Mike FriedmanFirst, Who Is IHG?
Before we jump into the IHG Accelerate Promo for 2019, you may not be familiar with the name “IHG Rewards Club,” but you are almost certainly familiar with its brands. Their properties include the luxury InterContinental hotels, mid-tier Holiday Inn (and all of its varieties) and boutiques, such as Kimpton and Hotel Indigo. In fact, if you’ve visited Las Vegas, you may have stayed at one of their properties without knowing it, since they have a partnership with The Venetian.
IHG Accelerate Will “Reward” You for being Disloyal
There are a lot of facets of the IHG Acpromotion that I love, but the number one item is this: It proves the maxim that loyalty programs are no such thing. They don’t exist to reward you for past stays. Cash in the past does them no good. Rather, they’re trying to influence your future business, and they’ve done so in a pretty clever way with the IHG Accelerate bonus.
IHG sets their bonuses up as challenges. They give you a list of “activities,” as well as the number of points that you’ll earn for completing each one. Usually, there’s an additional bonus if you finish all of them.
IHG Accelerate: Less Loyal = Easier Promotion
Here’s where it gets interesting: The less loyal you are, the easier the promotion. The company knows that, if you rarely stay at one of their properties, you’re either highly loyal to somebody else’s program or rarely stay in hotels at all. Either way, they know that you’re not going to be staying 20 or 30 nights with them over the next few months.
But they still want to get some incremental revenue from you, so they split the difference. For people like me, who only stay at their brands a few nights per year, they give a promotion that’s easy enough to complete without making too many changes to my normal pattern. I can earn up to 54,900 points, and do so by staying only five nights over the next four months.
Requirements “Stack” for IHG Accelerate
True, there are several different requirements, but they “stack,” meaning that a Saturday night stay will count toward both the “Saturday Stays Bonus and the “Stay More, Earn More” requirements. If I book the special bonus points rate, it will also count toward “Earn More, Faster.” And, of course, it will be one of the two brands that you need for “Discover Our Brands.” so one night will count in each of the five categories.
It’s a simple promotion, but it gets at least five nights worth of spend out of me at the cost of a free night at a mid-tier property (IHG rewards cost anywhere from 10,000 to 70,000 points.).
On the other hand, if you are already staying 100 nights per year at their brands, they know that there probably isn’t much incremental spending left. So why should they offer you a generous promotion? They probably won’t. Promotions to their most frequent customers offer more points, but they’re far more difficult to complete. The requirements may include multi-night stays, new brands or even international stays.
Take Advantage of What You Can
If you’re not a loyal IHG customer, you probably have a pretty good offer. Simply click on the IHG Accelerate link and sign in, and you’ll see what they’re giving you. If you’re new or an infrequent guest, you’ve probably got something pretty good.
