Huge IHG Fall Promotion: Two Free Nights Anywhere or 150,000 Points

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Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.

IHG has comes out with its Fall Promo, Accelerate, for stays between September 1 and December 31. Registration is required to see your targeted offer. I don’t stay in hotels much, so hotel promotions only catch my eye–and make an appearance on MileValue–when you can earn rewards worth more than the price of the hotel rooms you need to book to earn the rewards. This promotion meets that threshold of offering greater than 100% back–if you were targeted for one of the better offers.

Free Nights Offer

New members, or in some cases, inactive members are being offered one free night at any IHG property after two paid stays at any IHG property and a second free night after two more paid stays. That offers amazing opportunities for “winning” the promotion. Two cheap one-night stays at properties under $100 per night could yield a free night at the $400-per-night InterContinental Hong Kong or the $1,000 per night Intercontinental Bora Bora.

If you get the free nights promo, it is a no-brainer. Earn the two free nights with four real stays if you can. If you don’t have any upcoming uses for hotels, mattress run (book hotels purely for the sake of earning rewards) four times for one night stays at nearby cheap IHG properties in the Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, and Holiday Inn Express brands.

Points Offer

Old members, like me, are getting game-ified promotions that offer points for completing certain tasks like booking a certain number of stays, booking a certain number of stays at certain IHG chains, staying a certain number of nights, staying weekends, or opening the IHG credit card.

Here is my offer, for 50,000 total points:

To get all 50,000 points, I’d need to:

• stay 7 nights
• on at least two separate stays at Holiday Inns
• at least one of which was a two-night weekend stay
• plus open their credit card

All that is definitely not worth doing just for 50,000 points, which I’d value at about $250.

Some folks have easier offers, and some folks are being offered 150,000 points, so check your targeted promotion here.

Do the math to see if changing your behavior to earn the points is worth it. Add up the extra cost of your hotel stays from changing your behavior (that would be the total cost of the stay if you do a pure mattress run and have no use for the room) and add up the value of the points earned. If the points are worth more than they cost, jump on the promotion.

Terms and Conditions

Here is the fine print of the offer. Understand it before jumping in.

You must be an IHG® Rewards Club member and must register your member number in advance to participate in “Accelerate” (“Promotion”). Upon Registration, members will be presented with the opportunity to earn at least 50,000 bonus points upon completion of all offers presented. Members will be awarded bonus points listed for each individual Promotional offer (“Offer”) after completing the requirements of each individual Offer. Each Offer must be completed between 1 September 2015 and 31 December 2015 (both dates inclusive) (“Registration”).   The bonus points earned through individual Offers can be used for redemption opportunities toward Reward Nights, merchandise and other redemption opportunities. See individual Offers for the specific terms and conditions per Offer type.  A Stay is defined per IHG® Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions as one night or consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of frequency of check-in/out (“Stay”). A Stay constitutes a “Qualifying Stay” when member pays qualifying rates, which include most business and leisure rates at InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN^®or HUALUXE^TM hotels worldwide. Bonus points are not issued for Non-Qualifying Room Rates or Non-Qualifying Stays. “Non-Qualifying Room Rates” or “Non-Qualifying Stay” include the following: any stay at a Kimpton Hotel, 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, rates booked through third party web sites, complimentary hotel Stays and any other rates not defined as a Qualifying Room Rate at IHG’s sole discretion. Only one room per member per Qualifying Stay will be awarded the applicable bonus points. Each Promotion Offer of bonus points is available only once to each member. No retroactive bonus points will be awarded for Stays prior to Registration.  Except as otherwise stated in the terms and conditions, please allow up to 2 to 3 weeks for Promotion Offer bonus points to be credited after checkout .This Promotion is subject to standard IHG Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions and earning structure, which can be obtained by visiting www.ihgrewardsclub.com. This exclusive Promotion is valid and applies to the original recipient only. IHG reserves the right to remove a member’s bonus points or cancel a member’s account if fraudulent use of the Promotion is detected. IHG® Rewards Club reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Promotion/Offer at any time with or without notice.  IHG reserves the right of final interpretation of this Offer. Members must make any promotional inquiries by 60 days from the end of the campaign promotional period.