Credit Cards Hotels

New Intercontinental Rome pricing at 40k IHG points per night.

a building with flags on the front

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.


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.

a blue couch in a room
courtesy of IHG.com

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.
a screenshot of a hotel

That same stay would cost

a screenshot of a hotel ticket

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

a tv in a room
courtesy of IHG.com

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  a close up of a credit card

Learn More

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.

a screenshot of a hotel ticket

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.

a screenshot of a web page

It populates this search function

a screenshot of a computerAnd gives you the option to book this room free of charge.a screenshot of a hotel

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.

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

a screenshot of a screen

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.

a screenshot of a white box

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.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

a blue credit card with lines and symbols

Learn More

 Affiliate link 

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

11 Comments

  • Daniel September 17, 2021

    Looks like they canceled reservations for February. Any tips on how to get them to honor those rates for another time?

  • Christine Hall April 16, 2021

    Are you planning to correct the mistakes in this article?

  • Christine Hall April 14, 2021

    Where did you get the screenshot of the Ambassador renewal options? I think it is very old and that those options are not available today.

  • Christine Hall April 14, 2021

    I think the 10% points rebate with InterContinental Ambassador was dropped as a benefit last year.

    • Miles April 16, 2021

      I manage a couple of Ambassador accounts and this offer was still valid in them, but they have yet to renew for the 2021/2022 calendar year – so our new offers haven’t populated. I removed it as it seems you’re correct in that these are no longer being extended and will expire before check in

  • Chris April 11, 2021

    Looking to travel hack my way to St Lucia next summer with my wife for our 10 year anniversary. Would appreciate if somebody could use my chase referral link to sign up for a Chase Sapphire Preferred!

    https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6a/FR2PX37PGZ

  • DaninMCI April 11, 2021

    I really miss the old De La Ville Rome IC as it had a lot of character and was at the top of the Spanish Steps however this new property looks good.
    As far as cost and free nights I understand your post but I could just as easily say I can book 5 nights free with my saved free night certs. I do appreciate the insights, however. If you are going to book this property on points I’d do it NOW is these will be in high demand and prices will go through the roof once Europe opens up more. I’m already seeing this trend in some other countries.

  • […] Danke: Monkeymiles.boardingarea.com […]

  • mojo April 10, 2021

    Nice deal. Good strategy.

    Pretty sure the picture of the “sick pad” you’ve chosen is *NOT* the 20~24 sqm 1 King Bed Classic you’ll be getting with your 40k points/night. Nice to dream, though….

  • Brutus April 10, 2021

    Shameful!

    • Miles April 10, 2021

      Someone’s a frequent reader 🙂

Leave a Reply to Miles Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.