A post on One Mile at a Time caught my attention this week: Loyalty Programs Work: I’m Overpaying For A Holiday Inn. In this piece Lucky explains why he is paying an extra 36.40 EUR for a 1,000 bonus points offer to complete his IHG Rewards Club Accelerate 2016 offer with only one hotel night to earn 45,000 bonus points.
In theory, I understand the logic behind knocking out the IHG Accelerate 2016 offer with one hotel stay, rather than two hotel stays during the promotion period. This is logic that applies to most travelers, but seems a bit illogical to me for Lucky, who lives most of the year in hotels. He could have booked the Holiday Inn hotel at Helsinki Airport for 83.60 EUR and completed 2 of his 3 tasks, then booked a bonus points package for another IHG hotel stay before April 30, 2016, when the promotion ends.
When the Hotel Deal Determines the Destination
I am traveling to Amsterdam this month. Initially I thought I would knock out two Holiday Inn stays in Amsterdam and pick up 22,000 bonus points from my IHG Rewards Club Accelerate tasks by staying in two Holiday Inn hotels. I need to stay either 5 nights or book one Points & Cash stay, in addition to two Holiday Inn stays to complete my IHG Rewards Club 2016 Accelerate offer.
Loyalty Traveler – IHG Rewards Club Accelerate 2016 Jan 1-April 30 promotion open for registration (Dec 15, 2015).
The problem for me is the two Holiday Inn hotels in Amsterdam are not in an area of the city I want to stay and there are many lower priced options closer to city center Amsterdam during my trip dates.
Two More Affordable Holiday Inns in the Netherlands
Holiday Inn Ijmuiden at 59 EUR, about $64 per night, in the seaport town west of Amsterdam is the ferry port to Newcastle, UK. I was tempted by that room rate, but a beach-port town in January is not that appealing to this tourist who lives by the sand dunes of Monterey Bay, California. Still, the coastal National Park Zuid-Kennemerland is enticing and I might still book Holiday Inn Ijmuiden, if the weather is not too miserable.
The Netherlands also has Holiday Inn Leiden hotel, about 40 minutes by train south of Amsterdam. Leiden is an historic university city.
Holiday Inn Leiden, Netherlands
36.00 EUR per night
I could stay in a Holiday Inn hotel in the suburbs of Amsterdam for an extra $40, but loyalty programs work to make me venture to places I might not otherwise visit.
The price was too good to pass up with the Holiday Inn Leiden Winter Sale rates. I think I am underpaying for my Holiday Inn hotel stay in the Netherlands due to IHG Rewards Club bonus points incentives motivating me to explore another Dutch city outside of Amsterdam.
Loyalty Programs Work.
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