IHG award chart basics: From New York to London and all the way to Tahiti, you’ve got options

With 5,400+ hotels in more than 100 countries around the world, there’s certainly no shortage of IHG hotels to choose from. But if you’re new to miles & points or are just familiarizing yourself with IHG’s loyalty program, you might be wondering what IHG’s award chart is like. While IHG no longer publishes an official award chart, it has fully moved to dynamic pricing. So even though there is fluctuation in award prices, a specific hotel’s old award category is a safe price to go by (for now).

Free nights at IHG hotels cost anywhere from 10,000 to 70,000 points per night with a small handful of properties occasionally hitting 100,000 points per night. You can easily earn IHG points with its co-branded hotel credit card, the IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card and with travel credit cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which transfer to IHG at a 1:1 ratio.

Here’s a rundown of the IHG award chart, including an alternate way you can use your points to help offset the cost of a stay and a way to find discounted points rates, too.

Intercontinental Tahiti Resort & Spa. (Photo by EQRoy/Shutterstock.)

IHG award chart

You can find whatever kind of stay you’re looking for using IHG points. With 17 different brands, you can choose from more basic and efficient rooms at hotels like Holiday Inn Express or Candlewood Suites and you can use IHG points to splurge at a luxury InterContinental or Six Senses hotels.

I’ve stayed at the InterContinental Hong Kong and it was undoubtedly one of the best hotel points redemptions I’ve ever had. Our room overlooked Victoria Harbor and my family and I had the best time enjoying cocktails as we watched the boats move about.

Here’s a look at IHG’s categories and how many points you’ll need for a free night:

Category Points per Night
Category 1 10,000
Category 2 15,000
Category 3 20,000
Category 4 25,000
Category 5 30,000
Category 6 35,000
Category 7 40,000
Category 8 45,000
Category 9 50,000
Category 10 55,000
Category 11 60,000
Category 12 65,000
Category 13 70,000*

*Some hotels in Macau and the Maldives can cost 75,000-100,000 on certain nights.

More ways to use IHG points

IHG also offers Points & Cash rates that vary by destination. There’s a 5,000-point minimum for Points & Cash stays and essentially, you’ll be using your points to offset the cost of a booking. Lastly, don’t forget you can also use the IHG Points & Cash trick to “buy” IHG points for as little as ~0.6 cents each, giving you yet another option to book discounted hotel stays.

Want to earn more IHG points?

Once you’ve setup an IHG account, you’re ready to start earn points. If you want to earn points in a hurry, consider applying for the IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card. It currently comes with an all-time-high welcome offer of 140,000 IHG points after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. You can check out our full review of the IHG credit card here.

You can also transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points from certain Chase credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to IHG at a 1:1 ratio, but I usually don’t recommend this. There are much better transfer partners that will give you exponentially more value for your points, like United Airlines and Hyatt.

There are also regular IHG promotions with opportunities to earn bonus points for your IHG stays or spending. IHG points do expire after being inactive (no earning or redeeming activity) for 12 months, but if you have any level of IHG status your points will never expire.

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Featured photo by EQRoy/Shutterstock.