IHG cardholders: Book by April 5 and get 20% off award stays of three nights or less

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with current information.

In January, IHG Rewards offered 20% off award stays of three nights or longer. Well, now that sale is back for Chase IHG Rewards credit cardmembers.

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Starting today, IHG Rewards cardholders can get a 20% discount on reward nights when booking stays of three consecutive nights or less. To be eligible for the discount, cardholders must book stays at participating hotels by April 5, 2022, and start their stay by May 25, 2022.

Eligible cardholders will get a 20% discount on the points needed to book an award stay. And IHG will also discount the cash portion of points and cash awards by 20%.

Currently, the discount is only available to Chase IHG Rewards credit cardmembers. However, when IHG Rewards ran a similar promotion in January, other members gained access later during the booking window. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised to see additional IHG Rewards members get access to this discount soon.

Skeptics may note that IHG uses dynamic pricing and could raise award prices due to this promotion. So, I checked that IHG is applying a 20% discount by searching for the same award twice: once when logged into my IHG Rewards account (which is linked to an eligible IHG cobranded card account) and once when logged out.

Here’s a sample search result when logged into my account:

The best flexible rate with the same cancellation policy as reward nights is $215. So for this booking, you’d get:

• 0.96 cents per point if you redeem 22,400 points.
• 1.06 cents per point if you redeem 17,400 points plus $30.
• 1.25 cents per point if you redeem 12,400 points plus $60.
• 1.68 cents per point if you redeem 7,400 points plus $91.

Here are the award prices I found for this same stay when logged out of my account:

As you can see, IHG discounts both the points and points and cash rate when I’m logged in. You don’t need to register for the promotion or do anything special to get the discount if you’re an eligible cardholder — just log in to your IHG account and search for award nights as you usually would.

Since this promotion is only for award stays of three nights or less, it isn’t stackable with the fourth-night reward offered by the IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card and the IHG  Rewards Club Traveler Credit Card.

If you’re eligible for this promotion, check award rates and consider rebooking if you have IHG award stays booked during the stay period. The examples you see above are for a one-night stay I’d previously booked for 26,000 points. By rebooking just one night during this promotion, I saved 3,600 points.

Related: 13 ways to stock up on IHG Rewards points

Bottom line

If you have a stay of three nights or less coming up with IHG and are eligible, it’s worth checking if this 20% discount changes your calculations on whether you should book a paid stay or redeem IHG points. And although eligible members must book by April 5 to get the 20% discount, most IHG award bookings are freely cancelable until shortly before the check-in date.

If you need to earn more IHG Rewards points, remember that you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to IHG. But, depending on how you value Chase points, you may get better value buying the IHG points you need.

Related: Should you buy IHG Rewards points or transfer points from Chase?