馃攳
How Much are IHG Rewards Club Points Worth? (MOST Valuable Hotel Currency?!?) - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[0]
welcome back everyone A-Aron here today
we're talking InterContinental Hotels
[5]
Group and their craptacular loyalty
program IHG Rewards Club their award
[12]
currency is currently the least valuable
on a per point basis of all hotel award
[18]
points I keep track of that would
include Choice Privileges, Hilton Honors
[23]
World of Hyatt and Marriott Bonvoy
basically anyone that's a partner of the
[29]
big three transferable credit card award
programs so yes even the paste flavored
[35]
bran muffin of the hotels and resorts
world,
[38]
Choice has a more valuable award
[40]
currency than IHG
[51]
I almost didn't want to make this video
because it's such a boring topic IHG
[56]
Rewards Club and their points being
based in the UK are much like cars from
[61]
that continent they can be a bit flashy
their properties that is but they really
[66]
don't hold their value very well as of
June 2019 I calculate a value of 0.29垄
[73]
per point that's terrible the
fact there a one-to-one transfer
[79]
partners with Chase right alongside
Marriott and Hyatt makes it laughable
[83]
now I feel like because I rarely talk
about it on video now would be a good
[88]
time to quickly go over where that
number comes from I like to keep my
[93]
method reasonable and repeatable however
unlike valuing airline miles I don't
[98]
take a lowest cost cash price approach
that's because an airline route is semi
[104]
generic whereas a hotel is not every
Hotel will have some unique combination
[109]
of location amenities quality etc that
will set it apart from even the property
[115]
right next door I have a standard basket
of cities New York
[119]
Austin Rome Seoul Bangkok Toronto London
Beijing Los Angeles and San Juan Puerto
[128]
Rico I then look at the cash price of a
full week stay booked both 30 and 90
[134]
days in advance finally this is divided
by the number of points required for an
[139]
awards day now here is where it can get
a little controversial if a property is
[145]
bookable with cash but not with points I
then assign a value of zero for that
[150]
particular location and date data point
I do this because to my way of thinking
[156]
if a point is not usable then it is
effectively worthless finally to
[162]
compensate for things like risks of
future devaluation and the general
[166]
hassle involved with award stays
compared to cash I reduce by 10%
[172]
some people will disagree with that
method and I won't say they're wrong but
[177]
it's just not how I see it nevertheless
for them I also publish a non-zero
[182]
average
this number only looks at data points
[186]
with award availability thus ignoring
zeros and I don't further discount in
[191]
the case of IHG Rewards Club there are
30 days advance booking nonzero average
[198]
was 0.4 cents there 90 days advance was
0.5 two cents for an average of point
[204]
four six cents so that's a big
discrepancy right 0.46 when we exclude
[210]
zeros and .29 when we include
them when this happens we can
[215]
immediately infer one thing IHG Rewards
Club has poor award availability
[221]
sixty-eight point four two percent to be
exact when looking for an awards day one
[226]
will frequently be met with the
following message no reward nights
[231]
available which is very odd because they
claim that one benefit available to all
[236]
IHG Rewards Club members is a lack of
award blackouts compared to other hotel
[242]
award currencies I track IHG Rewards Club
points are only rivaled in terribleness
[247]
by Hilton Honors the latter being worth
0.35 cents each
[252]
from there we only go up Choice
Privileges points are worth point seven
[257]
one cents each Marriott Bonvoy one
point one one and the most valuable
[262]
World of Hyatt comes in at one point
three eight cents per point let's talk
[267]
about those last two for a minute I find
it very weird that Chase considers IHG
[273]
Rewards Club points broadly similar to
the far more valuable Marriott or Hyatt
[278]
award currencies I draw this conclusion
based on the fact that all currently
[282]
transfer at a rate of one to one it's
very odd the absolute best redemption I
[288]
could find came from a week-long stay at
the InterContinental London Park Lane
[292]
this was offered for three thousand two
hundred eighty three dollars in cash or
[296]
four hundred twenty thousand points this
works out to a redemption rate of 0.7
[302]
eight cents on the other hand the worst
we could do excluding the zeros that
[307]
result from findings of no availability
was for a week-long stay at the
[311]
InterContinental Sydney it was being
advertised for one thousand fifty five
[316]
dollars
or 390 thousand points this makes our
[320]
Redemption value just 0.2 seven cents
per point one could easily redeem at a
[326]
rate at least three times better by
transferring ultimate rewards to World
[331]
of Hyatt or Marriott Bonvoy
alternatively last time I evaluated
[336]
United MileagePlus another Chase
transfer partner my best Redemption was
[341]
a business class flight between Dallas
and Hong Kong with the redemption rate
[346]
of nine point three four cents in other
words twelve times the best we could do
[351]
at IHG the bottom line is that I can
think of almost no scenario in which one
[357]
would logically convert a valuable
Ultimate Reward into a low value IHG
[362]
Rewards Club point these vast
discrepancies in per point value of why
[367]
it's so important to consider both the
earn and the burnside in the return on
[372]
spend equation now the last thing I
always like to run over when we're
[376]
talking about an award currencies per
point value is its normal distribution
[381]
or its bell curve this gives us an idea
of where our likely Redemption values
[386]
will fall when plotting IHG Rewards
Club's distribution we get a relatively
[392]
steep curve this isn't necessarily a bad
thing
[395]
providing the average is respectable
what this means is that most
[399]
hypothetical redemptions are likely to
fall in a relatively narrow band of
[403]
values going one standard deviation in
either direction tells us that
[409]
statistically about 68% of all
redemptions should fall between point
[414]
zero eight and point five five cents
