IHG has released their first promo for 2015 called “Set Your Sights” promo. This is similar to the “Into the Nights” promo they ran for the Fall 2014 season as far as you have tasks to complete to earn the points. Hopefully, it is not similar with the amount of problems that so many users faced with the last promo!
IHG’s Set Your Sights Promo
This promo, like others, varies for the different customers. I received a very lucrative offer but those offers seem to be more for the IHG customers that do not have that many paid stays. Kind of unfair for those that really give their money to IHG, but that is how promos work sometimes. They are used to target the customer that may not otherwise stay with them.
Set Your Sights Promo Details
Login to see what your bonus looks like!
To start, you will need to login to your IHG account at this website to register for the promo – IHG registration page. Once you login, you will see what is required of you to earn the points.
In my case, I only need to complete 3 stays to fulfill all of my stay requirements. One of the great things about it is that 2 of them must be at Holiday Inn hotels. They cannot be at Holiday Inn Express hotels. I have access to some Holiday Inns that I can get at low enough prices that it will make it worth it for me.
After completing all the tasks, you will get the points for each task and then the bonus. In my case, the total haul of points is 50,500 IHG points. That is a great number for only 3 nights! If I were to use them for Point Break hotels (IHG’s rotating promotion that releases rooms at certain hotels for only 5,000 points per night), I would be able to get 10 nights from this promo! If I wanted to use them for a top-tier, it would give me 1 night. So, there is some value with this.
Current Point Break List:Book These Hotels For 5,000 Points Per Night – The IHG PointBreaks
My total bonus if I complete my tasks
Is It Worth It?
First, check out what your offer is. There are some offers that have been reported as requiring 9 and 10 nights and stays with Holiday Club Vacations. In exchange, such guests are receiving a paltry number of points for their efforts.
On the other hand, if your promo offer looks like mine, it could definitely be worth it to move some upcoming stays to IHG properties to fulfill your tasks. Again, to receive 50,000 points for hotel stays is pretty good!
The other question comes – what if you had not planned any hotel stays that are paid stays? Is it worth it to book a hotel simply to fulfill these tasks? It certainly can be. If you are required to stay at Holiday Inn hotels as part of your fulfillment, there are certainly plenty of them around and some can be had at very low cost. Search around to see what kind of prices there. If you can fulfill all 3 stays (if your offer is similar to mine) for under $200, that will give you 50,500 points for only $200 – plus you got 3 nights at hotels with your stay!
It is possible to buy IHG points at a rate of $.007 per point (see this post), so what is that cost for 50,500 points? It would cost your $353 to buy that many points. So, to be able to essentially buy that many points for only $200 would be a great deal! Remember, if you use them at Point Break hotels, you will be getting 10 nights for only $20 per night!
Showing Value
Look at it this way – if you can get the 50,000 points, that will give you the means to plan 2 separate 5 day vacations at Point Break hotels. If you marry that with any one of a number of mileage promo awards (like the US Airway 35,000 mile award to Europe), you can get a 5 day vacation for two for only 95,000 miles/points – in Europe!
That is just one example. There are a lot of ways this could set you up nicely for future stays. So, if you have the same (or similar) offer to me and access to cheaper IHG properties, I think it is totally worth going for. Even if you don’t use them at Point Break hotels, you could still get a top-tier hotel for only $200 (going by my estimation above). Yes, that is still spending $200, but don’t forget that you also get those 3 nights in that amount that were required to get the points!
What did your offer look like? Will you go for it?
I will NOT be participating.
60,200 Total
5000: Stay Once
15,600: Stay 10 Nights
9,600: Stay 4 Weekends including Saturday and another night
5,000: Mini-vacation at Holiday Inn Club
5,000: 2 night minimum at The Venetian or The Palazzo
2,000: Apply IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card
3,000: Book 1 Bonus Points Package
15,000: Complete 6 of 7 of the above
My offer is similar to yours but I do not see where a stay at a Holiday Inn Express does not count as a Holiday Inn Hotel. The terms that are linked to the offer are not clear. How do we know for sure if a Holiday Inn Express is excluded? Thank you!!