For most people IHG’s “Into the Nights” promotion has been quite fiasco. People’s dashboards were changed overnight, stays were not being reported properly, and the dashboard was taking forever to update. I even was able to get 10,000 goodwill points last week with a quick call to an IHG supervisor. Fortunately this promotion is over and there is a good chance IHG will see a decline in people taking advantage of their promotions in the future. Although I have to admit, this promotion had the potential to be really really good for some. Ultimately, I was able to earn 59,195 points (plus 10,000 goodwill points) and three free nights to use at any IHG hotel through December 31, 2015. My total extra cost I spent (due to mattress runs to complete the promotion) was $204 which means I “purchased these 59,195 points at about .34 cents per point which is fabulous (and I got the three free nights).
In my scenario (and many others), the dashboard took FOREVER to update. Although I logged onto my account now to see that all stays have been tracked in the dashboard and I officially completed the promotion. It is great that everything finally tracked, but it does not allow me to take advantage of the additional bonus offers you get once you complete all the offers. The bonus offers now show but all have an expiration date of 12/31/14 which is kind of ridiculous. I am not sure why they would even show my expired offers at this point! From what I’ve read, the bonus offers are the same for everyone and not targeted to individual accounts.
Ultimately, I could have stayed 3 more nights, redeemed 800 points for a mazagine subscription, and wrote a hotel review to earn 25,500 points. Now, I personally didn’t have any required stays, so these three nights would have resulted in a mattress run and most likely costing me at least $175. This means I would have “purchased” the points for .7 cents per night which is NOT worth it since you can always purchase points at this rate. Fortunately, the lag of the dashboard being updated ultimately did not affect me, but I am sure it did to many.
So I cannot decide if I have hate or love for this promotion. And if my “Thanks A Lot” title is serious or sarcastic. I personally did not have my initial dashboard changed on me and all my stays ultimately tracked properly although it took awhile. And when all was said in done I earned a ton of points and free nights at an amazing rate. But is the headache and hassle worth it? Many would say absolutely not with this particular promotion, but my offer might have just been too good to be true. Overall though, I still do not think I can trust IHG.
So what was your ultimate take on this promotion?
Reminder: For those selecting free nights, you have until January 31, 2015 to do so. If you do not select free nights as your preference by then you will automatically be awarded the applicable points offered.
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i know we have to choose nights vs points by 1/31/15, but when do I need to actually book those nights by?
My nights posted twice. I chose two nights then logged off. when I had logged on again, i had the possibility to choose two mor nights:)
checked in my account and saw that I have 4 nights available.
Well, I gueess i am the only one thankful t IHG IT problems lol
Mine was technologically fine. My offers showed up promptly and didn’t change. Progress posted regularly, a bit slow, but within 2 weeks. No need to contact customer service.
In the end, I stayed 4 nights: 2 I needed anyway (but would have used Hyatt for) and 2 1-night mattress runs. For ~$400 spend, including $170 on the mattress runs, I netted 2 free nights plus 21,200 from the promo itself, plus another ~10K for the stays themselves and the various bonuses from them.
My only hiccup was mis-reading the confusing terms for the bonus+breakfast rate task, but I was able to rectify that with mattress run #2.
I know lots of folks had issues, but those of us who don’t tend not to complain. Reading the forums would suggest that 90% of folks had problems, but I suspect the actual number is much lower.
I’m in on the new Set Your Sights promo and hope that one goes smoothly.
I’m one of those for whom the promotion was a major pain. I did complete the goals and got my free nights. But as Deals noted, the posting was snail pace at best. And I didn’t get the opportunity to take my bonus stays because of the last minute posting of my completed Dashboard. But then, I haven’t seen a good hotel promotion in some time- perhaps the stay 2 nights, get one night free Marriott promo was the last of the really good hotel promos. But since flying has become what Greyhound Buses once were (maybe worse,)why would hotels go the extra mile if it doesn’t affect the bottom line?
How much time did it take for those mattress runs? How much gas? And what was the opportunity cost of just doing some MS?
The extra costs of all your running around need to be considered. I strongly suspect your “fabulous” 0.34c is a lot less fabulous when all the extra costs are included…
@paul – I get what you are saying when extra time and money should be factored in. However, in my situation it was maybe an extra 2 minutes, if that. One mattress run was tacked onto as a 2nd night of an existing stay dos no extra time or gas spent there. Another stay at the EVEN hotel in Norwalk is literally right off the highway and perfectly situated for my drive from NYC to Boston which I do often. So the only time spent was getting on and off the highway (2 minutes) plus the 2 minutes it took to check in. However, I was able to get free water and use the restroom and would have had to get off the highway to do that anyways. So just the time checking in was my time lost. I’ll spend two minutes any day to get that point value!
So the “Set Your Sights” promotion which runs from the 1st of Jan is identical to the “Into The Nights” promotion that went before it.
As a very loyal IHG user, these offers are wasted on me. As a business traveller who has to book via his corporate travel desk and who values his weekends at home with his family, take a look at what I need to do this time round:
Book 10 stays with the IHG mobile app for 7000 points
Stay 10 nights and earn 5000 points
Stay 6 weekends and get 6000 points
Book 6 “bonus point rate” stays for an extra 6500 points
Do all of the above and get the extra 50,000 points.
This is simply not going to happen. As with the last 2 promotions, this one does not reward existing loyal customers. It is targeted as getting customers to stay more and/or spend more.
I earned IHG platinum status last year on stays alone with 61 nights stayed.
Each year, maintaining Platinum status gets harder as the rules keep on changing.
With the current offers, if the targets are achievable then you are simply not staying enough to get Platinum status therefore your only route to this is by getting a credit card and if you are staying enough then you are spending anyway so IHG continue to take you for granted.
After 15 years of IHG Platinum, I think 2015 will be the year I look to a different hotel group for my primary spend.
Does anybody know how long it takes IHG to post the 2 free nights? I chose the free nights and it has been more than 2 weeks and still nothing.
I got bit by the bait & switch. When I signed up, I chose 10k miles (over the 2 nights). What did they post? 10k points! Great, I can maybe book 2 nights with that. :-/