IHG One Rewards

What IHG One Rewards is

In the DACH region the network is shaped by Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Ruby; luxury properties such as Six Senses, InterContinental, Kimpton or Vignette are rare. In concrete terms that means one Six Senses in Crans-Montana, three InterContinental hotels in Geneva, Berlin and Vienna, one Kimpton in Frankfurt and one property of the Vignette Collection (Bristol Berlin); there is no Regent in the DACH region.

You will find the background in the IHG One Rewards chapter of the mileage course, and the comparison with other hotel chains in the overview of hotel programs.

Earning points

IHG awards 10 points per U.S. dollar of eligible spend at almost all brands, 5 points at Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites, and 3 points at IHG Army Hotels. If you pay in francs or euros, IHG converts at the equivalent in local currency according to its terms; the terms name no rate or cutoff date. Your tier’s status bonus is added on top of these base points, as described further down.

Bookings through Booking.com or Expedia earn no points, no nights and no status benefits. If you want points and status, book directly with IHG.

Partner currency instead of points

Instead of IHG points you can earn the currency of one of around 40 partner programs per stay, mostly airlines, including PAYBACK (Germany only). Miles & More pays 2 miles per USD, and Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites pay 1 mile. For the same stay you get either points or partner currency, never both; if you choose miles, you lose the elite bonus.

Credit cards and transfers

There is no IHG credit card in Switzerland, Germany or Austria. The fourth award night free is available only to holders of the Chase US cards, so you cannot carry over English-language calculations that use such cards. Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to IHG at 1:1, but only with a US account. In none of the three countries does a path lead from Amex Membership Rewards to IHG, as the country sections below show.

Buying points

IHG sells points through Points.com. The regular price is from around 1 US cent per point, depending on the amount. You can buy at most 200,000 points per calendar year before bonus. Time-limited sales with a bonus are not part of the fixed program rules; the course treats them separately.

Purchased points do not earn status. The regular way to buy status points is Bonus Points Packages: when booking you can add up to 5,000 extra points per night, which IHG explicitly credits as Elite Qualifying Points.

Redeeming points

IHG has no fixed award chart; the points price varies by brand, hotel, weekday and demand. Awards have dynamic prices without a fixed chart and without blackout dates; according to IHG they start at 5,000 or 10,000 points per night. Because there is no chart, the value of a point moves with the cash price of the night. Work it out for each award individually.

An award night covers one standard room per night, including government and locally levied taxes and charges. You pay resort fees and service charges on site; meals are not included except at all-inclusive properties. At Six Senses the points are forfeited if you cancel after the deadline or do not show up.

Points + Cash requires at least 5,000 points of your own; the cash portion is not refundable, and on a timely cancellation the purchased points come back as points, not as money. Redeemed award nights count as qualifying nights and therefore also for the milestones.

Status tiers and benefits

Qualification runs on the calendar year, and the status is valid until the end of the following year. There is no lifetime status. The five tiers in detail:

Club

Club brings a 0% status bonus, member rates, Wi-Fi, late check-out until 2 p.m. subject to availability, and awards without blackout dates. You reach Club by signing up; there is no threshold.

Silver Elite

Silver Elite requires 10 nights per calendar year and has no points route; the bonus is 20%, and the points do not expire.

Gold Elite

Gold Elite requires 20 nights or 40,000 Elite Qualifying Points per calendar year; the bonus is 40%, plus rollover nights and Hertz Five Star. Upgrades, early check-in and a welcome amenity only start at Platinum.

Platinum Elite

Platinum Elite requires 40 nights or 60,000 Elite Qualifying Points per calendar year; the bonus is 60%, plus upgrade and early check-in subject to availability, welcome amenity, 72-hour room pledge and award discounts.

Diamond Elite

Diamond Elite requires 70 nights or 120,000 Elite Qualifying Points per calendar year; the bonus is 100%, plus breakfast as the welcome amenity, Diamond support and Hertz President’s Circle. Diamond members choose breakfast as the welcome amenity at check-in, at full-service brands and selected limited-service brands. At express properties breakfast is included for all guests, and at Ruby you get points instead of the Diamond breakfast. At Six Senses there is no breakfast for Diamond; breakfast for two is available there only in the package for Ambassador, Royal Ambassador and Kimpton Inner Circle.

Lounges, rollover and milestones

No status gives automatic lounge access. From Gold, qualifying nights above the threshold you reached roll over into the next year. Rollover nights count only for status, not for milestones, and they do not roll over a second time.

From 20 Elite Qualifying Nights per calendar year there is a choice every 10 nights, up to 100 nights. The choice must be made within 90 days or the milestone lapses; it is final. Three examples:

• At 20 nights there is one choice out of 3: 5,000 points, 2 Food & Beverage Rewards or 1 Confirmable Suite Upgrade.
• At 40 nights there are two choices out of 4: 10,000 points, 5 F&B Rewards, 1 Confirmable Suite Upgrade or Annual Lounge Membership.
• At 70 nights there are two choices out of 4: 10,000 points, 5 F&B Rewards, 2 Confirmable Suite Upgrades or Annual Lounge Membership.

The Annual Lounge Membership applies from the date of the milestone for the rest of that calendar year and the whole following year, regardless of when you choose it.

Status match

A public status match for members in Europe is not known as of October 2026 (not confirmed).

InterContinental Ambassador

InterContinental Ambassador is a paid add-on membership. It costs 225 USD or 45,000 points and is not refundable. Club, Silver, Gold and Platinum members become Platinum Ambassador with the Platinum benefits; Diamond members keep Diamond. The standard Ambassador membership explicitly does not include lounge access.

Converting points into miles

Converting points into partner programs works only in fixed blocks, with a processing time of up to six weeks and no way back, and only through IHG customer service. The standard rate is 10,000 points to 2,000 miles (5:1). Miles & More is not a conversion partner of IHG; Miles & More is missing among the 33 conversion partners. The conversion is therefore at best a way to save leftover points from expiring.

Expiry of points

Club members lose points after 12 months without earning or redeeming; according to IHG, buying points or transferring them also counts as activity. From Silver on, points do not expire while the status runs.

Notes for Switzerland, Germany and Austria

Switzerland

The IHG country page for Switzerland lists 16 hotels. The AlpenGold Hotel in Davos Dorf, the former InterContinental Davos, is an independent, affiliated hotel and counts neither as an InterContinental nor for Ambassador. Amex Membership Rewards Switzerland is not a transfer partner of IHG.

Germany

From the figures of IHG plc, the arithmetic gives more than 170 hotels for Germany. Amex Membership Rewards Germany is not a transfer partner of IHG. In Germany you can choose PAYBACK as partner currency per stay.

Austria

The IHG country page for Austria lists 15 hotels. Amex Membership Rewards Austria is not a transfer partner of IHG.

Who IHG One Rewards is not for

Sources and further reading

More on the rules and on worked examples is in the IHG One Rewards chapter of the mileage course. Other programs are in the program archive.