InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn Hotels across Australia, New Zealand , and Fiji are a little more than half-way through a 72 hour sale that ends at midday Sep 19 (AEST). Rates are advertised from $179 Australia Dollars for InterContinental Hotels. Crowne Plaza Hotels are from $119 and Holiday Inn from $99.
The time zone clock I checked tells me the sale ends 6pm Friday, California time, if I am reading it correctly.
Here is the IHG Australia, New Zealand, Fiji sale web link
Special rates are available for stays through November 30, 2009. These sale rates earn Priority Club points.
Loyalty traveler analysis:
I easily found availability for these special offer rates in the IHG hotels I sampled.
I tried InterContinental Sydney for Friday, October 2, 2009. A 32 square meter King City View room shows up for $179 Australian Dollars = USD$156.
Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour-Sydney, Australia showed as $270AUD for Tuesday October 20, but the rate dropped to $119AUD = $103.69USD for Friday, October 9. Like many urban business centers the rates drop significantly for most weekend stays in Sydney.
Holiday Inn City Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand, shows up as $99NZD for Tuesday night, October 20, 2009. $99 NZD = $70.36 USD.
Rates are prepaid and nonrefundable. The prepaid part is not bad for Americans who will probably see a continuing decline in the value of the US Dollar over the next ten weeks.
Aside: I saw a currency exchange report the other day showing one of the largest currency gains around the globe over the past 6 months is the Australia Dollar against the US Dollar. This means hotels in Australia are quite a bit more expensive now than six months ago for Americans.
September 17, 2009 currency exchange rate
$100 Australia Dollars = $87.25 (March 17, 2009 exchange rate $100AUD = $65.83USD)
$100 New Zealand Dollars = $71.07 US Dollars (March 17, 2009 exchange rate $100NZD = $52.81USD)
(xe.com 9-17-09)
