Beware these 3 things about the IHG “Into the Nights” promo.
Yes! Another post about IHG’s new “Into the Nights” promo. 🙂
In case you’ve been offline for the past few days, you might have missed the exciting news that IHG’s fall promo is really, really good. Good enough that both Josh and I are going to go for it. And that’s saying something, because as you might recall, my last tango with an IHG promo didn’t work out so well.
But, as they say, we learn from our mistakes. Clearly I had a lot to learn from that last go-round, and today I learned an additional tip from a couple of readers. All three are worth noting if you are playing “Into the Nights.”
First, I’ll explain how the promo works, in case you’re new to this. I’ll use Josh’s offer as an example.
The total amount of points he will earn from completing each task is listed on the left. When you add all of these points up (8,400+100+1,500+4,800+4,800), the total rings in at 19,600.
However, if he completes at least 4 of the tasks, he will earn a 30,400 point bonus, which would bring his points total to 50,000…if he chooses to earn bonus points for his reward instead of free nights.
He could also opt for the 2 free nights, plus keep the original amount of points from each task (19,600 if he completed all 5 tasks, or fewer if he completed only 4 out of 5).
Because he only needs to complete 4 out of the 5 offers, he is going to skip the first task (stay 5 nights and earn 8,400 points). So he will earn a total of 11,200 points + 2 free nights for playing this game.
That is a great offer…if he plays it right! Here are my “been-there, done-that” warnings:
1. Watch out for the Holiday Inn.
If your offer includes a stay (or multiple stays) at a Holiday Inn, be aware that this ONLY means HOLIDAY INN. This does NOT include Holiday Inn Express. According the the terms and conditions, it appears that stays at Holiday Inn Resort or Holiday Inn Club Vacations DO count…although I’m so skittish at this point that I’m only going to book the Holiday Inn.
2. Don’t jump the gun.
During the last IHG promo, I used the IHG app to book one of my stays before the qualifying promo dates started. My stay fell within the official promo dates (which were January 1 and April 30), but since I had booked the stay on December 19, my stay did not count. Even though I could see and access my offer on December 19, since it was not officially time to start, I was disqualified from earning the credit.
Currently, many people are unable to see their offers yet. I happen to be one of those people; right now my offer looks like this:
Even though most (all?) of the offers I’ve seen for this current promo include a Holiday Inn stay, I am not going to book a thing until I have the official offer in hand.
3. Rewards portals may disqualify your stay. Or they may not.
While I have never had an issue with this personally, a few of my readers have had stays disqualified because they went through online shopping portals to book rooms.
The terms and conditions for the promotion imply that receiving credit for stays booked through portals could go either way, depending on the whim of IHG:
Points are not issued for Stays at the following reduced room rates (Non-Qualifying Room Rates or Non-Qualifying Stay): net wholesale individual and group rate, certain package rates, employee discount rate, friends and family rate, crew rate, special discounted contract rates, seasonal worker/crew rate, 50% travel club discount rate, travel industry discount rate, distressed passenger rate, IHG® Rewards Club Reward Nights/Airline Hotel Reward rate, most rates booked through most third party web sites, complimentary hotel Stays and any other rates not defined as a Qualifying Room Rate at IHG’s discretion.
So, use the portal option at your own risk! (Thanks to Gene and Dale for sharing your experiences).
What’s been your experience with IHG promos? Do you have any other tips to add?
I think you’re okay at the Holiday Inn Resorts or Club Vacation stays – those count as Holiday Inns. Holiday Inn Express on the other hand is a different brand.
From the terms and conditions (link on my blog)
Stays at Holiday Inn Resorts and the Holiday Inn Club Vacation properties count as Stays at Holiday Inn brand and Stays at InterContinental Alliance Resort properties count as Stays at the InterContinental brand.
Points with a Crew – I’m sure you’re right, but I’m not going to risk it. IHG is so picky!!!!
Thanks for the tip regarding Holiday Inn Express not counting as a Holiday Inn stay! I was wondering about that specific question!
Mika – Yes! I got tripped up by that same thing during the last promo, and it cost me a lot of points!
