IHG One Rewards guide

Key takeaways

• IHG One Rewards is a free loyalty program for the InterContinental Hotels Group that allows you to earn points toward free hotel stays and other rewards.

• Elite status holders also get additional perks like late check-out, early check-in and complimentary upgrades when available.

• IHG One Rewards members can boost their earnings even further by signing up for co-branded credit cards, allowing them to earn extra points with every purchase.

The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) includes 18 hotel brands and over 6,000 hotels around the world. A stay with IHG could include a luxury vacation at a Hotel Indigo, an InterContinental resort property or even a Crowne Plaza. It could also include a quick stop at a local property like a Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express or Staybridge Suites, among others.

By signing up for IHG One Rewards, the hotel group’s loyalty program, you could make your vacation even better with savings and rewards. In this guide, we explain how the IHG One Rewards program works, how to earn points and the best ways to use them.

IHG One Rewards basics

IHG revamped its loyalty program in early 2022. And in addition to changing its name from IHG Rewards Club to IHG One Rewards, it now offers more benefits, redemption methods and elite status tiers. Members will continue to earn points on hotel stays and more, which can then be used for free nights, airline miles, merchandise and a handful of other redemption options.

How many points do you need for a free hotel night?

As of November 2022, free hotel stays within IHG One Rewards start at just 5,000 points (previously, they started at 10,000 points). Plus, you can pay for a hotel stay redemption, typically called a Rewards Night, entirely with points or a combination of points and cash. And like other hotel programs, IHG One Rewards has elite status tiers you can earn, which come with more travel perks and opportunities for rewards.

How to sign up for IHG One Rewards

To sign up for IHG One Rewards, follow these simple steps:

1. Head to the IHG website and select IHG One Rewards at top right.

2. Scroll down on the rewards page and select Join for free.

3. Enter information like your name, email address, home address, country of residence and password to create your account.

Once you provide the information required to create an account, you’ll receive an email with your new loyalty account number, which you can use on the IHG One Rewards login page. You can then begin earning points on hotel stays (and more) right away.

Who is IHG One Rewards best for?

IHG One Rewards is best for anyone who wants to earn points for free stays at InterContinental Hotels Group properties. After you join IHG One Rewards, you can get on the fast track to earning elite status and award stays in no time. This is especially true if you sign up for a co-branded hotel credit card and begin earning points on hotel stays, travel and other spending.

While you’d get more out of it if you traveled often, it’s still a good program to join if you travel less frequently. This is because joining the program is free and easy to do, so you’ll have nothing to lose by signing up.

How to earn IHG One Rewards points

As an IHG One Rewards member, you can can earn points in a variety of ways, including when you:

Book hotel stays at IHG properties

IHG One Rewards members earn up to 10X base points per dollar at IHG hotels and 5X points per dollar at Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. Also, note that you can earn more points depending on your elite status. The following chart shows how many bonus points you can earn for each membership level:

Earn Milestone Rewards

The IHG One Rewards program also offers Milestone Rewards, which reward you for frequent stays. After you’ve stayed 20 qualifying nights, you’ll be able to choose one reward for every 10 additional nights you stay. Note that select qualifying nights will receive a bonus choice reward, meaning that you’ll be able to choose two rewards instead of one.

Here are the rewards you can choose from:

Take advantage of IHG promotions

IHG One Rewards members can earn points through special promotions the loyalty program offers. For example, members can currently earn up to 1,000 points when they book local tours, activities and attractions.

Get points through IHG partners

You can also earn IHG One Rewards points with products and packages from IHG partners, including The Venetian Resort stays, Holiday Inn Club Vacations packages, Hertz car rentals, Mr & Mrs Smith hotel stays, qualifying food deliveries from Grubhub, dining reservations with OpenTable and dining with restaurant partners.

Make purchases with your IHG co-branded credit card

IHG offers two co-branded personal credit cards, both issued by Chase: the IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card* and the IHG® Rewards Traveler Credit Card*. It also offers one business card, the IHG® Rewards Premier Business Credit Card*. Signing up for one of the IHG Rewards credit cards can give you a leg up since you can earn a sign-up bonus and ongoing rewards and perks, including free nights.

It’s also important to note that IHG One Rewards is a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. This means you can sign up for an elite travel credit card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and earn points that transfer to the IHG One Rewards program.

How to redeem IHG One Rewards points

The IHG One Rewards program doesn’t have as many redemption options as other programs, but it still offers several ways to redeem your points, such as:

Free hotel stays

The best redemption option with IHG One Rewards is by far their Rewards Nights. As mentioned before, hotel stays start at 5,000 points per night, and you can also pay for your hotel stay with a combination of points and cash.

Gift cards or merchandise

You also have the option to redeem your points for merchandise or gift cards. However, you won’t get as much value out of your points with this redemption method.

Digital rewards

Another option is to redeem your rewards for digital books, games, movies, music or magazine subscriptions. Note that digital rewards may change based on your location. Also, like with gift cards or merchandise, we don’t recommend this option since you’ll get less value out of your points.

Airline miles

You can also turn your IHG One Rewards points into airline miles, but again, this isn’t a good use of your points. Most airline partners let you turn 10,000 IHG points into 2,000 airline miles, which is a poor transfer ratio. However, there are quite a few airline partners to choose from, and this option could make sense if you need to book an award flight but you’re short on miles.

