IHG partner rates summary, save 20% worldwide

Vignette Collection THE ONE Shanghai Downtown £161 / £172

As you are aware, hotel groups often offer special corporate rates to large companies, usually much cheaper than the public rate. What you may not realise, however, is that IHG Hotels & Resorts (including brands such as InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express) has quite a few semi-public “corporate rates” that essentially anyone can use, and they can save you a decent amount of money.

There are many variations of these IHG rates, but the general rules are broadly the same:

• Valid for stays from Thursday to Sunday
• Must be booked at least seven days in advance
• Free cancellation up to seven days before arrival
• Discounts are at least 15% off

The exact discount level and eligible regions vary depending on the offer. Some of the currently available rates include:

• Visa valid in Asia-Pacific, 20% off
• Mastercard valid in Asia-Pacific, 15% off
• Samsung valid worldwide, 20% off
• Perkopolis valid worldwide, 20% off
• UK Railcard valid worldwide, 20% off

In practice, the participating hotels, room types, and actual discounts can vary quite a bit between offers. For example, here’s a comparison of the Visa and Mastercard rates at four hotels in Shanghai on the same date.

To give a more intuitive comparison, here are some examples of corporate rates versus the cheapest official rates for the same dates:

• Holiday Inn London – Kensington High St. £162 vs £177
• voco Paris Montparnasse £176 vs £192
• Kimpton BEM Budapest £247 vs £272
• Hotel Indigo Belgrade £114 vs £121
• Hotel Indigo Tokyo Shibuya £292 vs £313
• InterContinental Bangkok £148 vs £158
• Kimpton Tsim Sha Tsui Hong Kong £230 vs £235
• THE ONE Suites Hotel Shanghai Jing’an £154 vs £164
• Regent Beijing £167 vs £171
• Crowne Plaza Guangzhou City Centre £71 vs £80

Most of the time these rates are slightly cheaper than the lowest public rates on the IHG website, sometimes by as much as 10%. Occasionally they can even end up being more expensive. However, it’s important to note that these rates generally allow free cancellation up to seven days before arrival, whereas the cheapest public rates are usually prepaid and non-refundable, so there’s also a flexibility advantage.

Finally, let’s talk about eligibility, which is probably what most people are wondering about. Regardless of which of the above channels you use, the booking will simply display as a generic “Preferred Partner Rate”. Personally, in all my years of booking these rates, I’ve never once been asked by a hotel to provide proof of eligibility.

That said, if you want to play it safe, you can always use the Visa or Mastercard versions, since the terms technically make them available to any cardholder. After all, most people have at least one Visa or Mastercard somewhere, and there’s no restriction on which payment method you actually use at the hotel.