The Worst Changes In The Latest IHG Award Chart

As you probably are aware by now, IHG has made several changes to their award chart, with many hotels both increasing and decreasing in redemption value.

In an email from IHG to me:

Last week, we announced a number of changes to IHG Rewards Club including an exciting new membership tier level, enhanced personalization capabilities, points expiry for inactive members and Reward Night point requirement changes at some hotels.

We will be raising less than 300 hotels by 5,000 or 10,000 points and lowering about 150 hotels by 5,000 points. It’s only about 450 of our 4,840 hotels that will be affected — with more than 90 percent remaining the same. This is the first increase to point requirements for Reward Nights for over 2 years. All Reward Night reservations made prior to May 1, 2015 will be honored at the current point requirements. The minimum / maximum for Reward Nights have not changed and all Reward Nights still require between 10,000 and 50,000 points.

These modifications to our loyalty program will have no effect on earning points or how many points are required for items available in our online redemption catalog.

While traditionally IHG has not provided the list of hotels that are changing, as a sneak peek, I am sharing them in this email.

What really strikes me as important in this email is the fact that IHG says, “While traditionally IHG has not provided the list of hotels that are changing…” I’m not sure why IHG has not “traditionally” provided this list, nor wants to openly say they’ll provide future changes in an open manner, as well. For a company to openly say that they are, well, not open, is alarming, and one of the reasons I don’t regularly stay in IHG hotels, and am even more frustrated by their acquiring of Kimpton.

With the changes, I wanted to highlight the biggest negative changes in my opinion – that is, those hotels where the amount of points it takes to get a free room has increased. If you haven’t seen the entire list of changes, Gary has a good summary and list here.

My reasoning for this list:

• Hotels near major airports that would be frequented by business travelers or leisure travelers overnighting.
• Hotels in downtown areas of major cities.
• InterContintinental and Crowne Plaza brand hotels in well-located areas.

Do you agree with my selections? Are there any properties you would add to the list?