worth noting is that values on this
[420]
chart take into account zeros aka
findings of no availability but are not
[426]
otherwise discounted in other words it's
a straight mean because the average
[432]
value of an IHG Rewards Club point is so
pathetic this overall is a very poor
[438]
showing love let's for a moment compare
to United here our bell curve is wider
[444]
and hypothetical redemptions are not
tightly bound what this tells us is that
[449]
one has an outside
but realistic chance of an ultra-high
[453]
value award redemption
like most hotel loyalty programs IHG
[458]
Rewards Club operates on a set point
schedule meaning each property in their
[463]
network will cost a preset amount of
points
[465]
this means your best redemptions occur
when rates are highest think the summer
[470]
travel season for resort destinations or
at least in the northern hemisphere now
[476]
elite status like much of the program
overall is a little wonky to describe at
[481]
its most basic level it has four well I
guess what I'll refer to as normal tiers
[487]
club member, gold, platinum, and spire I
won't run through the granular
[492]
differences between the levels now but
because IHG website looks like it was
[497]
designed by MBAs and CPAs and without
anyone with any background and user
[502]
experience present I have compiled a
nice little chart it's on my website and
[507]
I'll go ahead and place a link below now
I mentioned a moment ago that the
[511]
program is a bit on the wonky side of
the spectrum that's because it's above
[515]
and to some degree below all the
aforementioned status tiers we have
[519]
InterContinental Ambassador it's at the
top because it has benefits like
[524]
guaranteed room upgrades and free
weekend nights and Peart exclusive to
[528]
this status however it's sort of at the
bottom because anyone can get it for the
[533]
relatively reasonable price of $200 or
40,000 points included in this pay to
[541]
play package is automatic platinum
status so what we've actually got is an
[546]
elite tier that you buy that actually
gives you another status that would
[550]
otherwise be had for 40 paid nights a
year and thinking about that kind of
[555]
just makes my head hurt it also makes me
wonder why would anyone be particularly
[559]
loyal to IHG when the price of admission
is otherwise so low let's face it most
[566]
people want status for the room upgrades
and sometimes extended check-in /out
[571]
hours in my opinion most of the other
benefits kind of fall into the doesn't
[576]
excite me at all mental bucket I guess
what I'm saying is that forty nights is
[581]
a lot of nights especially for the non
hardcore business traveler like me I
[587]
have no brand loyalty when it comes to
hotels they're all just big faceless
[592]
corporations that don't actually care
about you it's not like you're
[595]
supporting a local business whose owner
is just trying to make ends meet every
[600]
major hotel conglomerate has some trash
properties and some beautiful ones so it
[605]
would make no sense
to go out of my way to spend that much
[609]
time at a certain company's properties
when I could just get the same results
[613]
by sending $200 one time if there is one
redeeming quality about IHG Rewards Club
[619]
it's the fact that points are relatively
easy to earn one gets a base ten points
[624]
per dollar at most properties and five
at Staybridge and Candlewood Suites this
[629]
goes up to twenty and ten points per
dollar if you were a spire elite due to
[633]
the points earning bonus now just for
fun let's compare earn on spend at IHG
[639]
properties and those under the Hyatt
umbrella to really make it exciting
[643]
let's assume one is a Spire elite at IHG
and has no status at Hyatt because of
[650]
our status we're earning twenty points
per dollar worth point two nine cents
[654]
each or a return of five point eight
percent over at world of hyatt we've got
[659]
five points per dollar but they're worth
one point four cents each this gives us
[665]
a return of spend of seven percent
in other words top tier elites at IHG or
[671]
less than anyone does over at Hyatt now
in addition to the traditional points on
[676]
stays chase offers a co branded credit
card the IHG Rewards Club Premier it's
[683]
currently offering a signup bonus of
80,000 points worth two hundred thirty
[687]
two dollars at current valuations in
addition one gets automatic platinum
[693]
elite status a free anniversary night
and the fourth night free on awards days
[698]
considering this card only costs $89
it's actually a pretty good value it
[705]
along with my United
[707]
Explorer are great
candidates for sock drawer cards the
[711]
chase IHG Rewards Club Premier card
advertises 25 points per dollar at IHG
[717]
properties
but I feel this is a bit misleading in
[721]
reality one gets ten points from the
card and the other 15 from being on an
[728]
ihe platinum member non ihe spent earns
two points per dollar on gas stations
[734]
grocery stores and restaurants plus one
point four dollar on everything else
[738]
making this card about as worthless as
one can be as an everyday spender
[743]
finally we've got some oddball ways to
earn that most people including myself
[748]
will never use things like bonus points
on Apple purchases points for consumer
[753]
surveys and restaurant partners there
greener stay program offers 500 points
[758]
if one declines housekeeping so that's
an option if clean sheets and towels
[763]
aren't worth a dollar 45 to you overall
IHG Rewards Club is a loyalty program
[769]
that doesn't excite me at all their
points are the least valuable of any
[774]
that I track the fact that platinum
elite status can be bought for $200 or
[779]
acquired via once chase IHG Rewards Club
Premier credit card means that brand
[785]
loyalty really doesn't pay off if one is
so inclined to stockpile hotel points
[790]
over generally more valuable
transferable ones I'd say stick with
[794]
Hyatt or Marriott that said I do like
Chases co-branded card offering if for
[801]
no other reason then the fact that $89
buys one status and the annual free
[807]
night pays for the card and that will
about do or for today if you found any
[812]
of this useful a like share or sub is
greatly appreciated all right take care
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage