From Miles to Smiles Stylish travel for professionals seeking luxury at affordable prices
How can you earn a quick 41,000 reward points without a credit card in sight? That’s where the IHG Accelerate offer comes in. With over 5,000 hotels in over 100 countries, IHG offers a wealth of choice from a range of well known brands.
Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn and many more are part of the IHG group, so you definitely won’t be stuck for choice.
Accelerate Offer
I recently participated in the IHG Accelerate offer in the hope of bagging some bonus points. Those FREE hotel nights come in very handy when you travel frequently.
So here’s how it works
1. If you book and stay once during the offer period, you earn a bonus 1,000 points
2. Stay five nights during the offer period and you earn 5,000 points
3. Book two stays directly with IHG to earn a bonus 2,500 points
4. Complete all three of those offers for a whopping 31,500 bonus points on top of those earned for the three individual offers
5. Finally an extra 1,000 points was up for grabs for booking and staying in March
Now clearly you cannot sign up for this offer, as it finished in mid April, but in any case you have to be invited to take part. To increase your chances of invitation, make sure you have signed up to the IHG reward scheme and registered for the mailing list. That’s how you get invited to take part in your very own Accelerate offer!
How did I do?
To qualify for my bonus points, I stayed at the Intercontinental PyeongChang in Alpensia for two nights in March, one night at the Holiday Inn, Gosforth in March (I know, glamorous right?!) and three nights at the Crown Plaza, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin in April.
What else did I earn?
In addition to the 41,000 bonus points I earned, I bagged 7,609 hotel rewards from the stays plus 435 airmiles (I changed my preferences part way through)
- Intercontinental Hotel – 435 British Airways AVIOS
- Holiday Inn – 1,199 hotel rewards
- Crowne Plaza – 6,410 hotel rewards
What does this mean?
So what does 41,000 points mean to you? You could be lucky enough to redeem them for a Pointsbreak hotel for only 5,000 points a night (maximum two nights in any one hotel).
The IHG reward chart is shown below so you can work out how far they can go. You could book four category one nights, or do as I have and redeem for two nights in a category 3. Yes, I have already burned my bonus points on two nights at the Crowne Plaza, Vilnius where I am heading in a few weeks.
| Hotel category | Points |
| Category 1 | 10,000 |
| Category 2 | 15,000 |
| Category 3 | 20,000 |
| Category 4 | 25,000 |
| Category 5 | 30,000 |
| Category 6 | 35,000 |
| Category 7 | 40,000 |
| Category 8 | 45,000 |
| Category 9 | 50,000 |
Now that definitely makes my next weekend break significantly more affordable! Especially as I have also redeemed a free hotels.com night too.
Have your say
Are you a IHG reward member? If so, maybe you’ve managed to successfully complete a Accelerate offer. Feel free to share your experience below.
This sounds like such a great promotion! We are members of IHG but don’t stay at their properties enough–I think we need to change that! I love collecting points, so I’ll have to keep my eye out for their promotions going forward!
I love IGH because there are so many opportunities to rack up the points! I once earned 60,000 bonus points off a few business trips.
It’s awesome isn’t it. I’m in the middle of another accelerator which makes it so easy to earn points.
There are so many hotel rewards programs, I honestly have a tough time keeping track of them all. I appreciate your tips about IHG, I hadn’t heard of its program before.
I never heard of IHG group but will take a look at it. Thans for sharing.
I’ve never heard of IHG before, I’ve heard of the individual hotels but not the group, nor the offer. But after reading your post, I’m definitely going to look into it more. Great travel hacking tips.
I’m a huge hoarder of airline points, but I’m far less loyal to hotels. I see them as an opportunity to have different experiences and love trying as many different ones as I can. I don’t think I have the attention span to focus on any kind of status. But, you break it down really well, in case I’m ever so inclined.
Leah you would be better off with joining Hotels.com. That way you can still be rewarded for your loyalty but get to stay in lots of different properties
Intercontinental is one of my go to hotel brands. I always know what kind of service and standards I can expect and I am a member of their rewards program. You can even use your points toward experiences in certain destinations and I did a great bike tour booked with my points in Venice.
I can imagine a bike tour of Venice would be super cool! Did you go to the islands too?
Sounds like a good idea. Havent even heard of the IHG group but might look into this. Great breakdown on whats on offer.
But these are targeted and everyone gets a different offer.
Yes but I’ve just had yet another offer which I’m part way through fulfilling which is for a further 42,500. That will get me another four nights!