IHG Reward Night Devaluations coming 25th January 2019

Effective from 25th January 2019 around 700 IHG properties will be changing their Reward Night prices.

This appears to be confirmed on IHG Reward Club's official website…

 

And the full list is also published here which judging by the filename was created in July sometime last year, but was only picked up by the public recently.

The changes

Based on my quick inspection, (I think) all the changes are either up or down by 5000 points with none going over the 70000 reward points cap. The number of individual hotel brands changing their prices are roughly:

• 29 Intercontinental Hotels, of which 8 are reductions in prices, and the rest are increases.
• 62 Crown Plaza
• 245 Holiday Inn
• 255 Holiday Inn Express
• 26 Hotel Indigo
• 33 Candlewood Suites
• 30 Staybridge
• 10 Kimpton, of which 2 are going up, Kimpton St. George in Toronto, and Kimpton De Wit in Amsterdam. The rest are price decreases.
• 1 EVEN hotel, a price increase to Even Hotel Rockville, Washington DC Area
• 4 Hualuxe, all are price reductions.

There may be other properties that I missed but this covers just about every IHG property brand available.

 

Some discrepancies

It is not clear what the 25th January 2019 date actually means. Whether it is for stays from this date, or bookings made from this date. I would imagine the latter.

To further add to the confusion, Head for Points states 14th January 2019 (tomorrow!) as the final date for booking, although I cannot find anything to suggest it is so soon. If you want to play safe then you should book immediately.

[Edit 13th Jan 2019, 14:00GMT]: From the comments below, Rob has confirmed that 25th January is now the correct date. You still have some breathing room! You still still this link to book.

 

Bottom Line

It is expected that over time prices will inflate, especially since you earn the same amount of points per $ and the dollar amount will change. All this before factoring in currency fluctuations.

Don't forget to check out my Beginners' Guide to IHG Rewards Club, and also to register for the “Reward Nights. Faster” Q1 promotion to earn a decent stack-load of points. If you are going to be staying in the UK anytime soon then also check whether your property will qualify for the free night voucher after spending 2 nights.