New prizes in IHG’s revamped hotel rewards program

Gold standard: Members of Priority Club Rewards now have more ways to redeem. Thinknk eBooks, iPads and more.

By Mark Chesnut

Free hotel stays and room upgrades, for both business travel and vacations, may be the main reasons that you rack up points in hotel loyalty programs. But with a new round of changes to its Priority Club Rewards program, InterContinental Hotels Group is betting that some travelers will use their miles for things like music, eBooks and iPads— in addition to last-minute free hotel nights and the chance to win an array of other prizes.

Priority Club Rewards is introducing new features over the course of this year. Among the first to debut is “Last Minute Reward Nights,” which allows Priority Club members to redeem award nights at a 50 percent discount off the regular price for selected properties. Initially, the program will be offered on the first full weekend of every month, starting in May, and members will receive an e-mail on Monday with a list of hotels where the offer will be available the following weekend.

Road warriors will also be able to try their luck with the new Lucky Points Sweepstakes, which gives members who live in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom the opportunity to redeem points for a chance to win any of a variety of prizes, which may include hotel packages, merchandise like iPads, or perhaps the chance to win 1 million Priority Club points.

Also in the works for later this year is the option to redeem points for downloadable media, including music, e-books, computer software, mobile games and applications. Priority Club members in the United States will be also able to redeem a combination of points and cash for brand-name retailmerchandise.

Members of the Priority Club Rewards program accrue points at all IHG hotels, including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

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Mark Chesnut is travel writer, editor, and publisher of LatinFlyerBlog.com, which focuses on travel to Latin America.

Tagged: Hotels