IHG's Loyalty Program Economics Are Changing

It sounds like half of this is just a rearranging of the balance sheet to show bigger numbers for shareholders, and not actually a material change. Reducing the fee for hotel owners does seem like it'll have significant implications, though

Outside Asia-Pacific and Europe, IHG has neither an attractive hotel portfolio nor an attractive loyalty program. The vast majority of IHG hotels in the United States and Canada are dumpy Holiday Inn and slightly less dumpy Holiday Inn Express properties. I just don’t see how anyone makes IHG their number one program of choice.

Now that you speak about dumpy hotels, how do US travellers feel when seeing 300 USD rates in dumpy 2* hotels in crappy suburbs of forgettable cities???
US is getting extremely expensive, even on 10 months advance. I wanted a HNL stopover and I think I will pass 😉

@Antonio if you are judging the cost of the USA by Hawaii, you're not really using the best example...Hawaii is extremely expensive, for tourists and for locals, alike, and not representative of the rest of the USA. There are plenty of interesting cities around the USA where one can get a nice 4* hotel for less than $200 - you just need to look beyond the West Coast, NYC, or Boston.

Unfortunately, most Americans are willing to pay astronomical prices and automatically tip 20% without demanding proper standards of service. Even at luxury brands in the US, it's difficult to get the kind of service found at comparable hotels outside the US. In other countries, working at a hotel or in service can be a respected and career. In the US, it's mostly seen a job.

Thanks comments, while obviously I'm aware of that variability, just for fun I found a Residence Inn in San Antonio TX, for June , 370 USD, I don't know which will be average temp there in June but that price and chain will make me sweat even more, Chicago for next April 2025, also wanted another stopover quite high... Springfield suites and Hyatt house in SLC, November,, over 325 USD...
I just came from Four Seasons Sydney paying well below 300 USD, just to put a funny 1st world example

IHG is just so late to the game. All the co-branded Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt cards have saturated the system to the point where I can't get excited about IHG Platinum status that doesn't offer breakfast and dynamically priced points worth 0.5 cpp.

I can already see that award rates will go up with this change to compensate for the higher payout to the hotels for providing such. They will make the free nights certificates less valuable.

IHG has great value for standard room redemptions compared to cash rates if you look at the right places. I bought IHG points at 0.5c multiple times because there is value.

I find good value in the platinum card for the type of travel we currently do (limited) and the free night is nice with the best deals in the off season. Not sure the impact of these changes but for now I am good.

I was IHG Spire (and then Diamond) for 7 years as well as a paid Ambassador for about 5 of those. IHG have a better variety of locations in APAC but their loyalty program was a decade behind their competitors. I decided to focus on Marriott with Hilton as secondary starting in 2023 in don't regret it.

The IHG benefits are already terrible. Not even bottled water, much less breakfast so how much worse can it get? Even with a high status I try to avoid these hotels.

The values of IHG does not even compare, for example, to Hyatt. If it changes for the worse for members in anyway, I will be exiting the IHG awards game!

The advertising on your site is way out of control and definitely detracts from your much appreciated blog.
Sometimes the advertising overwhelms to the point that OMAT becomes irritating. The cure for that irritation, sad to say, is tapping that red button in the top left hand corner of the screen. Sad. Very sad.

The "new" (not really new anymore) design is bad enough. But the website is almost impossible to read because of all the ads and pop-ups.

Expect the worst. Devaluations aplenty.

I have an different experience though (just as a reference, I am currently marriott platinum, hiltion diamond and IHG platinum, but Diamond for several years till last year, my main stays are in the MENA incl Turkey and East Asia incl. my home country). While Marriott and Hilton are quite dominant in those market, there are reasonably more than enough occasions that I voluntarily chose quality IHG properties over marriott and hilton ones, even giving up lounge access and breakfast etc. (partially because also as a solo traveller, i don't care about those benefits that much). And I've def.felt subtle differences in treatment between Platinum and Diamond at IHG properties other than breakfast benefit.

Agree hotel prices in the US have become absurd since COVID & the quality and service doesn't compare. I stayed my final night in Japan recently in Mercure near HND and paid under $100 a night. The room was modern, clean and a decent size. The lobby and bar area impressive and the staff impeccable. Close to the metro that feasibly you could make it an affordable base for visiting the city. The absolute same could not be said for any airport hotel near say JFK, BOS, LAX, SFO etc that you'd pay double the price for.

I find the card useful for the free night and status and get the feeling that those changes may well see either a fee rise, further devaluation of the free night award (which was capped at 40k Vs unlimited before, plus as redemptions have risen that 40k goes less far than it did), or possibly giving a tier less. Could be totally wrong, maybe they'll try to drive more CC revenue and uptake with a better offering. That aside IHG is usually only my go to if the price is good.

This is a big non event. Companies make a lot of money these days on their loyalty programs. I guess we will see some property redemptions more reasonable than others. What I dislike is how difficult it is to use the annual certificates compared to Marriott.