Through December 31, IHG Rewards is running its new Big Win promotion offering tiered bonuses of up to 50,000 points. Members must register and complete the following:
- Try one and done. Stay at any IHG hotel and receive 1,000 points
- Stay more and earn.Stay a total of 4 nights and receive 4,000 points
- Explore more brands. Stay at 3 different IHG brands and receive 10,000 points
- Book with us. Book 2 separate stays through an IHG hotel website or mobile device to get our best price guarantee and receive 2,000 points
- Win in a weekend. Stay 2 Saturday nights and receive 8,000 points
- Win big. Complete all of these offers and receive 25,000 points.
You can earn the maximum payout  by staying just four nights at three different hotels.
I’ve had luck during other promotions with getting hotels to check me in and out, without actually having to be there. Doing a quick search of the cheapest hotel markets in the US, I found Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, and Norfolk, VA have some of the lowest rates across the board. Here’s a sample of an affordable mattress run:
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Orlando South-Davenport has rates as low as $53 per night (including tax) on Saturday, October 12.
- Points earned: 1,000 points from One and Done
- 530 points at 10 points per $1 spent
Candlewood Suites Dallas Park Central goes for $49.44 per night (including tax) on Monday, October 14 and Saturday, October 19. Book both nights.
- Points earned: 10,000 points (2,000 points from Book With Us and 8,000 points from Win in a Weekend).
- 494 points at 5 points per $1 spent
Holiday Inn Dallas North-Addison has rooms for a total of $65.53 per night including tax on October 26.
- Points earned: 39,000 (10,000 points from Explore More Brands; 4,000 points from Stay More and Earn; 25,000 points from Win Big)
- 650 points at 10 points per dollar spent
So, for around $217.41 total, you can come away with 51,810 points. If you do a bit more research, you can probably bring this amount down to $200. Add to this the myriad of promo codes and you could be looking at an even bigger point payday.
You can use your 50,000 point sign-up bonus for 10 nights at a Pointbreaks hotel or at top-tier properties like the Intercontinental Le Moana Bora Bora, which goes for around $500+ per night. Or hold out for a good PointBreaks property and redeem up to 10 nights.
Internationally, hotels like the Holiday Inn Resort: Krabi Ao Nang Beach has nightly rates starting ay $55 September through October, but I don’t know how receptive they would be to letting you check in virtually.
In any case, I definitely see this as a mattress-run worthy promotion. I have a stay coming up for work, which would knock out four of these offers, so all I need is a cheap weekend stay to get the maximum 50,000 point bonus.
Are you planning to mattress run during this promotion?
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I’ll give a mattress run a try for this!! Thanks PointChaser!
You’re welcome, Mike!
Do you live in the DFW area? I have a couple of stays booked at the Candlewood Suites too. If you’re in the area, we should get a DO going! I know AAdvantageGeek is interested.
I would love to, but I’m not in the area and was planning to check in virtually. I’ll be at the Chicago Seminars next month though, if you guys want to meet up there.
How do you check in virtually?
Call the hotel and let them know you’re only interested in getting stay credit. They’ll make a note on your account and check you in/out accordingly. I’ve never been turned down by a property.
Interesting. You never had anyone say no? They’ve got nothing to lose, right, especially if it’s a prepaid rate.
Yeah, plus they can still sell the room. I always call before I book, just to confirm they’ll do it.
Also, thanks to one BRG night, I’m going to end up getting 90k (plus the incidental points from the actual bookings/other bonuses) for $205. I love this promotion.
Nice! It’s definitely not getting as much attention as it should.
I also have the “Love the city life” promotion for 12,000 points, which requires 2 nights at the following properties:
https://win.ihg.com/amer/us/en/hotels/index?utm_medium=missing&utm_source=GLOBAL-6C-US-EN-PromoTrackingontheWeb-Web-TBWFall13&selectedOffer=J&offerId=GLOBAL-6C-US-EN-PromoTrackingontheWeb-Web-TBWFall13&promoCode=P0&cm_mmc=0-Web-GLOBAL
Did anyone else get this one a figure out how to include this in your mattress run to get your bonus points at the end?
Alot of people who got this version aren’t happy about it. Will see if I can conjure up a mattress run for it.
Do the prepaid rates work for this promotion?
There’s nothing in the T&C restricting this. I have a prepaid rate for a work stay tomorrow. I’ll let you know if that gets credited.
I want to combine with another promo- stay 3nights at select HI resorts, get $75 card (and all those points- this hotel has 5000 bonus pts plus promos). Can I check in for 1st 2 nights of stay and then leave w/out checking out, for 3rd night of “stay”?
hi –
this sounds awesome! can both my husband and i do this since we both have ihg credit cards?
what if I have two rooms booked at a same property for same night…does it count as a two stay or one stay?
Nick, unfortunately it would only count as 1 stay.
I’ve got the 25,000 points for 2 stays or a free night and then after that is completed the same again, 25,000 points for 2 stays or a free night. For a total of 50,000 or 2 free nights for 4 nights booked on the app. It also states that I’ll unlock a bonus but it doesn’t say exactly what that will be. I imagine my best bet is to find the cheapest rooms and stay the four nights. How would you go about this offer and do you think it’s worth it? Can I book 4 single nights in a row at the same hotel? Thanks