IHG One Rewards is the loyalty programme for the hotel chain whose most recognised brands are Intercontinental, Kimpton, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. Over 6,000 hotels in over 100 countries participate in IHG Rewards. As one of the largest hotel chains, you can usually find an IHG hotel wherever you travel.
In this post:
How Do I Earn Elite Status with IHG One Rewards?
You can earn elite status by staying a certain number of nights in a qualifying year, earning enough points in a qualifying year, holding certain credit cards, or participating in the ambassador programme.
IHG One Rewards has five membership tiers:
- Membership
- Silver Elite: 10 nights
- Gold Elite: 20 nights or 40,000 points
- Platinum Elite: 40 nights or 60,000 points
- Diamond Elite: 70 nights or 120,000 points
Points are classified as either Elite points or non-elite qualifying points. Only Elite Qualifying Points count towards Elite status:
The Benefits of Elite Status with IHG One Rewards
The IHG One Ambassador Programme
IHG’s Intercontinental brand offers a paid membership called Ambassador. You can get a range of benefits at Intercontinental hotels and resorts worldwide, including:
- Guaranteed One category room upgrade
- Extended 4:00 PM check-out
- Complimentary weekend night
- Restaurants & bars credit of up to USD20 for every stay*
- Complimentary mineral water
- Complimentary premium internet
- Dedicated check-in area
- Single room rate for double occupancy
- Complimentary breakfast for one each night you stay (only in Mainland China)
- Platinum Elite status in IHG® One Rewards and the corresponding benefits
Your Platinum Elite status can potentially be used for a range of airline and hotel status matches.
Ambassador costs $225 (£182) per year. IHG Rewards Club members can pay with 45,000 points instead.
The Bright Side… whenever I want to guarantee myself a suite or lounge access at an Intercontinental hotel, I don’t book the standard room. Instead, I book one room category beneath the room I actually desire and rely on the upgrade policy working as promised…
How Do I Earn IHG Rewards Points?
Hotel Stays
IHG Rewards members earn 10 base points per US dollar spent at nearly all IHG brands.
The exceptions are:
- Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites – 5 base points per US dollar.
- IHG Army Hotels – 3 base points per US dollar.
- IHG Branded Residence properties, excluding Voco Residences – 2.5 points per US dollar.
You earn points on your pre-tax room rate and other eligible room charges, including telephone calls and room service. When paying for your room in a currency other than US dollars, IHG will strip out any taxes included in the rate and convert the remainder to US dollars (at a rate usually to IHG’s advantage).
Except at InterContinental Alliance Resorts, you can earn points for up to 9 rooms per night at the same hotel, provided the folios are combined onto the hotel room bill under the member’s name.
To earn points, you must book directly with IHG. Reservations made via online travel agencies (such as hotels.com, booking.com, etc.) will not be eligible.
IHG One Rewards runs regular promotions that typically run year-round without a gap. We cover these regularly in our news and offers articles.
Earn Points Dining
You can earn up to 8 points per $1 (or equivalent) spent at over 20,000 restaurants worldwide and up to 500 points through Dine and Earn.
Special offers are often available if you spend a particular amount or earn a set number of points within 30 days of signing up.
IHG points can also be acquired through OpenTable restaurant bookings. Most restaurants offer 150 points per booking.
There are regular bonus point promotions and discount offers for various destinations around the world. A recent offer is 20% off your bill + points and an additional 1 point per $10 spent in Southeast Asia and Korea.
Bonus Points for Elite Status
The number of points you earn also depends on your IHG status:
- Silver Elite – 20% bonus
- Gold Elite – 40% bonus
- Platinum Elite – 60% bonus
- Diamond Elite – 100% bonus
Buying IHG One Rewards Points
You can buy up to 200,000 points per calendar year in minimum increments of 1,000 points.
Here is the current pricing:
IHG runs regular promotions where you can get better value on your points purchase.
UK IHG Credit Cards
After Creation ended its co-branded card partnership, no IHG credit cards are currently available to UK residents, although they recently polled members to find out how many would be interested.
Hertz Car Rental
Earn 1,500+ IHG One Rewards points when you rent with Hertz.
Earning Points with Meetings
Earn points when you book accommodation, meetings or events with IHG Business Rewards. You can earn 3 points per $1 spent booking corporate events, meetings and weddings.
Converting Airline Miles into IHG Points
There are fewer airlines you can do this with. For example, you can transfer Virgin Points at a rate of 1:1 and Finnair Plus Points at a rate of 2:1.
Receiving Points from Friends and Family
You can be gifted points by friends and family to boost your balance. However, the sender must pay $5 (or equivalent) per 1,000 points. Although this is an option, the fee massively devalues the points.
How Can I Spend IHG Rewards Club Points?
Standard Reward Nights
IHG One Rewards does not publish an award chart or provide a master list of the number of points that each hotel requires for a reward night. However, reward nights are priced between 5,000 and 70,000 points per night in 5,000 increments.
IHG One Rewards annually adjusts the number of points required at hundreds of IHG hotels.
IHG One Rewards promotes the absence of blackout dates. Individual hotels are only obliged to offer 5% of their room inventory as reward nights. Popular hotels can, therefore, prevent you from redeeming your points for a free night, even though standard rooms are available using cash.
Points & Cash
If you have insufficient points for a full award night(s), you can also book rooms using a combination of points and cash. The cash portion is highly variable.
