IHG’s 10,000-point hotels outside the U.S.—especially in the Asia-Pacific region—are generally of pretty solid quality. This post will also be updated with PointsBreaks (PB) hotels within Cat-1; for the list of PB hotels that are not in Cat-1, please see this article. Outside the U.S., most Cat-1 10,000-point properties in other countries and regions are Holiday Inn Express hotels, with a smaller number of Holiday Inn properties. Let’s get straight to it:

Countries and regions outside the United States

Greater China

(Note: This article took a long time to publish, so I may have missed some newly opened hotels. I’ll add them gradually later.)

Taiwan

Liaoning

Shaanxi

Beijing

Anhui

Jilin

Hunan

Jiangsu

  • Holiday Inn Express Suzhou Changjiang Suzhou Changjiang Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Suzhou Industrial Park Suzhou Industrial Park Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Suzhou New District Suzhou Longhu Shishan Tianjie Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Suzhou Taihu Lake Suzhou Taihu Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Suzhou Zhouzhuang Ancient Town Suzhou Zhouzhuang Ancient Town Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Taizhou CMC Taizhou CMC Holiday Inn
  • Holiday Inn Express Wuxi Taihu New City Wuxi Taihu Xinze Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Yancheng City Center Yancheng Wuzhou Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Yangzhou City Center Yangzhou Wenchang Pavilion Holiday Inn Express
  • Holiday Inn Express Zhangjiagang East Zhangjiagang Dongcheng Holiday Inn Express

    • Sichuan

    Inner Mongolia

    Chongqing

    Guangdong

    Fujian

    Hainan

    Zhejiang

    Shandong

    Jiangxi

    Hebei

    Tibet

    Henan

    Heilongjiang

    Shanghai

    Tianjin

    Gansu

    Hubei

    Ningxia

    Greater China IHG 10,000-point award chart. There are a huge number of hotels, and many of the red labels in the image overlap. 【Photo credit: Travelisfree (Updated: April 17, 2019)】

    Other Parts of Asia

    INDIA India

    INDONESIA Indonesia

    TURKEY Turkey

    The Americas (Excluding the U.S.)

    CANADA Canada

    NICARAGUA Nicaragua

    MEXICO

    ARGENTINA

    BRAZIL

    CHILE

    COLOMBIA

    Europe

    FRANCE

    GERMANY

    HUNGARY

    ITALY

    MACEDONIA

    POLAND

    RUSSIAN

    SERBIA

    SLOVAKIA

    SPAIN

    UNITED KINGDOM

    Africa

    ZIMBABWE

    SOUTH AFRICA

    Stackable Deals

    Loyalty Program Offers

    In most cases, IHG does not offer extra perks on award stays, aside from a very limited number of elite welcome points. On this front, it is not nearly as generous as Hilton or Hyatt. Each quarter, IHG’s Accelerate promotion sometimes includes a Points + Cash task. If you use it at these Category 1 hotels, it will generally cost only 5,000 points + some cash. Whether that is worth it depends on your Accelerate offer and the current room rate. For example, in 2019 Q4 Accelerate, I received: Book 1 stay (s) using Points & Cash and earn 4,500 bonus points... As for other deals, the author has not found any better stackable promotions.

    For more hotel-group promotions: please see here (click here)

    Hidden Perks in Greater China

    Unlike other regions, Greater China has a huge number of IHG hotels, yet IHG elite benefits there still lag well behind those of several other major hotel groups. Even though we get Platinum status from the Chase IHG Primmer, Platinum is really just “P”... Still, there are fewer top-tier elites in Greater China than in the U.S., so you may still have a shot at a suite upgrade. To make up for the gap in elite benefits, IHG has also introduced region-specific perks in Greater China, mainly for Spire Elite members, Spire Ambassadors, and Royal Ambassadors. I mentioned this benefit in IHG Spire member-exclusive benefits in Greater China + weekend “Extraordinary Treats” promotion for Gold members and above. Here is the part relevant to this post:

    When staying at InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, or Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts in Greater China, members receive dining vouchers worth RMB 120, RMB 90, and RMB 60 respectively (hotels in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan provide an equivalent value in local currency). Guests staying at Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts and HUALUXE Hotels & Resorts receive executive lounge access, while guests staying at Holiday Inn Express receive a welcome gift bag.

