IHG is not selling points at a bonus today. When it does, the only number that matters is the size of the bonus. IHG charges about 1.00¢ per point before any bonus, and across the 6,695 IHG hotels we price every night a point gives back a median of 0.55¢. That puts break-even at a 81% bonus. Below it you pay more for a point than a typical hotel hands back.
One number decides it, and it is not the headline percentage. It is whether the price per point lands under what the hotels you actually book give back.
Buying points is only worth it when a point costs you less than it gives back. We can settle that, because we record the points price and the cash price of the same night at 6,695 IHG hotels every day. IHG charges about 1.00¢ a point before any bonus and the middle hotel gives back 0.55¢, so break-even sits at a 81% bonus. Here is the whole ladder.
| Bonus on offer | You pay | Beats | Off cash | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50% bonus | 0.67¢ | 2% | -21% | Not worth it |
| 60% bonus | 0.62¢ | 6% | -13% | Not worth it |
| 70% bonus | 0.59¢ | 20% | -6% | Not worth it |
| 80% bonus | 0.56¢ | 47% | 0% | Not worth it |
| 90% bonus | 0.53¢ | 79% | +5% | Only for the right hotel |
| 100% bonus | 0.50¢ | 94% | +10% | Worth buying |
IHG runs these sales several times a year and the bonus is normally somewhere between 60% and 100%. On the numbers above only the top of that range is clearly worth taking: a 81% bonus is break-even at the median hotel, so a 60% or 70% offer loses money at most of the hotels we price. When a sale opens we recompute this page the same night, so the verdict here is never a leftover from the last one.
A single verdict hides a wide spread. Point value moves a lot between brands, so the bonus that makes buying worthwhile moves with it. The bonus-needed column is what it would take for buying to break even at that brand’s middle hotel.
| Brand | Hotels | Median ¢/pt | Bonus needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday Inn Resort | 54 | 0.58¢ | 73% |
| Staybridge Suites | 361 | 0.58¢ | 74% |
| Hotel Indigo | 200 | 0.58¢ | 74% |
| Candlewood Suites | 442 | 0.57¢ | 74% |
| Kimpton | 89 | 0.57¢ | 74% |
| InterContinental | 237 | 0.57¢ | 75% |
| voco | 149 | 0.57¢ | 75% |
| Crowne Plaza | 426 | 0.57¢ | 76% |
| EVEN Hotels | 48 | 0.57¢ | 77% |
| Vignette Collection | 40 | 0.56¢ | 80% |
| Holiday Inn | 1107 | 0.56¢ | 80% |
| avid hotels | 92 | 0.55¢ | 82% |
| Garner | 125 | 0.55¢ | 83% |
| Holiday Inn Express | 3233 | 0.55¢ | 83% |
| Holiday Inn the niu | 47 | 0.50¢ | 100% |
The comparison above is honest about what it measures. Here is what it leaves out.
These sales come and go, and most of them are not worth taking. Leave your email and we will run this comparison the next time IHG discounts points, then tell you the answer rather than the headline.
No sale is running today. At full price a point costs about 1.00¢ while giving back a median of 0.55¢, so wait for a bonus of 81% or better.
81% is break-even against the median hotel we track, so anything below that loses money at a typical property. A 100% bonus clears the bar at nearly every hotel. An 80% bonus clears it at about 47% of them, which is thin enough that tax matters.
A median of 0.55¢ across the 6,695 IHG hotels in our benchmark, with the middle half running from 0.53¢ to 0.58¢. The full workings are on what are IHG points worth.
Sometimes, and it depends on the hotel more than on the sale. At Holiday Inn Resort, the strongest brand we track at a median of 0.58¢ a point, points bought in a good sale give back well above what they cost. At the weak end of the same program you would pay more for the points than the room is worth. Check the hotel on its own page before you buy.
No. Purchased points are not qualifying activity for elite tiers, and an award night does not earn points or elite credit the way a paid stay does. That is a real cost of buying, and it is not in the arithmetic above.
Benchmark from 6,695 IHG hotels priced daily · last updated November 3, 2026.