IHG One Rewards is the loyalty program of Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the owner of brands such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Voco, Hotel Indigo and of course Intercontinental.
As an IHG One Rewards member, you’ll earn points whenever you stay at participating brands. Those points can get you free hotel nights, or you can transfer them to an airline loyalty program.
Whenever you stay at an IHG hotel, you can also earn qualifying nights and points. These count towards Silver, Gold, Platinum or Diamond Elite status. You could also qualify for instant IHG Gold or Platinum status as a Velocity Gold or Platinum frequent flyer with Virgin Australia.
So, what do you get with IHG One Rewards status? Let’s take a closer look…
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Hotels that participate in IHG One Rewards
First of all, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the full list of IHG hotels. Ranging from mid-range to luxury hotels, these brands all participate in the IHG One Rewards loyalty program:
How to earn IHG One Rewards status
There are two main ways to earn status with IHG One Rewards: through elite qualifying nights or points.
You’ll earn one elite qualifying night for every eligible night that you stay at an IHG hotel, including on reward nights booked using IHG points.
And you’ll earn 10 elite qualifying points for every US Dollar (USD) spent at all IHG hotels except Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites, where you earn 5 points per USD. In addition, any points that you buy when adding a bonus points package to your room rate are counted as elite qualifying points.
To earn or renew status, you would need to earn at least the following amounts of elite qualifying nights or points during a calendar year:
| IHG tier | Elite Qualifying Nights | Elite Qualifying Points |
|---|---|---|
| Silver Elite | 10 | N/A |
| Gold Elite | 20 | 40,000 |
| Platinum Elite | 40 | 60,000 |
| Diamond Elite | 70 | 120,000 |
It’s really important to note that you’ll only earn IHG points and qualified nights when you book direct with IHG or an eligible travel agent. If you book with an online travel agent such as Booking.com, Expedia or Qantas Hotels, you won’t earn anything with IHG One Rewards for your stay.
You also won’t be able to enjoy your IHG status benefits if you don’t book direct! If in doubt, use the IHG website or App to book.
IHG One Rewards tier benefits
These are the benefits you receive as an IHG One Rewards member…
Club member benefits (no status)
Just by joining IHG One Rewards, you can already access free internet and late check-out up to 2pm, subject to availability.
Silver Elite benefits
In addition to the usual club benefits, IHG Silver Elite members receive 20% bonus reward points on stays. But that’s about it.
Gold Elite benefits
By upgrading to Gold Elite status, you get:
- 40% bonus points
- Ability to rollover nights for next year’s status
Platinum Elite benefits
Platinum Elite is where some of the more useful benefits start kicking in. In addition to Gold benefits, Platinum members receive:
- 60% bonus points
- Choice of welcome amenity (drink or points)
- Reward night discounts
- Complimentary room upgrades (subject to availability)
- Guaranteed room availability
- Early check-in (subject to availability)
Diamond Elite benefits
In addition to all Platinum benefits, top level Diamond Elite members receive:
- 100% bonus points
- Option for free breakfast as the welcome amenity (instead of the points or drink)
- Dedicated Diamond support line
- Complimentary Hertz Five Star status
Unpublished benefits
Some higher-end hotels like Intercontinental, Kimpton and Voco may also provide extra unpublished benefits to top-tier members. For example, they might provide a welcome amenity such as chocolates or fruit in your room.
Milestone Rewards
Compared to other hotel loyalty programs, the core IHG One Reward status benefits are admittedly a tad underwhelming. Other than late check-out, the most useful benefits like upgrades and free breakfast only kick in at the top tiers. But there’s more to the program than just the published status benefits!
In addition, IHG One Rewards provides Milestone Rewards which you can only earn through nights. On one hand, this means that you miss out on the full suite of rewards if you got your status through a credit card, paid Intercontinental Ambassador membership or status match. On the other hand, if you actually earned your status through hotel stays, you get extra benefits.
Milestone Rewards kick in after you stay 20 nights in a calendar year. You can choose a new reward for each additional 10 annual nights that you stay at IHG hotels, up to 100 nights.
Milestone Reward levels
These are the IHG Milestone Rewards you can choose from after staying specific amounts of nights during a calendar year:
| Nights | Number of choices | Reward options |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | One | 5,000 Bonus Points 2 Food & Beverage Rewards 1 Confirmable Suite Upgrade |
| 30 | One | 5,000 Bonus Points 2 Food & Beverage Rewards |
| 40 | Two | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards 1 Confirmable Suite Upgrade (limit 1) Annual Lounge Membership (limit 1) |
| 50 | One | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards |
| 60 | One | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards |
| 70 | Two | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards 2 Confirmable Suite Upgrades (limit 1) Annual Lounge Membership (limit 1) |
| 80 | One | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards |
| 90 | One | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards |
| 100 | One | 10,000 Bonus Points 5 Food & Beverage Rewards |
Which Milestone Rewards should you choose?
