Everyone loves a bargain. One of the best deals in the points and miles world is in the form of IHG Points Breaks, allowing travelers to book hotels that aren’t cardboard boxes, in fact even some really nice ones, for just 5,000 points or just $35 bucks, if you use a clever little trick. Here’s everything you need to book the best deal in hotels….
IHG Points Breaks Promotion
Every couple months IHG refreshes it’s list of “Points Breaks” hotels, offering super discounted amounts of points for a nights stay in places all around the world. Due to the “discount” concept of the promotion, you’re not often going to find the highest end brands in the IHG portfolio like Intercontinental, but you’ll find plenty of Holiday Inn Express and even some Crowne Plaza’s for just 5,000 points per night. This can represent excellent value for someone looking to make a vacation or work stay truly free.
Don’t Have 5,000 Points? Don’t Worry!
You can purchase 5,000 points for $67.50, which is a decent but not amazing deal. Considering virtually any of these hotels will run over $100 per night, it represents instant savings if any of these Points Break hotels will work for you and is therefore not a bad move. Most importantly however, it allows you to unlock a brilliant trick for future points purchases at half the price. As a matter of note, you can create 5,000 IHG points by transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards points and you can also create 2,000 IHG points by signing up for Uber and taking a free ride.
So What’s This Brilliant Trick?
If you have at least 5,000 points you can book a Cash + Points rate on most IHG hotels. The trick is to make a booking and cancel it. Crazy? Not quite. When you cancel a booking, you don’t get your cash back, you get points back at a rate far lower than what it costs to buy points instead of your cash. Basically, when you cancel your Cash + Points booking, you’ll be buying points at $35 per 5,000 rather than $67.50 per 5,000 in a standard sale. Complicated, I know, but very lucrative if you’re a points break fiend.
OK Just Show Me The Hotels I Can Book…
This is one of the least enthusiastic Points Break lists we’ve seen, which are refreshed every few months. There are hotels in many major cities around the world and plenty of decent country options, but the list is lacking in any middle high end properties and quite a few major cities. We’ll hope for better next time. If you didn’t know about Points Break hotels, now you know, and you’ll know to check in every couple months to find the best deals. 5,000 points or $35 per night is extremely hard to beat.
