IHG Priority Club 25,000 Points for 2 stays in UK or Germany

IHG Priority Club 25,000 Points for 2 stays in UK or Germany

InterContinental Hotels Group has so many promotions going on right now that it is hard keeping up with the deals. 

This new promotion for 25,000 points after two hotel stays in the UK or Germany is actually a great deal for someone who had not planned to stay in Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, or Express by Holiday Inn hotels over the next few months.

Offer: Earn 25,000 points after two stays in Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, or Express by Holiday Inn in the UK or Germany.  (The fine print is discussed below and points earned are variable depending on your total earnings of points between Sep 15 and Dec 15.  It is possible to not earn any bonus points from this promotion if you earn 25,000 Priority Club points during the promotional period from other bonuses and stay activity.)

Promotion Dates: September 15, 2008 – December 15, 2008

Registration is required.  Offer is available to new and existing Priority Club members.  No retroactive credit for stays prior to registration.   Registration for this promotion automatically registers the Priority Club member for the global double points promotion during this same timeframe.  See my post on the double points promotion here.

Bonus Points Credited to account by January 15, 2009.

Link to 25,000 Points after Two Stays promotional offer terms and conditions.

Hotel loyalty programs are throwing free nights and bonus points offers at the consumer as economic conditions continue to slide around the globe.  The biggest advantage of the current Priority Club offer for stays in the UK and Germany is for the traveler who is focused on another loyalty program offer like the SPG “You Choose” offers discussed in yesterday’s post or Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights which I analyzed in this post. 

The Priority Club 25,000 points offer has an unusual and indefinite phrase regarding the points earned for this promotion:

“All members of Priority Club Rewards with two qualifying stays in a Crowne Plaza®, Holiday Inn®, or Express by Holiday Inn® hotel in the U.K. or Germany between 15/9/08 and 15/12/08 will receive whatever number of points are needed for the member to have accumulated a minimum of 25,000 Priority Club points earned from all IHG hotel stay-related points and bonus points-earning activities globally during the promotion period.”

Basically this clause in the offer terms makes this promotion much less valuable for Priority Club members participating in the current double Priority Club points promotion who may very well earn 25,000 points through other promotions and therefore would not receive any additional points from this promotion.

This 25,000 points offer has the highest value for a traveler who only has two stays during the promotional period.  25,000 points are sufficient for a free night at a Crowne Plaza hotel.  Assume you have two stays in the UK or Germany at a rate equivalent to $100USD per stay.  $200 in base spending will earn 2,000 Priority Club points.  Double points on the second stay will earn another 1,000 points for a total of 3,000 points on hotel stay spending.  The member will receive an additional 22,000 points from this promotion.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of real travel is getting from one place to another.  Hotel loyalty program promotions tend to have more lucrative special offers based on hotel stays rather than nights.  Accruing hotel stays means getting from one hotel to another and involves travel time.

My personal travel preference is to explore the immediate area I am located.  When I last stayed in Singapore I had four hotel stays in 5 nights.  I enjoyed each hotel and I enjoyed walking the neighborhoods around each location.  Hotel hopping suits me when I am traveling for leisure (well, okay, I also hotel hop for business).  My wife, on the other hand, wants to go someplace and stay as long as possible in the same hotel without moving around.  Her travel style favors promotions based on hotel nights.  We tend to redeem hotel points for multi-night stays.

One of the advantages I see with this promotion is the ability to stay in one city and bounce from a Starwood brand hotel to the IHG brand hotel or the Hyatt hotel to the IHG brand hotel and maximize two promotions while hotel hopping in one city location. 

This autumn has plenty of free night and bonus points earning opportunities for the frequent traveler who plans travel with two or three loyalty programs.  Of course this all assumes your fortunes haven’t tanked and you still have money to travel.