Shopping portals can be a great way to earn cash back for purchases you’d make anyway. While shopping portals offer bonuses for all kinds of retailers, sometimes they even offer bonuses for airlines and hotels.
We even see portals sometimes offer bonuses on hotel stays, which can be a great deal.
Earlier I wrote about how Rakuten is offering 14% cash back (or 14x points) with all kinds of retailers today, but I specifically wanted to post about the opportunity this presents for IHG stays, since we don’t often see promotions this lucrative.
Earn 14% Cash Back With IHG
Today you can get 14% cash back for stays at all IHG brands booked through Rakuten (this includes InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, etc.).
Rakuten simply redirects you to IHG’s website, so you’d be eligible to earn points and receive elite benefits as usual. You could even take advantage of IHG’s current global promotion.
The terms state the following:
Exclusions: Changes made to the reservation, at the hotel, will void Cash Back. Cash Back is only available for commissionable IHG rates. Specialty negotiated rates such as IHG friends & Family are not eligible for Cash Back. Cash Back is not available on the purchase of reward Club Points. Rooms booked and paid for by IHG reward Club Points are not eligible for Cash Back incentives.
Special Terms: Changes made to the reservation at the hotel will void Cash Back.
Posting Time: Cash Back will be added to your Rakuten account within a few days after travel has been completed.
Earn 14x Amex Points Instead
14% cash back is great, but what’s even better is earning 14x Amex points. Nowadays you can choose to earn Amex points instead of cash back with Rakuten, at the rate of one cent per point.
Personally I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each. To me, earning 14x Amex points is the equivalent of about 24% back, which is incredible.
The ability to earn Amex points with Rakuten is a game changer for me when it comes to online shopping portals.
See this post for everything you need to know about earning Amex points with Rakuten.
New To Rakuten?
If you’re new to Rakuten you can register using my link, and then you’ll earn a $10 bonus after completing your first purchase of $25 or more within 90 days. Once you register for your account just change your earnings preference to Amex points, and then you can earn Amex points for all of your purchases.
Bottom Line
Earning 14% cash back or 14x Amex points for IHG spending is incredible. For a while we saw Rakuten offering 10%/10x points on IHG stays once a week or so, though this has become significantly less common.
If you have any IHG stays you can book right now, I’d highly recommend doing so, because earning about 24% back in the form of Amex points is awesome.
Are you booking any IHG hotels with this deal?
So if I use my Amex Hilton surpass card, does that give me 14X Hilton points?
Does this mean you have to give your Amex login details to Rakuten?
@JB - the hotel in the picture is the InterContinental Wonderland in a not central part of Shanghai.
The only problem with this is as a brand IHG hotels are not very good. Their loyalty program even as a platinum member is almost meaningless without many of the perks that other brands provide, so I guess this promotion is good if you frequent IHG hotels.
Is the IHG rewards club member rate the same thing as the IHG friends and family rate?
I don’t want to have to pay more, to save extra.
One thing you should consider, if you switch from Cash Back to Amex and want to switch back to Cash Back the Amex option will go away....that's my observation.
@CJ
No that isn't normal. What should happen is you go to Rakuten website, search IHG, click the button and it takes you to the IHG website. Then you need to sign in on that site. Then you book as normal. With all cash back sites with IHG and Hilton I've always had the reservation show up almost immediately on my computer and my app.
Great timing - thanks for this info! Signed up through your link and I just re-booked $3,000 worth of upcoming IHG stays at 14% cash back. I've used TopCash Back before to get 10% IHG and it went smoothly.
@cyberG99. I booked hotel 2 hours ago and he doesn’t show up under my reservations... not sure if that is normal
Anyone else running into problems linking Amex? Seems like amex linking is having an issue, anyone else?
@JB Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland
(Should note regarding my previous comment that the 20% Chase Offer is for Kimpton hotels, not all IHG.
Great tip! I also have a 20% rebate offer on Chase Offers (through my CSR). Safe to assume these will stack?
Just wondering, what hotel is that in the headline picture?