Charitable donations

If you’d rather donate your points to charity, IHG has several nonprofit partners. For example, you can donate your points to the American Red Cross, Goodwill or The Global FoodBanking Network, among others.

IHG One Rewards Elite status

There are five IHG One Rewards membership levels. The following chart shows the benefits you’ll receive with each Elite status tier:

How much are IHG One Rewards points worth?

According to Bankrate’s latest valuations, IHG One Rewards points are worth about 0.7 cents each. Keep in mind that, while some hotel loyalty points are definitely worth a lot more, they aren’t as easy to earn.

How does IHG One Rewards compare to other programs?

IHG One Rewards transfer partners

IHG One Rewards has more than 40 airline partners. While you can earn miles or points with all of the following partners, some partners don’t allow you to transfer IHG One Rewards points to airline miles/points.

Here are all of IHG’s airline partners you can earn or transfer rewards with, as well as their transfer rewards rate:

Top credit cards that earn IHG One Rewards points

IHG offers three travel credit cards that earn IHG One Rewards points. Here’s how the cards compare.

IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card

The IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card is well worth its $99 annual fee in terms of value — especially for the first year. For a welcome bonus, you can earn 140,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within three months of account opening. You’ll also earn generous rewards for each dollar you spend:

• Up to 26X points at IHG properties (10X points as a cardholder, up to 10X points as an IHG One Rewards member and up to 6X points with Platinum Elite status, which comes with the card)

• 5X points on travel, gas station and dining purchases

• 3X points on all other purchases

In addition to automatic Platinum Elite status, you can earn Diamond Elite status by spending $40,000 on the card each calendar year. Other perks include:

• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance

• No foreign transaction fees

• Up to a $100 credit for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS

• Up to $50 United TravelBank Cash per calendar year

• 20 percent discounts on points purchases

• Your fourth night free when you redeem your points for a four-night hotel stay

• One free reward night after each account anniversary year

IHG Rewards Traveler Credit Card

The IHG Rewards Traveler Credit Card is the lower-tier hotel credit card offered through this program. However, you’ll still get a number of perks in exchange for no annual fee. It comes with a welcome bonus of 80,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases within three months of account opening. For rewards, you’ll earn:

• Up to 17X points on IHG stays (5X points as a cardholder, up to 10X points as an IHG One Rewards member and up to 2X points with Silver Elite status, which comes with the card)

• 3X points on dining, utilities, select streaming services and gas

• 2X points on all other purchases

While Silver Elite status is included with this card, you can earn Gold Elite status by spending $20,000 in a calendar year. Other notable benefits with this card include:

• Your fourth night free when you redeem your points for a four-night hotel stay

• 20 percent discounts on points purchases

• No foreign transaction fees

IHG Rewards Premier Business Credit Card

The IHG Rewards Premier Business Credit Card is similar to its personal card counterpart. It includes a $99 annual fee and a welcome bonus of 140,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within three months of account opening. It also includes an almost identical rewards structure:

• Up to 26X points at IHG properties (10X points as a cardholder, up to 10X points as an IHG One Rewards member and up to 6X points with Platinum Elite status, which comes with the card)

• 5X points on gas station, travel, dining and select business purchases

• 3X points on all other purchases

The cardholder perks are similar to the personal Premier credit card, too, with the main benefits being:

• Your fourth night free when you redeem your points for a four-night hotel stay

• One free anniversary night after each account anniversary year

• 20 percent discounts on points purchases

• Up to a $100 credit for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS

• Up to $50 United TravelBank Cash per calendar year

• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance

• No foreign transaction fees

The bottom line

The IHG One Rewards program has a lot to offer, especially given that it’s free to sign up for. With 19 brands included under the IHG umbrella, there’s plenty of opportunities to stay at one of their properties and earn points towards a free Rewards Night.

Because IHG partners with multiple airlines, it’s also easy to earn points that can transfer to your favorite airline — though the transfer rate between IHG One Rewards and airline loyalty programs isn’t very high.

A co-branded IHG credit card can help you earn even faster, especially given the generous rewards structure of their card offerings. But if you won’t be booking hotel stays often enough to earn the free nights or higher rewards tiers, the cards with an annual fee likely won’t be worth the cost, and you might do better getting a more traditional travel rewards credit card. But whether you decide to boost your rewards points with a credit card or not, you have nothing to lose by signing up for this free program.

FAQs about IHG One Rewards

• Can IHG One Rewards points expire?

  Yes, IHG One Rewards points can expire after 12 months of inactivity if you are a basic Club member. For all other membership levels, your points will not expire as long as you maintain elite level status.

• Can you share IHG One Rewards points with friends and family members?

  Yes, you can share points with other IHG One Rewards members. Note that the member sharing the points must pay a fee of $5 for every 1,000 points that are transferred.

• Can you buy IHG One Rewards points?

  Yes, you can purchase up to 150,000 IHG One Rewards points in a calendar year.

*Issuer-required disclosure statement

Information about the IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card, the IHG® Rewards Traveler Credit Card and the IHG® Rewards Premier Business Credit Card has been collected independently by Bankrate. Card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.