Once earned, you have 90 days to choose your preferred Milestone Reward/s. Let’s take a closer look at what you get with each choice…
Annual Lounge Membership
In my opinion, this is the most valuable Milestone Reward. With an Annual Lounge Membership, you get access to the lounge at any IHG hotel that has one. As well as access to all the club lounge facilities and evening drinks & canapés, you get free breakfast as a lounge member – which you can choose to enjoy either in the lounge or in the hotel’s main restaurant.
As a lounge member, you can also guest in a second person who’s staying with you in your hotel room.
After selecting this benefit, your lounge membership will expire at the end of the following calendar year. For example, if you chose this benefit in March 2025, you would enjoy lounge access until 31 December 2026.
Keep in mind that you can select your Milestone Reward benefit up to 90 days after earning it. So, if you crossed the 40-night or 70-night threshold towards the end of the calendar year, you could wait until January to select it – and get an extra year of lounge membership.
For what it’s worth, I personally like that IHG only gives lounge access when you pay for a room rate that includes it, or as a Milestone Reward. Since it’s harder to get in, I find that the lounges aren’t as full – and are often better quality – than the lounges at Hilton, Accor or Marriott chain hotels. At the same time, the requirement to stay 40 nights per year isn’t too onerous for frequent travellers.
Confirmable Suite Upgrades
If you already have lounge access sorted, choose a Confirmable Suite Upgrade.
You can use a Confirmable Suite Upgrade to get a guaranteed upgrade to a junior suite on a stay of up to five nights.
After booking a base level room with a qualifying rate, or a reward night, you would need to call IHG within 1-14 days before check-in. You should be able to upgrade as long as a suite is available to book on the hotel’s website.
Food & Beverage Rewards
A Food & Beverage Reward is a USD20 credit towards restaurant or bar charges during your stay at participating IHG hotels. Each reward is valid for 12 months.
After ordering room service or dining at the hotel’s restaurant, for example, you can redeem an unlimited number of Food & Beverage Rewards any time before checkout to reduce or remove the charges from your final bill.
On paper, this benefit is probably worth a little bit more than the bonus points. But it’s harder to use and some hotels might not accept Food & Beverage Rewards.
Bonus points
If you don’t need any of the other rewards, choose the bonus points. 10,000 IHG points are roughly worth around AUD60-100 when redeeming towards a hotel night.
Intercontinental Ambassador
IHG also offers a paid membership called Intercontinental Ambassador. This currently costs USD200 or 40,000 IHG One Rewards points, but will increase to USD225 or 45,000 points from 2 October 2024.
One of the main benefits of Ambassador membership is instant IHG Platinum Elite status, which is recognised at all IHG affiliated hotels.
You also get various extra perks when staying at Intercontinental hotels, including:
- Guaranteed one-category room upgrade
- Guaranteed 4pm late check-out
- Complimentary weekend night certificate
- USD20 restaurant credit with every stay
- Dedicated check-in area
My personal IHG status strategy
I’m personally a big fan of the new IHG One Rewards program since it relaunched in 2022.
For the last few years I’ve stayed at least 70 nights per year at IHG hotels, earning Diamond Elite status that way. I’ve also enjoyed lounge access and lots of suite upgrades through Milestone Rewards.
Overall, I’ve been very happy with my experience as an IHG Diamond member and find that the hotels generally look after me very well – often going beyond the published benefits. I particularly like the free breakfasts and have regularly been upgraded – in some cases, to one of the nicest rooms in the hotel.
If I wasn’t staying 70 nights per year, I’d consider aiming for 40 annual nights (in order to get the lounge access Milestone Reward) but trying to earn Diamond status through qualifying points.
When you book a flexible room rate, you can often purchase up to 5,000 bonus points per night during the booking process. These count as qualifying points, so it wouldn’t be that hard to reach Diamond status if always choosing this option. Of course, those points also have value as you can redeem them towards future nights – although, that value is not fixed.
IHG devalued its reward points recently
Unfortunately, I was disappointed to see that IHG seems to have devalued its reward points in July 2024.
The number of points needed to book a free night is dynamic, and roughly tied to the cost of the room rate anyway. So there aren’t many real “tricks” to gain outsized value from reward points. But I did notice recently that the number of points needed to book rooms costing roughly the same amount had increased.
For this reason, I don’t actively go out of my way to earn reward points with IHG. But I do appreciate the benefits I get with Diamond status, and I just treat any reward points I earn from staying at IHG hotels as a bonus.
What’s your experience with IHG One Rewards status?
AFF has a long-running thread about how IHG hotels recognise status. You can share your experience, and read first-hand experiences of other AFF members who’ve recently stayed at IHG hotels, on our forum:
