IHG Pointbreaks Hotels No Longer Only 5,000 Points
We received communication from IHG announcing the next Pointbreaks list will come out Monday January 29th. A sneak peak will be offered tomorrow January 26th.
Here is the Pointsbreaks quarter that is just wrapping up.
But there was some interesting news in there as well. The Pointbreaks rooms will no longer be only 5,000 points per night. There will also be hotels offered at 10,000 and 15,000 points per night to go along with some 5,000 point hotels. Points and cash bookings will be also available on Pointsbreaks bookings for the first time.
Analysis
The 5,000 points per night Pointsbreaks promotions are one of the better deals in the travel world. They have allowed you to get rooms worth hundreds of dollars for only $30 worth of points. It has even been possible to purchase the points at that price so you essentially could pay $30 in cash for a room worth up to 10 times that much.
But over the last several years the hotels offered have been poor and rarely worth booking. My hope is that with this change they will at least offer higher quality hotels like they did back in the day even if at a higher cost.
The preview list offers some interesting choices so I think this is where it may be going.
- Holiday Inn® Kuala Lumpur Glenmarie (Malaysia) (5,000 points)
- InterContinental® Nairobi (Kenya) (10,000 points)
- Holiday Inn® San Antonio Northwest (US) (10,000 points)
- InterContinental® Cali (Colombia) (10,000 points)
- Holiday Inn Express® London – Newbury Park (UK) (10,000 points)
- InterContinental® Sao Paolo (Brazil) (15,000 points)
- Holiday Inn® Helsinki City Centre (Finland) (15,000 points)
- Crowne Plaza Berlin – Potsdamer Platz (Germany) (15,000 points)
Conclusion
While it is upsetting to see yet another thing we cherish get devalued this may end up being a net positive when it is all said and done. I am not sure what the points and cash rates will be but it could be an interesting way to get deeply discounted rooms with only a small stash of points.
Hopefully this leads to better hotels being offered during the promotion that still end up being large discounts off of the cash rates. Only time will tell but I think this will be the case, at least in the beginning.
What do you think – will this be a positive or a negative? Let me know in the comments.
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[…] will release a preview of the new PointBreaks hotels tomorrow but Miles to Memories posted a sample of the hotels that will be offered along work some surprising changes. Not all […]
[…] few days ago Mark posted about the changes that are coming to IHG PointsBreaks hotels. The PointBreaks rooms will no longer be only 5,000 points per night. There will also be hotels […]
No way to know if this is a good thing or not. Obviously, most of us would be thrilled to pay 10,000 or 15,000 points for their better properties. The problem is if they mostly just offer the 5,000 properties for more points. The best example of this is Dollartree, a store which sells everything for a dollar. There are only so many things you can sell for a dollar, so they started a sister-chain called “Deals” which also sold products for $2 and $3. The problem is that they weren’t so focused on making those $2 and $3 items “good deals” — instead, a lot of them had high margins. That might be good for the company, but customers revolted, and didn’t shop at the Deals stores.
McDonalds is now doing the same thing, making their “dollar menu” $1, $2 and $3. We’ll see how that goes, but obviously they’re going to try to increase their margins on the higher priced “value” items.
With IHG, we’ll just have to see if they’re committed to offering “good value” 10,000 and 15,000 point deals, or just want higher “margins.” I’m cautiously optimistic, though, because even if the 10,000 points properties aren’t “as good a deal,” they’ll still be a better option than the other lodging alternatives in the area.
The cynic in me assumes that is the way it will go – crappy hotels for 10k down the line.
[…] for just 5,000 IHG Rewards points per night, is no more. When it rains it pours. Looks like the better properties will now be 10,000 and 15,000 points per night. So, to recap, staying at an Intercontinental for just 5,000 points is not in your future okay? […]
In all these places there are comparable or cheaper non chain hotel options or Airbnb’s so where is the deal here?
The deal is if you already have the points and wouldn’t need to shell out cash for the stay. They are reduced rates on the points cost of the rooms. Not everyone is interested in Airbnb either.
Pointsbreak has not had a decent hotel in a while. Hope this brings back some value
Same here – can’t get worse right?
The previous 5K offerings were pretty low end in weird places, nothing I would ever bother to plan for, so I welcome this.
For sure – they didn’t use to be that bad but they got worse year after year.
[…] Hat tip to Miles to Memories […]
Agreed…. overall good move.
Let’s hope it stays that way!
[…] Hat tip to Miles to Memories […]