InterContinental Hotel Group can be seen as the third largest after Marriott and Hilton, looking at the number of properties and rooms available. Wyndham surpasses IHG in regard of the number of properties but stays behind IHG in regards of the number of rooms. Furthermore, Wyndham scales more in the economy or budget hotels. Therefore, in today’s article we’ll have a closer look at IHG, IHG One Rewards, InterContinental Ambassador program, and – last but not least – at IHG Destined.
Which brands are available within IHG?
The biggest part of 6.600 IHG properties consist out of Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels (approximately 4.500 properties), which are grouped together with Avid and Garner in the Essential category offering rather spartan services. In other words, we can observe within IHG a strong dominance of low-level or budget hotels.
Around 760 hotels are grouped for long stays under the brands of Candlewood Suites, Atwell Suites, Holiday Inn Vacation and Staybridge Suites.
Roughly 570 hotels in the Premium segment operate under the brands of Crowne Plaza, Even Hotels, Hualuxe (with focus on Chinese market), Voco and Ruby.
The Luxury and Lifestile collection is covered by Six Senses, Regent Hotels, InterContinental, Hotels Indigo, Vignette Collection and Kimpton Hotels.
IberoStar Ressorts are more and more integrated into IHG programs as an exclusive alliance.
IHG One Rewards
The current version of the IHG One Rewards allows you to earn 10 points per USD spent (5 points in properties grouped in the long-stay segment). The first level upon the registration is the Club level. It allows you to use member rates and to benefit from member promotions. You can also ask for a late check-out until 14:00h.
The points earned are valid for a duration of 12 months, but you can easily extend their validity by staying just one night in one of participating hotels within the validity period.
Status levels within IHG One Rewards
| Status level | Qualification |
| Silver | 10 nights |
| Gold | 20 nights or 40.000 points |
| Platin | 40 nights or 60.000 points |
| Diamond | 70 nights or 120.000 points |
Which benefits can you expect on which level?
Silver Elite level offers you the following perks:
- Points do not expire as long as you qualify for an Elite level
- You earn 20% bonus points (not count towards status qualification)
Gold Elite level offers on top of the perks of the Silver Elite level the following:
- Rollover nights for the qualification in the next year (for example, if you stayed 35 nights in the current year, you qualified for the Gold status with 20 nights. The remaining 15 qualification nights will be transferred to the following year, speeding up your qualification in the next year.
- You earn 40% bonus points
- After 20 nights you can also select a milestone reward out of the following options:
- 5.000 bonus points
- 2 food and beverage vouchers
- 1 guaranteed suite upgrade
- Every time you complete 10 nights more, there are further milestone perks waiting for you.
Platin Elite level brings you additional benefits:
- Complimentary upgrades
- 60% of bonus points
- Welcome drink at check-in
- Guaranteed room availability if you book at least 72 hours before arrival
- Discounts on reward nights
- Early check-in
Diamond Elite level has some further perks:
- 100% bonus points
- A welcome gift at check-in (it can be welcome bonus points, a drink or snack offer or a breakfast for 2 persons – you and another person staying in your room – for the duration of your stay)
How easy can a status be reached?
At first sight the qualification seems to be as difficult as within Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors, and the more tangible benefits (like free breakfast) are available only to Diamond members, for which you would need to spend 70 nights or 12.000 USD (= 120.000 points). However, there are ways to reach even the highest level within IHG One Rewards for as low as 20-25 nights. With the same approach, you can become a Gold Elite member within just 8 nights in total, which would else not be sufficient even for the Silver Elite level.
But you can also bypass all the nights and points of the qualification overall and become directly a Platin Elite member. The key word here would be InterContinental Ambassador. This program requires from you an annual payment of 225 USD. But on top of being Platium Elite member of IHG One Rewards, it offers further benefits in InterContinental hotels, like
- Guaranteed room upgrade
- Late check-out until 16:00h
- One weekend night for free (when booking a stay of two nights)
- A credit for consumption in restaurants and bars of the hotel of 20 USD per stay
IHG Destined
Is it all that you can get from IHG? Definitely no. There is even more possible, especially if you prefer to stay in hotels of the Luxury segment, like Six Senses, InterContinental, Regent, Indigo, Vignette or Kimpton.
There is another program – IHG Destined – which can be reached only via preferred and carefully selected travel partners. When booking via such partners, you can count on the following benefits, even if you did not reach any personal status level in IHG One Rewards program:
- A property credit of 100 USD per stay
- Upgrade to the next room category (saving potential of several hundreds of USD depending on the initially booked room compared to the price of the upgraded room)
- Daily complimentary breakfast for 2 guests (an easy saving potential of 50-80 USD per night)
- Local welcome amenity
When booking via our partner, your nights and expenses still count towards your personal status qualification as if you booked directly with IHG. Using usual booking platforms, your stay does not count for the program qualification.
This article shows just an overall overview of the possibilities within IHG Group. With dedicated strategies you can further improve your stays and accelerate your status qualification. Feel free to contact us for a detailed consultation.
