Roman Holiday at the Intercontinental Rome

I recently published my disappointment in IHG devaluing their award chart in the dark of night. IHG has responded saying that this isn’t actually the case and it was a technical glitch. That lead me towards poking around some cool properties slated to open. One such property is the Intercontinental Rome. Situated very close to the Spanish Steps off Via Veneto. I’ve tracked this property for years since I had planned to stay at the Intercontinental Rome on a trip in 2016 only to have my reservation canceled because the hotel was shutting down for renovations. The newly renovated, smashingly gorgeous Intercontinental Rome is slated to open 1/1/2022. At the time of publishing it was pricing at 40k on many nights – remember IHG has dynamic pricing which means it changes based on demand and other factors

*The big caveat…I mention the new IHG Premier card as a part of making this deal work. The award space could VERY easily change by the time you get the bonus on a new card – I’m using this as an example of how you COULD leverage the deal. This technique works REALLY well for someone who already has the points in account, a free night up to 40k points, and an IHG Premier which gives the 4th night free. You’re walking away with a 5 night stay for 120k points…even less in certain situations. I also walk you through how you can buy the points to get 50% off.

I found a 5 night stay over Valentine’s Day weekend pricing at 40k per night.*NOTE – this deal looks to be dead – remember pricing is dynamic!

Here you can see from 2/11/22 until 2/16/22 you can stay for 40k points per night.

That same stay would cost

I’d love to stuff my face with pasta all day and retreat back to this sick pad.

How you could achieve this 5 night stay for just 120k points via IHG Premier 4th night free + Free Reward Night.

Don’t have the card…

The current offer on the IHG Premier is:

• 125k IHG points after $3k spend in 3 months + A free night certificate good on properties up to 40k/night.
• You also get a 4th night free with award bookings

Do have the card…

You get a 4th night free on award bookings as a benefit of card-membership and you get a free night after every cardmember year anniversary. If you’re like me, you haven’t used those during Covid. You could book 5 nights, following the instructions below, for just 120k points and using that free nights.

Word to the wise

If you’re looking to sign up purely to do this deal just know that the odds of these nights still being available by the time you get your bonus is slim at best. IHG has dynamic pricing and it moves frequently. But it could be available at other times during the year, or at other properties. I’m using this hotel as an example of how I look to get outsized value by leveraging card benefits.

Interested in the Chase IHG Rewards Premier  

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Break it into Two Bookings:

You don’t have to do this, but it’s much easier to do book it online with two separate bookings and then have the hotel merge them either ahead of time or at check in.

The first being a 4 night stay 2/11/22 to 2/15/22. 120k total points

When your account is linked to an IHG Premier you get a 4th night free. This is shown at the time of booking, not a refund. You can see below where you’d only need 120k points for those 4 nights.

Next you’d book the final night. For this you’d search just the night of the 15th via a Chase Free Night

These are nights still in my account from the legacy IHG Rewards Select card, but the Premier night works the same.

It populates this search function

And gives you the option to book this room free of charge.

How I could drop the price under 100k points

I am still a cardholder of the old IHG Rewards Select and I hold an Intercontinental Ambassador membership which I renewed with a special offer.

If you still have the IHG Rewards Select – you’d get 10% back on those points.

The old Chase IHG Rewards Select offers cardholders a 10% refund on points. So the 120k drops down to 108k points

How Could I save money without having the card or getting it…

I gotchuuuuu – just buy the points to pay waaaaaaaay under the rack rate.

You need 200k points – you could get those for $1200, or half the published rate.

• Buy IHG points
  • Read our full article on how to make best use of this technique.
  • IHG has allowed up to 250k point to be purchases with a 250k points bonus – the price was 1/2 a penny per point.
• Buy IHG points with the IHG Cash + Points trick

IHG is currently selling their points for 6/10 of one penny. This isn’t the best ever. 1/2 a cent is.

Just a quick overview of the IHG Cash + Points trick

If you don’t have enough points in your account for a booking, or you don’t wish to use all of your points at that property, IHG will allow you to book that hotel with Cash + Points. Let’s take a look at the following example from a property in Atlanta.

This is for a hotel that requires 35k points per night. It also gives the option to pay 25k points + $60. That’s effectively buying 10k points for $60 which is effectively $0.006. IHG views this is a de facto points purchases and is selling you the night as if it were paid completely in points and you were simply buying the amount that you don’t have.

If you cancel that booking, you won’t get your cash back, only the points, 35k of them to be exact.  Each night I was buying 10k points for $60. So you could in effect, buy 200k points for $1200 with the cash and points trick.

Overall

This is a stunning, newly renovated property, in the heart of Rome that I’m really surprised is pricing at 40k a night. With rates in Jan/Feb around $400 a night, if you’re thinking of taking a Roman Holiday…this could be a great way to do it.