20 Awesome Hotels You Can Still Book With the IHG Card’s Annual Free Night

I get it – people are still mad about the IHG Rewards Card’s annual free night benefit devaluation. This was by far one of the best credit card free night offers out there: Unrestricted, good for any hotel worldwide. Frankly, this benefit has always been a little too generous for a card with a $49 annual fee. But all is not lost. Just because redemptions are now limited to hotels requiring 40,000 points per night or less (with added exceptions), that does not mean you can’t get great use out of the free night anymore.

There are lots of great Category 1 – 7 hotels in IHG’s portfolio. Take it from someone who researched all of them in order to write an extensive series on the chain. Here are my top pics for hotels where you can redeem the annual free night from the IHG card:

 

1. InterContinental Bali
2. InterContinental Sanya Resort
3. InterContinental Bangkok
4. InterContinental Budapest
5. Holiday Inn Paris – Notre Dame
6. InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort
7. InterContinental Berlin
8. InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta
9. InterContinental Madrid
10. InterContinental Sao Paulo
11. InterContinental Shenzhen
12. InterContinental Toronto Yorkville
13. InterContinental Vienna
14. InterContinental Warsaw
15. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Mount Ascutney Resort
16. Holiday Inn Istanbul – Old City
17. Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma Maldives
18. Holiday Inn Old Sydney
19. Hotel Indigo Chicago Downtown Gold Coast
20. Holiday Inn Express Savannah-Historic District

 

This was just a quick list I put together based on my Best IHG Hotels series. A lot of the Category 1 – 7 hotels from that series are still redeemable at 40,000 points or less. More importantly, they are not part of the group of hotels that are excluded from the IHG card’s annual free night. In other words, you still have plenty of great hotels to choose from.

Yes, it does suck that you can’t put the free night to use at the Intercontinental Bora Bora, Cannes, or other fancy destinations. But let’s get real: A lot of people weren’t really using the IHG Card to generate points for free nights, or earning points via paid stays. If you weren’t earning additional IHG points (in the 50,000 – 70,000 range) then getting maximum value out of the IHG unrestricted free night wasn’t always easy. Unless you were ok with a 1-night stay or with paying the high paid rates that often accompany top-category IHG hotels.

Don’t get me wrong: The devaluation of the IHG Rewards Card’s annual free night is unfortunate. But that doesn’t mean we’re doomed and that there aren’t still plenty of opportunities to put the now restricted free night to use. IHG has tons of great hotels around the world that require 40,000 points or less. You’ll definitely get more than the card’s $49 annual fee worth of value out of the free night benefit. And if all else fails, you can put it towards a staycation and not feel guilty about “wasting” it on a non-fancy hotel.

 

Are you keeping your IHG card now that the annual free night has been devalued? Where do you plan on redeeming the free night?

 

[Image Source: ihg.com]