Update 6/8/20: There is a list of excluded properties for the free night certificate. So even if a property costs less than 40,000 points you won’t be able to use the certificate there.
Update 6/2/20: Properties that price under 40,000 points due to this dynamic pricing are currently not bookable with the Chase IHG free night certificate. It lets you start the booking process but eventually errors out. IHG has confirmed this is an error and is working on a solution to fix it. It seems it doesn’t affect all users/all properties but you may run into it. Hat tip to TPG
Original post: In 2019 IHG confirmed that variable point pricing would be introduced, but provided few details. Last month we saw the introduction of this variable pricing on some Asian properties. Variable point pricing is now showing as live on both domestic properties and properties in Europe. Based on the searches I’ve done so far, all pricing seems to currently be cheaper than anything previously offered. That being said I would make two points to advise caution on this continuing:
- COVID-19 has lead to a dramatic decrease in demand which could be causing variable point pricing to be lower than it normally would
- IHG has a history of making a ‘positive’ change only for it to turn out to be a negative. For example when the revamped IHG PointsBreak stayes were launched with 10,000 & 15,000 tiers we saw a lot of great properties in the new 10,000/15,000 tiers for the first few released before the quality disappeared entirely.
If you have an existing book then it’s definitely worth checking to see if rebooking makes sense. Just make sure there is availability as if you cancel there are no guarantees that room will go back into award inventory. Not all properties are showing this new variable pricing. It also doesn’t seem like the points is tied to the cash rate of the property.
Hat tip to reader Casey K
