Unlike Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott, where hotels must make most, if not all standard rooms available for redemption, IHG has much more relaxed rules. IHG hotels only need to open up a certain percentage (presumably small) of inventory over a certain period, and it’s up to them whether they want to be generous or not.
There are hotels that are not lacking in business and as a result don’t like “free” nights that much, and thus provide the bare minimum of reward availability (maybe even less). This is fairly common in China due to the large population and growing awareness of frequent traveller programs. You could hear a lot of such complaints.
The IHG corporate made a surprising move recently, force opening reward redemptions at all properties in China. Hotels where reward night was non-existent, for example the new Regent on The Bund, is suddenly available across the whole calendar. It was a feast for IHG members in China.
The hotel owners on the other hand were not as happy, but they couldn’t just shut the flood gate as IHG has already taken over control. Regent Chongqing and InterContinental Chongqing however, came up with a smart plan very quickly!
Although they couldn’t push the off button, they greatly increased the cash rate of standard rooms for the summer (peak season) to so high that they are as expensive as club rooms now:
And thanks to IHG’s dynamic pricing system, the redemption price has also gone up massively to match the cash rate, putting off those who want to lock in a point booking now.
Although I’m not a fan of penny-pitching hotels, I have to say I’m very impressed by how fast they came up with such an efficient solution with the short notice.
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