BOOK FROM 2pm TODAY: new list of 5,000 points per night IHG PointBreaks with a New York option

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• Brendan says:

  25 Jan25 January 05:32

  The Holiday Inn Belfast is only newly refurbished (used to be a Days Inn) so is a pretty good redemption for stays in Belfast. It’s convenient for the Europa Buscentre and close to the city centre.

  • Dr Tom says:

    25 Jan25 January 08:37

    I actually stayed there last week for work.

    Nicely renovated and friendly (chatty) staff at reception. Two minutes walk to the Europa as well (where the fast bus from the airport drops off) and there are plenty of shops and restaurants nearby.

    I didn’t get a room upgrade (as a Spire), but I was proactively offered a drink/snack voucher and a late checkout (not needed). I also found that they credited the welcome amenity points to my account as well.

    Didn’t seem very busy the night I stayed, which may explain this being on the list.

• Relaxo says:

  25 Jan25 January 07:56

  Just so I have this straight- pointsbreak bookings are fully refundable but dates cannot be modified and/or excess nights cannot be dropped without the entire booking repricing to standard redemption rates?

  • Alan says:

    25 Jan25 January 08:09

    Yes, you can only rebook at the same rate if there are still availability at the Pointsbreak rate (which I can understand otherwise folk would just make lots of bookings then move them all!). You can get your 5k/room back though if you cancel.

    • Relaxo says:

      25 Jan25 January 09:48

      Thanks Alan.

• Kevin says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:15

  Hello

  Anybody any experience of staying in
  ◾Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Sukhumvit
  ◾Crowne Plaza West Hanoi

  What are they like, not secluded?

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 08:55

    Hard to imagine anything in Sukhumvitm being secluded! I saw a comment elsewhere that it is on a lively soi with plenty of restaurants and bars

    • Lady London says:

      25 Jan25 January 11:05

      yup. It’s loud. I stayed round the corner from it. Let’s put it this way – it was on an even noisier road than the also not very quiet hotel I was staying at in a side road.

  • Clive says:

    25 Jan25 January 10:12

    If your points can stretch to it I would go for the HI Suk 22. Lovely hotel and great position.

  • CV3V says:

    25 Jan25 January 16:03

    Not Sukhumvit, but I’ve stayed at the HIX Sathorn in BKK, its off the map road in a little cluster of hotels next to the BTS and is relatively quiet (by BKK standards), nice modern hotel and great value, especially if you get a superior room – large room, with a balcony which wraps around the exterior of the room. I would waste point on it though as its usually about 30 quid a night.

  • gs says:

    25 Jan25 January 17:46

    I stayed at the one in Bangkok – it’s pretty new, only there since last year. It’s a HIX, so pretty standard, location good if you like nightlife; walkable from Nana station.

• Felix Flyer says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:16

  Ditto!

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:04

  I’d look more carefully at the Holiday Inn Staten. It’s on the other side of Staten Island from the ferry. Probably a 30-40min (paid) bus ride to the ferry terminal.

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:07

    Free shuttle to the ferry terminal from the hotel.

    Now, to be fair, I would not stay here because it is too much bother. However, the 18-year old me would have jumped on this as a cheap way to see NYC.

    • Alan says:

      26 Jan26 January 05:30

      Although Staten Island not the most exciting of places! Went on a wee bus trip after getting the ferry across one time, fairly quickly decided to head back…

      • Rob says:

        26 Jan26 January 09:01

        If I was younger, though, I would find getting the ferry into Manhattan each day to be part of the fun.

        • Alan says:

          26 Jan26 January 09:03

          Ferry would be cool, not so sure about the bus round Staten Island though 😉

• Ben E says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:30

  ** Colombia

• Mark says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:56

  Another grim list for the UK, and Europe in general.

  • Mark says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:57

    eg as many hotels on the list in France Germany and Italy as there are in Texas.

    • Brian says:

      25 Jan25 January 10:40

      I’ve never been able to understand why people on here seem to get so excited about PointBreaks. Rob calls them a ‘fantastic deal’ – once in a blue moon, there may be a hotel on there which you’re going to use anyway, in which case that’s good, but seriously – how often does that actually happen? There’s a good reason why these particular hotels are on the list – it’s because nobody wants to stay there so they have to entice people in with this offer. If you value your points at about 0.5p, then you’re still paying the equivalent of £20-25 per night – why not get a Travelodge that is likely to be better located?