    So yes, you can still find quite a few Holiday Inn properties in Greater China (the hotels I highlighted in blue above are the ones in this category), and each stay comes with a RMB 60 dining voucher. (Though honestly, RMB 60 is not even enough for one person... pretty minor.) Each stay at a Holiday Inn Express comes with a welcome gift bag, which is at least much better than the standard U.S. breakfast muffin. Better than nothing.

    The question, then, is: how do you get Spire status or higher? If you earn it the hard way by actually staying enough nights, you probably don’t need this guide. Here we’ll only talk about Spire Elite:

    Method 1: Go straight to Spire Elite. If you have an eligible code, you can be upgraded directly to Spire and keep it for 90 days.

    Method 2: Status Match. The link is here (this round has already expired, so wait for the next one). You just need to use the Hilton Diamond status that comes with our AMEX Aspire credit card to match over, though there is a cap on the number of participants. Aside from free breakfast, one of the biggest uses of “easy” Diamond status is matching into top-tier hotel elite status across different chains. The AMEX Aspire credit card really is more than worth its annual fee.

    Benefits of the Chase co-branded card

    Cardholders of the Chase IHG Premier Credit Card receive the following benefits:

    • Fourth night free on award stays: After you get this credit card, when you redeem IHG points for three consecutive nights, you can get the fourth night free. In other words, four nights cost only 75% of the points normally required. Stay 3, get 1 free! A four-night stay at a 10,000-point-per-night property costs only 30,000 points total! (As someone without this card, I’m crying at my keyboard.) With a 120,000-point welcome bonus, you could stay up to 16 nights!
    • This card is absolutely worth far more than its annual fee, and it also comes with a 40,000-point free night certificate every year. The current bonus is at a historic high, so if you’re still under Chase 5/24, it may be a good time to apply!

    Pair it with IHG points sales

    If you don’t have enough IHG points, besides earning them from stays, opening a Chase IHG co-branded card, transferring UR points (are you sure you want to transfer to IHG?), and other traditional methods, you can also choose to buy points. Buying points to book Cat-1 hotels is usually not a bad deal and can sometimes save you quite a bit. IHG frequently runs strong points sales. The current 100% bonus promotion has been around for a while and runs through September 24, 2019 (sorry this article was posted late; my guess is it will be extended again soon). Without considering any additional stacking opportunities, the cost is about 0.5c/p, slightly above my valuation of IHG points. Points purchases are processed through Points.com: Buy points here (don’t buy directly—go through a cashback site! See below)

    Points sales from other airline and hotel programs: click here

    How to maximize points purchases:

    Book with cash directly

    Considering that the lowest-tier award hotels usually aren’t very expensive anyway, this can make especially good sense for group trips. I’ve helpfully matched all the links one by one, so if a hotel fits your travel route, you can book it directly through the links in this article.

    Conclusion

    Among the major traditional hotel chains, IHG has one of the widest footprints in both China and the U.S. Cat-1 IHG hotels in North America may be fairly average in quality, but they’re still much better than many Airbnbs. In China, IHG properties are everywhere. That said, elite benefits still leave room for improvement. In Greater China, Platinum, Spire, and Ambassador members may get at least a little bit of treatment. When I don’t have many points, I often use TCB plus an OTA to book HIE (Holiday Inn Express) for trips with family and friends. For example, Hotels.com is a very solid OTA. [Mainly because I’m cheap... Every year, with Amazon and MR, opening multiple accounts can let you buy lots of 50% off hotels.com eGCs, and then you can stack that with mainland China credit cards that earn high rewards on overseas purchases and other Amazon deals...]

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