A crucial element to note is that IHG’s version of Points & Cash simply involves purchasing points as part of a reward night booking. If you subsequently cancel this reservation, you will NOT receive a cash refund; instead, you will be refunded ONLY the points. Moreover, your stay is treated as an award stay. You will not earn any points on the cash portion, nor will your Points & Cash stay qualify for any promotions that require paid nights.
IHG Milestone Rewards
Starting at 20 qualifying nights, you can choose from one of the available milestone rewards for every 10 nights you say.
When you get to 40 and 70-night milestones, you will be able to choose two milestone rewards.
Once you reach a milestone, you will have 90 days to select a reward.
Milestone Rewards are as follows:
Food & Beverage Reward
- Up to $20 (or local equivalent) towards food and beverage charges at participating IHG Hotels & Resorts.
- It can be used multiple times per stay but only once per charge.
- This offer excludes Holiday Inn Club Vacations, IHG Army Hotels, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts, and InterContinental Alliance Resorts (Las Vegas & Macau).
- It cannot be used for minibar charges, vending machines, external food delivery, or at restaurants that don’t allow room charges.
- Valid for 12 months
Annual Lounge Membership
- Access to the hotel’s Club Lounge for the member + one guest for the duration of their stay.
- Beginning in 2025, the Annual Lounge Membership is valid for the remaining days in the year following the date the Milestone is achieved, plus one Calendar Year, regardless of when the Milestone selection occurs. For example, an Annual Lounge Membership Milestone choice achieved in June 2025 and selected in August 2025 will be valid until 31st December 2026.
Confirmable Suite Upgrade
- Valid for stays up to 5 nights and must be redeemed through IHG Customer Care.
- Available only on eligible rates, including Best Flexible, Member Discount, Reward Night, Government & select corporate rates.
- It can’t be used on Group bookings, package tours, third-party bookings, or prepaid stays with a deposit already applied.
- Suite upgrades are non-transferable and do not include Club Lounge access even if upgraded to a Club-level room.
IHG Experiences
If you’ve always wanted to watch a soccer game in the US, you can redeem IHG One points for exclusive major league soccer games and get things like event access, behind-the-scenes and score match tickets.
You can also redeem your points for festival tickets in the US and Europe and add on things like daily festival perks and exclusive event access.
Converting IHG Points to Airline Miles
You can convert IHG points into Avios and other airline miles. The conversion rate is usually 10,000 points –> 2,000 miles. Each airline has different redemption rates.
To convert your IHG points to miles, you will need to change your preferences in your IHG Rewards account.
Converting IHG points to miles is generally considered a poor use of points.
You can convert points to miles with the following airlines:
Online Shopping
Through the IHG One Rewards catalogue, you can redeem points for a huge range of things from electronics to homeware and sports and leisure-related goods. Here’s an example of what you can get for your points:
Gift Cards
You can also redeem your points for gift cards. 5000 points will get you a £5 voucher, and 7500 points will get you a £10 voucher:
Points can also be redeemed for magazines, films, mobile top-ups, music and software.
Donating IHG One Rewards Points
Donations of 2,500 to 10,000 points can be made to nonprofits such as the American Red Cross, CARE International, No Kid Hungry, Action Against Hunger and Just a Drop.
Do IHG Points Expire?
Elite Members’ Points do not expire as long as Elite level membership is maintained.
Club Level points expire if your account is inactive for 12 months. This means that if there are no ‘earn’ or ‘redeem’ transactions, your points will be removed, and your account will no longer be eligible for redemption.
There are plenty of ways you can keep your account active, including:
Can I Earn Cashback? Or “Milesback”?
The major cashback websites in the UK – Topcashback and Quidco – offer a minimum of 6% cashback (up to 15%) on IHG paid stays. Frequent promotions increase the amount of cashback on offer.
You can earn 3+ Avios per £ by booking via the British Airways Executive Club e-store. Offers often put this up to 6 Avios per £1 spent.
Through their Shops Away platform, You can earn 2-4 miles per £ from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
For the avoidance of doubt, you still earn points, elite status credit, etc., when clicking on an IHG brand website from a cashback or “miles back” website.
The 30-Second Lowdown
IHG One Rewards offers relatively few high-standard hotels, although the acquisition of Kimpton is certainly helping to improve that situation.
Many travellers rate Intercontinental hotels highly, especially those who have paid for Ambassador status; IHG’s intent strength is with mid-range hotels – Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, etc. – and the bland reliability of the Holiday Inn Express chain.
Very little is guaranteed, although certain hotels are more generous with room or lounge access upgrades. You can, however, reach Platinum Elite or Diamond Elite status relatively easily, and IHG is very generous with the bonus points handed out to elite members.
IHG Rewards is perhaps most attractive to business travellers booking their own travel but expensing food items (breakfast, evening cocktails, etc.) that others might expect from their elite status at a different chain. IHG traditionally offers the most lucrative bonus point promotions with Accelerate and the highest cashback levels. As a result, you can receive a very substantial rebate on the paid room rate, in both points and pounds.
But IHG’s focus on printing money—i.e. handing out lots of points to members—means that the cost of reward nights marches steadily upwards—not so long ago, the maximum cost per night was 50,000 points—and the most aspirational hotels do not offer substantial award inventory for those wishing to use their points. You cannot book anything other than the standard room, no suites, executive rooms, etc., using points.
You can find out more and join IHG Rewards here.
2 comments
Who is Mr Brightside?
‘Mr Brightside’ contributed to the original version of this article published by Michelle.