8 paid nights within the promotion period of May 4 and July 3. If you have a travel partner/spouse, then you can readily earn an additional 4 free nights and have 8 free nights for 2009 between the two of you.
The terms of the promotion state room upgrade benefits for elite members do not apply to free nights redeemed with this promotion so theoretically elite status should not result in a room upgrade. In practice I think this will depend on the specific hotel and guest. An elite guest who has stayed at a particular hotel numerous times in the past and been upgraded as an elite member will likely still receive hotel recognition. But the rules do state an upgrade does not have to be given to elites.
Free night notifications will begin around May 22. You should receive notification of free night award around 14 days after qualifying activity.
My advice is to book free room nights as soon as possible if you are planning to stay at a high demand hotel such as New York City, Hawaii, a beach resort or expensive InterContinental hotel. Wait too long, like into July or August before booking your reservation and the allotment of free rooms at your desired hotel may already be gone for the year.
Just remember that your free night reservation can’t be modified – only cancelled and forfeited. Be sure you book an ironclad reservation date.
Free Night may be redeemed only at www.priorityclub.com/bookfreenights.
Holiday Inn Santa Clara
Turn your hotel stay at the lower priced Holiday Inn into another hotel stay here at the higher priced InterContinental San Francisco.
InterContinental San Francisco
InterContinental Hotels Group 2 Nights Earn a Free Night Promotion Terms:
· Promotion registration is required prior to stay for eligibility towards free nights. Reservations made within 48 hours prior to Free Nights promotion registration will count towards free nights.
· Paid nights during promotional period earn elite qualification credit. Free nights do not.
· Registration for the free nights promotion restricts the member’s earning of base and elite loyalty program points for the duration of the promotion even if the maximum number of free nights has already been earned. (For this reason some members planning numerous nights in May and June may choose to register for double points instead).
· Members may still earn bonus points for hotel stays as part of room rate offers and paid nights will count towards Ambassador Accelerator for InterContinental Ambassador members. Ambassador Accelerator awards 20,000 points for 15 InterContinental Hotel nights during the calendar year.
· Hotels in Japan are excluded from this offer.
· Only one room per member per night is eligible for free night offer.
· Member may redeem earned promotional free nights individually or for up to a 4-night consecutive nights stay
· Warning: Hotel Reservations for free nights may not be modified. A reservation cancellation forfeits the free night. Free night credit will not be redeposited to account.
· Free Nights are not transferable. Account Member must be guest on file.
The trend this past month has been to soft launch hotel loyalty program promotions on FlyerTalk. SPG announced their promotion on FlyerTalk to rave responses. InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott Rewards released their promotions and hotel loyalty program members cried out for better terms. Marriott released a double elite nights promotion and then pulled it last week while it is still being fine tuned.
This IC Hotels Group promotion also disappeared for a few days and came back slightly altered. The promotion term of no base or elite points during the two month period of the free nights promotion received a negative response on FlyerTalk. IC Hotels Group added an alternate promotion of Double Points or Double Miles for the two month promotional period in lieu of the free nights offer.
You will have to make a choice between two promotions when you register for the free nights promotion. Your selection cancels out the other offer in your account during the May-June promotional period.
Free nights works out to a much better deal for most Priority Club members. A free night at an InterContinental Hotel will cost either 30,000 or 40,000 points per night. Paris, London, or Amsterdam free nights are worth 40,000 points each. Bora Bora, if you can get a free room reservation, is a $500 to $800 per night hotel you might get for free after two nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Double Points would mean up to 25 points per $1 for a Platinum member. Two nights earns the equivalent of 40,000 points if used for an InterContinental Hotel free night. The free nights promotion caps you at 4 free nights equivalent to 160,000 points. A Priority Club platinum member who will spend over $6,400 during the two month promotional period will earn more in points using the double points promotion.
InterContinental Hotel stays earn 2,000 points per stay and a stay pattern with InterContinental stays needs to be evaluated separately.
Unless you have a track record of earning 60,000+ points per month, then you are better off going with free nights for the two months of this promotion as long as you have the ability to get good value from a hotel stay using the free nights in 2009.
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