Big Changes to IHG Categories and Hotel Point Requirements

Last night I received a heads up email from IHG’s PR person stating:

“Point redemptions will either increase or decrease by 5,000 or 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points at 400 of our more than 5,000 hotels worldwide. All Reward Night reservations made prior to February 17, 2016 will be honored at the current point requirement levels.”

The email stated that these changes were to be announced at some point today, which they were. Ultimately, approximately 400 hotels changed point requirements. Approximately 200 hotels went up either 5,000 or 10,000 points and about the same amount of hotels went down 5,000 or 10,000 points. While I understand that hotels increase and decrease point requirements year after year, the worst part is that some top notch hotels ended up increasing beyond the current highest category of 50,000 points. Up until today, the most an IHG hotel would cost was 50,000 points. Starting February 17th, that number will increase to 60,000 points. You can check out all hotels that are changing point requirements here.

There are 18 hotels that will now require either 55,000 or 60,000 points. They include:

• InterContinental Boston – 55,000 points/night
• InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto – 55,000 points/night
• InterContinental De La Villa Rome – 55,000 points/night
• InterContinental Sydney – 55,000 points/night
• InterContinental The Williard Washington DC – 55,000 points/night
• InterContinental La Moana Bora Bora – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental Carlton Cannes – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental Hong Kong – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental London Park Lane – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental The Clement Monterey – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental New York Times Square – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental Paris – Avenue Marceau – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental Paris – Le Grand – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco – 60,000 points/night
• InterContinental San Francisco – 60,000 points/night
• The Venetian Las Vegas – 60,000 points/night
• The Palazzo Las Vegas – 60,000 points/night

Any reservations made today over the next 2-3 weeks will still be honored at the current point requirement. However, if you need to make any changes after that date you might need to pay the difference in points.