Thanks for the tips. However, my offer page is identical to yours, which means I can’t access it either. We are now six days into the offer and have no idea what’s happening, which is ridiculous and unfair. Other rewards programs have representatives who can access offers for you, but IHG just gives you the canned apology. They must have the same people who screwed up the healthcare.gov website last year working on the problem!
PSL – Grr! I agree – it’s really frustrating. I want to book a couple of stays later this month and have had to wait (and watch prices climb).
My tip is not to wait until the end to book your stays. With the last promo, we had a road trip planned and hadn’t pinned down the exact itinerary. We planned to book the IHG hotels daily as needed to meet the promo requirements (daily booking has rarely been a problem for us). However, in this case, for the last 5 days of our trip, there were no IHG brand hotels available for booking along our route and we missed a lot of points. It was disappointing!
Thanks for posting an update including Gene and I’s experiencing with going through portals. My bad luck is with Mr Rebates and I haven’t tried to book a stag through topcashback yet since they added Intercontinental hotel groups again this summer.
I think this is one if the best promos ever offered if you have a low threshold and can’t wait to take advantage of it as my wife and I both only have to stay 2 times to earn our promo, although I have to stay at an Intercontinental hotel on Saturday nights to make mine. Here I come Toronto!
If i book a room at two different HI hotels for the same night, would that count as two nights towards the promotion?
No you won’t get credit for two of them, just one night since IHG says you can’t be in two places at one time. I actually booked two rooms on same night three years ago cause my wife was with me and I had to fly back to states one day earlier and I only got credit for one night. It’ll be marked on your history as non-qualifying stay – overlapping stay.
Does AAA rate qualify for this promo?
The offer says: “stay at 2 Holiday Inn hotels”.
Question is – does it need to be 2 different holiday inn hotels? Can I stay in the same holiday inn hotel (different check-in dates, of course) during the course of this promo?
Per my experience, no. It needs to be two different HI, though nothing was mentioned in the TnC.
I’m in Toronto and got a very low offer compared to yours, likely because I haven’t stayed at an IHG property in a couple of years due to my loyalty at another brand. However, I was ironically trying to figure out how to bump up my 9k IHG points sitting in my account so they were actually useable. I was going to stay at an IHG property to do so anyways.
I was going to stay at a Holiday Inn (plain old HI) and I need to stay 2 stays for the promo. Can more than 2 stays be at Holiday Inns?
Can I do Holiday Inn Express for others or Candlewood? does it matter if all stays were Holiday Inns?
Lastly, I’m confused by the app booking bonus points. Mine says: Download and sign in to the IHG App and book a stay and get 1000. Then another task is: Book 2 stays directly on the ihg.com web/mobile sites or IHG App. Does the first booking with the app count towards the next task or do I have to do 1 via app and 2 more via app or mobile or website????
I notice that all the tasks overlap :
I need to book via the app for 1000 (doesn’t say what or how many nights)
Stay at any of their hotels worldwide for 3 stays for 1000
Book 2 stays directly via their mobile website or app for 1500
Stay 2 Saturdays at any of their hotels
Stay at 2 diff Holiday Inns.
So if I download and book all my stays via their app, stay all my stays at Holiday Inns, make sure it is 3 different Holiday Inns and there are 2 Saturday nights, does that fullfill my obligation in 3 nights?
Thank you so much.
Yes you can! One stay can be used to fulfill couple of overlapping tasks. That’s what I did and it worked perfectly.
My original offer included downloading the app and booking “a” stay. After I did this my offer has now been changed to booking twenty nine (29) stays of whch I have complete only 1. Among my other requirements 5 Saturdays is difficult, but possible but 29 stays!
I am having problems getting credit for downloading the App. My offer says Download and sign in to the IHG App and book a stay and get 500. Then another task is Book 2 stays directly on the ihg.com web/mobile sites or IHG App. I downloaded the app and used it to make three separate reservations. However, the offer screen still shows it as incomplete. I contacted customer service and I thought I had it resolved. Customer service gave me the 500 points but did not give me credit for completing the offer. So I am concerned I won’t get credit for completing the easier offer. I have a big long email chain going with customer service to document my attempts. However, thus far their responses have been unsatisfactory.