Buy IHG Points with Bonus 80% Points for Booking Holiday Inn, Intercontinental etc. (E.g. Crowne Plaza Auckl 47% off Best Price)

IHG is offering an 80% bonus on points purchased until September 9. Buy between 1,000 - 9,000 points and earn a 40% Bonus, Buy between 10,000 - 60,000 points and earn an 80% Bonus. Point Table. IHG points can be used to book Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Klimpton, Candlewood, and a few others.

Long explanation by Pointhacks

This is difficult to explain but makes sense once you do it the first time so I'll just give you my example. Here's how I saved money booking a hotel using points (without a bonus). Getting bonus points would make it cheaper.

• Needed a booking for a Holiday Inn in NY (in a faraway suburb, not NYC).
• Tried all the hotel sites, price comparison, coupons, calling the hotel, but $175 USD/nt was the best I could get it.

• The hotel requires 10,000 IHG points per night OR 5,000 points + $40 USD (per night) to book on the same dates.

  10,000 points = $135 USD
  + $40 USD x 2 nights = $80 USD
  TOTAL = $215
  Compared to the best rate of $175 * 2 = $350 USD
  Savings of $135 USD by using points

But wait there's more!

Go through TopCashBack and you'll get 4% cashback, so I earned $5.40 from my $135 purchase.
Go through TopCashBack and you'll get 8% cashback, so I earned $6.40 on the $80 booking.
So an extra $11.80, bringing the total to $203.20.

So if I had done the same offer as above with the bonus points, I would need to buy 20,000 points. To do this I'd buy 10,000 with a bonus of 8,000 for $135 USD. To get the other 2,000 I'd just buy 2,000 at $27 USD and still have 800 to spare. Total cost $162 USD, savings of $53 with this bonus offer.

There aren't any restrictions on when you can use the points HOWEVER different properties have different point levels. Check out the map. There are properties where it will cost more to use points and there are properties that will cost less. This is where you need to do your research.

Low point properties is what you want and fortunately NZ has a couple of them:

Auckland, NZ - Crowne Plaza

Crowne Plaza Auckland (Fri + Night Stay in October):

• $830.30 NZD ($415.15 * 2 nights) Best Price OR
• 50,000 (25,000 * 2 nights) = 50,400 which is $322 USD or $439.71 NZD

Super Bonus: There is also their Best Price Guarantee. If you book with them and then find a cheaper price, they will refund you the 1st night and pricematch the remainder of your stay. Reports from elsewhere show they do this happily but they are pretty vigilant in making sure their prices are the lowest.

Random points deals:

• In NSW, for a weekend in March, the Holiday Inn Warwick Farm cost $410.40 AUD for 2 nights OR 40,000 points (20,000 x 2). Purchasing 41,400 points costs $287.50 USD or $376.15 AUD saving you $34.25 AUD. Bigger savings can be had for international properties. Do the math and see what works out for you.