Back in August, we alerted everyone about the IHG Big Win promotion, where everyone was guaranteed at least 50,000 points for performing a variety of tasks. I initially was excited about the promotion, since it was similar to the Crack the Case promotion that we completed back in 2010, and earned enough points to fund our week stay in Hawaii. However, after contemplating the new promotion, we elected to pass on this round, since 50,000 points was not enough to entice our family to move around our stays to the IHG brand.
So when Mommy Points announced the promotion would be returning for stays January 1, 2014 to April 30, 2014, my interest was peaked for a better offer. However, anytime a company elects to extend an offer beyond the promotional period, or run it again, I wonder are they doing this because it was not met with as much participation as they wanted, or did it do really well?
For the new round of the Big Win, I decided to check how well either my wife or I would do if we participated this time. After registering for the promotion, we were offered…a piddly 31,000 points. Seriously? That barely covers one (1) night at most IHG hotels.
For example, at the Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista Downtown, that we plan to stay in this summer when visiting Disney, rooms are $135 per night, yet cost 30,000 points per night. So we would get one free night after staying a minimum of 3 nights this spring at other properties.
At the Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber, where we stayed last year, rooms are $210 per night, or 35,000 points per night.
Our 31,000 point offer included:
- Stay at any IHG® hotel and earn 1,000 points
- Stay a total of 3 nights and earn 3,000 points
- Stay at 3 different IHG brands and earn 7,000 points
- Book 2 separate stays through an IHG® hotel website or mobile device to get our Best Price Guarantee and earn 2,000 points
- Stay 3 Saturday nights and earn 8,000 points
- Complete 5 of your offers and earn 10,000 points
Frankly, this round of the Big Win promotion sucks, at least with the targeted requirements in our accounts. The rewarded 31,000 points we would earn just does not cut it. If 50,000 points was not enough to convince our family last time to switch around our stays, why would 31,000 points be any different?
Keep in mind, additional points could be earned just by adding some simple promo codes to your account.
Mommy Points reports being offered 90,300 points for her account, which I might consider dependent on the stay requirements (in her case only around 4 nights).
I would really like to be staying at IHG hotels to build up our point balance, but they have to make it worth our time. We tentatively plan at staying at the Holiday Inn at Downtown Disney this summer, and if this promotion would have benefited us enough, we would have participated. For now, we will pass yet again.
Save Money, Travel More!
Source: Mommy Points
Sorry your offer was such a bummer. I wouldn’t do it for that number of points either!
Finally someone that agrees with me. What I hate about this promotion (both rounds) is that it discriminates against people who are more frequent stayers. Those that are IHG members with less stays get better offers than those with more stay activity from what I’ve seen. It also typically requires some harder to earn nights like saturday stays or specific cities. I hate it. I am so close to getting 50k points for the current promo that I’m doing two mattress runs at a local hotel for my two required saturday nights that I lack.
@DaninSTL: While I am not a big fan of this promotion as I was in the past (Crack the Case), I question if IHG does really discriminate between those who have and have not frequented the hotels. I say this because my offers were the same exact offers that my wife and son’s account received, yet neither of them have any activity in their account. It could be because they are linked to the same address, but I’m not 100% sure. So I’m not sure what goes into determining who receives which offers.