Only 15 of 203 IHG PointBreaks Hotels booked out in 48 hours

15 Comments

• 

  Lance January 31, 2018

  OK Ric, so I’ll bite — am I missing something? How did you book 9 stays, when I thought the limit for Point Breaks was 2? Or have I been reading the rules wrong all along — is it a limit of 2 per hotel, but as many as you want across the IHG collection?
• 

  Ric Garrido January 31, 2018

  The rule is two reservations per hotel per member during a PointBreaks period.

  I saw some blogs incorrectly post only two PointBreaks reservations allowed per member.
• 

  Rick January 31, 2018

  For me, the only valuable perk associated with the IHG Rewards Club is the annual free night I get along with the IHG credit card fee of $49. When that fee doubles, or the perk goes away, I’m done. Really, I won’t be going out of my way to stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Dickinson, North Dakota, in January, for 10,000 points, much less 5,000 points. It’s no wonder so few of the hotels are booked out at this point.
• 

  tassojunior January 31, 2018

  I usually book a bunch of potential stays but this time didn’t. Berlin was a possibility except I like the Zoo area better and $75 (value of 15K) will almost pay for a place there. PB is just a moderate discount program now. No big deal.

  I do know the Helsinki HI and it was often on for 5K. Now it’s 15K.

  I often did the Hamburg HIE downtown and the San Clemente HI but if they come back at 15K
  ($75) that’s just under normal cash price. Actually with a great corp discount I can get about that price anytime.
• 

  tassojunior January 31, 2018

  I didn’t mean to sound totally negative. You also have to factor in that on rewards you pay no tax (usually 10% saving) and with the card you get another 10% rebate so PB are still a decent sale at 15K, just not an exceptional bargain like they were at 5K.

  I suspect many people book on spec by habit and most of these reservations will cancel. By the time of the next PB few people will even bother.
• 

  Ric Garrido February 1, 2018

  @tassojunior – I agree that the PointBreaks now look like a moderate discount for many places and barely a discount for some places.

  I made the same comment on Twitter about Berlin. Finding hotels for under $100 is pretty easy most of the time, so paying 15,000 is not that much of a deal.

  Helsinki has three hotels, but not a great time of year to go to Helsinki. I was there in early March one year when all the streets were frozen in ice. Made walking around rather challenging. Now if those hotels were on the next PointBreaks for May-July, we’d be talking a good time of year for a hotel discount.

  Want a vacation at InterContinental Nairobi for 10,000 points? Political situation kind of hot right now if you read the news. Got enough of that drama in the USA without stepping into a foreign country’s troubles. TV stations have even be shut down in recent days.

  Traveling specifically to Brno, Czechia and Clermont-Ferrand, France for a 4-night stay in a PointBreaks hotel was worth it when the airfare was only $100 from my arrival point in Europe and I saved $400 on the hotel stay.

  I picked London and Kiev due to the high probability of transiting through London on my travels through Europe and a desire to visit Ukraine for the first time. My plan had been to travel to Romania, but I figure I can visit Romania this summer with my wife and go to Ukraine as a solo trip this spring. My wife has no desire to go to Ukraine, but I think she will like Romania.

  In the past I have planned 2,000 mile road trips in the USA hitting PointBreaks most every night. No hotels on this PointBreaks list in the USA appealed to me for a trip idea.
• 

  w.w February 3, 2018

  if people cancel (which is very possible, and may account for a big portion of the bookings) will these hotels appear on the promotion again?
• 

  Ric Garrido February 4, 2018

  @w.w. – I have never noticed a hotel return to PointBreaks list after it dropped off list.
• 

  w.w February 4, 2018

  thanks for your reply..then this bad change may be positive in one sense that more hotels may be used by actual travelers not just the speculaters mostly the bloggers and flyertalkers
• 

  w.w February 4, 2018

  another question, if people cancel but the hotel is still on the list, will the canceled ones (either for the date or for that number of rooms) be added to the inventory of promotion again?
• 

  Ric Garrido February 5, 2018

  I am an actual traveler. I booked my hotel stays knowing the hotels I chose were likely to be some of the hotels first booked out from the current PointBreaks list.

  For years I have planned my travels around PointBreaks to take advantage of the big savings. I did not pick random dates for my stays. I chose dates around a low fare airline ticket I searched for before making my PointBreaks reservations.
• 

  w.w February 5, 2018

  I am sorry i am not referring you…in case you feel offended. we have similar travel habits (except i prefer even cheaper hotels than you without any requirement of quality). I was just saying that to refer to many people who do that type of practice
  could you answer my question of the other comment? thx
• 

  w.w February 5, 2018

  I suddenly have another thought. In hotel manager’s perspective, the fact that “only a dozen of hotels booked out” may be a good sign because the promotion is meant for 2 (or 4?) months and if most are booked out in the first 48 hours it may be a bad publicity case for the average (and the majority of) customers who click through and find nothing available (I have such experience…). But anyway this change is not good overall given the price hike so I won’t defend it in a general sense.
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