It’s that time when the summer hotel promotions are ending and hotels are announcing the offers for the rest of the year.
So far, both Hilton and IHG have launched websites for their upcoming offers. As always, it’s a good idea to sign up even if you aren’t sure if you’ll take advantage of the promos. Otherwise, it’s possible you’ll forget and miss out on the bonus points.
Hilton Double Up
This promotion is almost identical to the promotion the Hilton brand hotels ran over the summer.
With this promotion you can earn double base points for stays from September 1st through December 31, 2017. If you’re a Diamond member, you’ll have access to a bonus offer.
Hilton rewards points easier than any other hotel chain. The normal earning is 10x per dollar on Hilton stays. If you choose points & points then you get an additional 5x per dollar. With this promotion you’ll also get an extra 10x points on eligible stays. So you’re looking at a minimum of 25x points per dollar spent during this promotion. The last time I looked at Hilton points, I figured they’d be worth $0.005 (1/2 a cent) each. That would mean you’d be getting 12.5% back during this promotion. Not bad.
Personally, I HATE the sign up page for Hilton promotions because the registration page can’t handle anything beyond a simple password. When I try to register, I get this message.
null response object returned from WebLoginUserName call
I’ve learned in the past that I need to change my password to a “simple” code to register for promotions and then afterwards I can change my password back to a “difficult” one. I do have a Hilton stay planned during the promotion so I’ll go though the hassle of enrolling but otherwise, it’s up to you if you think it’s worth the trouble.
IHG Rewards Club – Accelerate
Accelerate is a promotion that IHG has been running in some form or another since 2016. The most recently announced promotion runs from September 1 to December 31, 2017. While most other promotions try to prevent you from gaming them to get the bonuses, IHG happily allows you to “hack” their promo to try and get the maximum amount of points possible with the least amount of stays. Everyone’s offer is different depending on your history with IHG. Here are the different offers Sharon and I received for this round.
Sharon’s offer (much like the last one she received) BORING!
Joe’s offer – More complex but possible with only 5 hotel nights
I have the IHG credit card and have completed an Accelerate offer before so my offers are usually more complex. However if I could stay for 5 nights, over 3 different brands, with 2 nights being in New York, with at least 1 stay in September and pay for at least 1 stay with my IHG card I will earn the entire bonus of 64,300 points. Since I figured that IHG points are worth at least 0.575 cents each, that’s a value of at least $370. If I could accomplish that with trips I was already planning, it just might be worth it to switch some stays to IHG.
Sharon’s offer isn’t as complicated, or as lucrative. We did take advantage of the Accelerate offer on her account last time to get a bonus 7500 points when staying at the Candlewood Suites in New Braunfels when we went to Schlitterbahn. That was on top of the fourth night free we received by booking with the Citi Prestige.
The IHG Accelerate promotions are the most interesting of the offers from any of the hotel chains. They leave it to you to try and game the system. Heck, they even got me to stay at the Crowne Plaza in Orlando to complete my tasks so I could earn 50,000 points. I had a nice room and it was a pity I didn’t stay there overnight.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We still have to see if the other hotel chains will offer any promotions for this fall or winter. Even if they don’t, it’s still a good idea to sign up for the offers that are out there.
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