All hotel chains have their own internal rate benefit program, allowing employees plus their family and friends to enjoy heavily discounted room stays. We wrote about Marriott’s Explore before, which is pretty good but kind of restrictive as only employees’ spouse or next-of-kin could take the best advantage of it.
IHG on the other hand has refreshed their own program this year, and the new One Pass scheme is very interesting. You can refer to this Wechat article (published by a Crowne Plaza hotel) for some information, and I’ll also try to summarise it below.
Beneficiaries
Any IHG employee can assign the the following beneficiaries in the One Pass program:
- 1 Plus One
- 5 Friends
The Plus One has access to both One Pass and One Pass Flexible rates, whereas Friends have access to the One Pass Friends rate only. If removed, a replacement can only be added from the next calendar year.
There’s no restriction on who could be the Plus One – they could be your spouse, your family or just a friend. Six Senses and Iberostar are excluded from the One Pass program.
Rates
One Pass
The One Pass rate is the most generous, which is fixed based on the property’s average nightly rate:
- under $70 – $39
- $70 – $109.99 – $49
- $110 – $124.99 – $59
- $125 – $149.99 – $69
- $150 – $199.99 – $79
- $200 – $299.99 – $89
- $300 and above – 65% off
As you can see, the discount is substantial especially at higher-end hotels. The employee and their Plus One could share a maximum of 30 nights booked under this rate plan per calendar year.
Moreover, when staying on the One Pass rate you’ll also get 50% dining discount at designated restaurants during your stay. The discount can be used in conjunction with Food & Beverage rewards, but not other offers.
One Pass Flexible
In addition to the exclusive rate above, there’s also the Flexible rate which tends to be more available even at very popular hotels. The discount varies from 35% to 50%, and you’ll get the same 50% dining discount too.
There’s no limit on the number of Flexible bookings you can make.
One Pass Friends
The Friends rate on the other hand is usually 30% to 45% off the best flexible rate. You don’t get the dining discount, and the annual limit per employee account is 50 nights.
Notes
You can book two rooms per stay and the stay cannot exceed 7 nights. You cannot stay more than 14 nights at the same hotel in a calendar year.
All rates are eligible for point and night-credit accrual in the IHG One Rewards program. Most hotels treat such bookings as normal, but there are outliers (for example Regent Hong Kong) that don’t extend any elite benefit at all, no matter what your IHG status is.
You cannot apply confirmable suite upgrade reward to any of the three rates.
In summary, One Pass is a very generous program and if you know someone who works at IHG, ask away!
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