REGISTER NOW: IHG brings back its generous ‘Accelerate’ offer for summer

UPDATE – APRIL 2025:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

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IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn, HI Express, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc loyalty scheme, has launched a website for its Summer 2017 promotion – IHG Accelerate.  Yes, it is repeating the Autumn 2015, Spring and Summer and Autumn 2016 and Spring 2017 offer.

That is not a bad thing.

To be honest, during the last 18 months IHG has been the only major hotel chain offering global promotions which offer genuine outsize value.  Everyone has their own personal target but, for most of us, the challenge is pretty straightforward.

I don’t want to knock the regular Hilton Honors ‘double points’ or ‘2000 bonus points’ offers, which are good, but nothing beats Accelerate if you get a suitably soft target.

Here are the headline details:

IHG Accelerate (Version 6) covers stays from 15th May to 31st August

All hotels are participating

Your bonus is personalised – you need to log in here to discover yours

This was my target for 48,900 points maximum, comprising:

• 5,000 points for a stay before 30th June
• 2,500 points on my next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 5,600 points for staying two weekends (Fri / Sat or Sat / Sun)
• 11,200 points for staying in IHG hotels in two different countries outside the UK
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 11,000 points for completing four of the five targets above, excluding the June bonus

I have three nights at InterContinental Le Grand in Paris booked for July, so that will tick off quite a bit of the above.  I then need to think strategically about whether it is worth pushing through some extra nights.

I don’t have an obvious way of getting the 2nd ‘non-UK’ booking yet but, with 11200 bonus points at stake, I will try to think of something.  I could switch my Kimpton Amsterdam booking in June from points to cash.

My wife got this one for 43,000 points:

• 3,000 points for a stay before 30th June
• 2,500 points on her next stay
• 10,000 points for staying five nights
• 5,600 points for staying two weekends (Fri / Sat or Sat / Sun)
• 3,600 points for booking a Bonus Points Package
• 600 points for spending $60 on food and beverage
• 17,700 points for completing four of the five targets above excluding the June bonus

I’m not sure if this is possible – it depends on our weekend plans.  A couple of weekends away over the Summer would give us four nights.  I doubt she would do five midweek nights for work.

Getting 5,500 points for staying a single night – as long as it is before 30th June – is certainly worth doing.  In fact, if my wife booked just a single night before 30th June on a Bonus Points Package rate then she would get 9,100 bonus points.  If she spent $60 on food and drink that would increase to 9,700 bonus points.

Note that if you have a target which involves meeting a certain ‘food and beverage’ spending target, this is EXCLUDING VAT for UK stays.  IHG also uses a weak exchange rate when converting your spend to US$.  If you were asked to acheive $39 of cumulative spend (£31), you actually need to spend £37 due to the 20% VAT and in reality probably need to do £40 due to the FX rate IHG uses.

A note on rebooking

Most of the time, existing bookings – ie bookings made before 1st May – do count for this promotion.   For my targets, the terms all say stays must be “consumed between 15 May 2017 and 31 August 2017” and not “booked”.

Last time, however, some people got an app booking target which DID specifically state that stays must be booked after the starting date.  If you have a ‘book stays via the app’ target then check the small print.

Conclusion

As long as your target is sensible, this is highly likely to be the most generous hotel promotion you are likely to see this Summer.  And, with well over 3 months to hit your target, you have plenty of time to make the necessary stays.

Log in to the Accelerate website here and see what your target is!

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IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.