      • The_Real_A says:

        25 Jan25 January 11:32

        I’m flexible, have seen much of the main sights of Europe and still like to take plenty of weekend breaks during the year. This offer helps to be a bit of inspiration and a prompt to book something (and the bargain element helps as its essentially a free holiday if you pair with avios)

        There is still “tight” Yorkshire blood in me too.

        • Rob says:

          25 Jan25 January 11:47

          At the end of the day, there are thousands of people a week who stay in hotels in, say, Bradford. A fair few of those read HFP. A few of those will now be able to save a few quid by switching to a PB.

          Multiply by 170 hotels and it works out OK.

          One issue for IHG with using these sort of properties, though, is that there is probably less INCREMENTAL business. I doubt anyone is going to decide to visit Bradford purely to take advantage of a PB night whereas plenty of people who need to go for some reason may switch a cash booking for a reward.

        • yetyom says:

          25 Jan25 January 12:26

          Working at Bradford for the next couple of months and have been staying at HIE Bradford City Centre. Will do my next batch of bookings on 5000 points per night and use the money to buy more points when IHG puts them out on offer…
          Can anyone advice otherwise or a better way to go about this?
          Also do Points Break booking count as qualifying stay?
          Thanks all!

        • Rob says:

          25 Jan25 January 13:53

          No, not qualifying

      • Enigma368 says:

        25 Jan25 January 16:51

        I do think Rob overvalues some things but I do not agree that he oversells pointsbreaks.

        While Pointsbreaks will very rarely if ever give an amazing hotel in the middle of an expensive city you often get decent hotels in OK locations of cities many people do want to go, e.g. Helsinki, Bangkok, Hanoi and Naples this time, Berlin last time. You WILL usually be saving a lot of points or money booking these hotels over their normal rate or a competitors rate. I do concede that each time I see the list I am underwhelmed because it is always a little but less exciting than I am hoping, but then I remind myself that one has to be realistic as to what IHG will give away for almost nothing.

        Last year I stayed 5 nights in a pointsbreak location in New Jersey, about a 30minute bus ride from times square. Was it an ideal location? No, far from it. Was it worth paying 5k a night in points over £200 a night for a hotel in manhattan(or the £100 rate a night for the hotel in question), absolutely – considering I was on a 3month backpacking trip across the US and needed to keep costs low. It let me see one of the most expensive hotel cities in the world for practically nothing at the cost of a short commute each way.

        Ultimately pointsbreaks will often give you deals on decent hotels in good locations in secondary cities or “OK” suburban locations in primary cities. If you are flexible on where you stay, you can really make them work for you. I would not book them just for the sake of it if it is not somewhere you actually want to go though.

        BTW outside Europe, Holiday Inns and Holiday Inn Express have a much higher standard than travelodges. Holiday Inn Express are basically a mid range chain the most of the world, e.g. in the US they have hot breakfast as standard, proper feather pillows, high thread cotton sheets, large flatscreen tvs etc. In Europe for some reason, their brand is different and they tend to have old style portable tvs and cheap student like furniture which make them much less appealing.

        • Alan says:

          26 Jan26 January 05:35

          Good summary, that’s my take on them too. I’ve lucked out once in NZ when I managed to change an existing 2-night points booking for pointsbreak (saved 50k points that I then used for a night in the IC Wellington) – even got upgraded as IHG Plat 😀 Now I tend to view them as ideas for weekend breaks in Europe, every so often there’ll be something appealing.

    • richard says:

      25 Jan25 January 12:18

      Silly comment
      357,168 km² Germany
      696,241 km² Texas

      • BLT says:

        25 Jan25 January 17:55

        Silly comment
        Population of Germany 80m
        Population of Texas 27m

• Dale says:

  25 Jan25 January 11:30

  CP Aberdeen is an excellent new hotel – but it’s generally been available at £39 on the weekend anyway so not a massive saving. Thoroughly recommend however

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