Priority Club is spreading word through social media that reward nights will increase at 25% of IHG hotels globally on January 18, 2012 when new tiers are added across all IHG brands. This amounts to around 1,125 hotels increasing in reward cost by 5,000 to 10,000 points per night, assuming 4,500 IHG hotels worldwide.
Priority Club reward nights will cost less for 20% or about 900 IHG hotels globally.
Click on image for full size view. This chart is located on PriorityClub.com.
60 Days from January 18 to book or rebook at best reward redemption level
Don Berg, IHG VP for Priority Club stated to me in an interview today that members will have two months to book hotel rewards through customer service at the lower points level for reservations up to 360 days from booking date.
FlyerTalk and blogosphere comments indicate IHG customer service agents aren’t really up on the changes yet as news of the impending tier addition and IHG hotels shift spread rapidly across social media channels today.
Loyalty Traveler Analysis (based on pure statistical guesses and no detailed knowledge of actual changes other than 25% hotels going up and 20% going down.)
Every IHG brand has a new higher tier as seen in the chart.
Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express add a new 20,000 point reward tier. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels already had a 25,000 point hotel reward for about 1,000 hotels globally and 70 % of the 3,300 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels are currently 15,000 points (60%) or 10,000 points (10%).
[update Jan 3 2:25pm Pacific – the original post read 90% of these two brands were at 10K or 15K. This data was corrected from 90% to 70% based on the Priority Club Reward tier categories compiled by ChongCao on this website.]
I expect 80% or more of the 2,000 hotels changing reward tier up or down will be in these two brands. Four reward tiers will allow easier shifts for Priority Club hotel rewards for Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels based on revenue and reward demand.
InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo will likely see a shift upwards in most high occupancy metropolitan areas. Perhaps 25% or more of hotels will increase by 10,000 points per night and that is about 150 hotels in these three brands.
Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites will likely change upward for high revenue locations and affects about 120 hotels of 500 or so if reward nights increase by 25% more points.
Any techie care to produce a list of current Priority Club Reward levels before January 18?
Update Jan 3 2012 – ChongcCao has a UK website updated in August and November 2011 showing Priority Club reward tiers in 2011 for Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and InterContinental hotels and tier changes from 2010 levels.
Frustrating to me is Priority Club Rewards does not have lists of hotels at the different reward tiers on the Priority Club website. I asked Don Berg, VP IHG Priority Club loyalty program, why Priority Club has no list of reward tiers for its hotels? Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Starwood publish the reward cost of all their hotels in easy to search lists. He said Priority Club research indicates the general Priority Club member does not have a need for a master list showing the reward cost of hotels.
Priority Club requires the member to look up a destination like Paris, France or Lubbock, Texas and see hotels and their reward cost.
My January 18th question is “Did the hotel reward tier go up or down?”
The need for a master list to me is to make use of the 60-day window for booking rewards at the lower level. There are no master lists of Priority Club reward tiers to know if a hotel went up or down when the new tiers are added January 18. We can tell which hotels increased to 35,000 or 50,000 points with several of the brands. The changes will be easily detected with Crowne Plaza, InterContinental and Hotel Indigo.
What about the midscale traveler’s needs?
Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels is where I think more than 80% of the 2,000 hotels shifting tiers will occur. On January 18 how will you know if that 20,000 point hotel reward was 10,000 or 15,000 or 25,000 points before?
You will only know the January 18 reward rates and not the previous reward rates when you look up Lubbock, Texas or Key West, Florida. How will you even know to call and book the lower rate during the 60-day grace period after the tier changes at those 800+ Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels that go up in reward cost on January 18?
The following data is an addition to the original post based on data from ChongCao’s census of IHG hotels at different Priority Club reward tiers.
2011 reward tier data for Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels prior to January 18, 2012 changes.
InterContinental Hotels (ChongCao hotel tier list for 169 properties)
- 30,000 points = 99 hotels
- 40,000 points = 70 hotels
USA – Holiday Inn (671 hotels) (ChongCao reward tier hotel list.)
- 10,000 points =Â 27Â Â (4.0%)
- 15,000 points = 372Â (55.4%)
- 25,000 points = 272Â (40.5%)
USA – Holiday Inn Express (1,731 hotels)  ChongCao 25K reward tier hotel list
- 10,000 points = 212Â Â (12.2%)Â ChongCao 10K and 15K reward tier hotel list
- 15,000 points =Â 1,107 (64.0%)
- 25,000 points =Â 412Â (23.8%)
International – Holiday Inn (549 hotels) (ChongCao reward tier hotel list.)
- 10,000 points = 35Â (6.4%)
- 15,000 points = 309Â (56.3%)
- 25,000 points = 205Â (37.3%)
International – Holiday Inn Express (367 hotels)
- 10,000 points =Â 57Â Â (15.5%)
- 15,000 points =Â 216 (58.9%)
- 25,000 points =Â 94Â (25.6%)
Related link FlyerTalk ChongCao – Master List of 10K and 25K Holiday Inn /Holiday Inn Express List
2011/2012Â (Nov 9, 2011)
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