What a Lame-Ass Joke You’ve Become!
I’ve been covering IHG PointBreaks extensively for the last couple of years, working my ass off to research participating hotels to find those proverbial diamonds in a rough—and don’t make any mistakes, there’ve always been lots and lots of rough—but their latest reincarnation of the deal, OMG! It’s not even worth of a separate post, but I did it anyway. Don’t blame me that it’s so short. Blame them!
Here is the hint, IHG: if you can’t sell your hotels for 5,000 points per night, maybe there is something wrong with your pricing model.
There is nothing on this list that’s worth considering. Even properties in cool places like Bangkok and Hanoi don’t make sense, because of how cheap these cities are. Hey, I don’t mind Holiday Inns, but what I do mind is how I browse Europe, and there is only one relatively cool city, which is Belfast with a central location. Everywhere else, they have these dreadful “south” or “north” or “east”, when will we start seeing south-west or north-east, huh?
The IHG PointBreaks lists have been going downhill for quite some time, but at least there have always been at list 2-3 interesting locations that would make sense. This list is pure greed. There is not a single international property on it, which should cost more than 5,000 points to begin with. Crown Plaza in Ankara? Sure, until you realize that the JW Marriott goes there for 7,500-10,000 a night!
Holiday Inn Panama Canal sounds like a cool place to stay, right? Wrong! There is nothing to do in the vicinity of the Panama Canal. You want to visit the Canal once, and run away, back to the lights of Panama City. Besides, well, here we go again, Panama City is so cheap, that you can have a Hampton Inn, which is yours for 5,000 Hilton points. The Holiday Inn in Sao Paulo is located in the Financial District, which is not where you want to be. OK, let’s be fair, it’s alright for a few days (although, I’m not staying there during my upcoming trip to Brazil).
OK, so Crown Plaza in West Hanoi is really a good hotel. But it’s way out, and there is a super-duper fabulous JW Marriott in Hanoi for 10-15K a night (which is also a long ride to the center, though).
Oh, and this:
Due to the limited availability, each member may only book two PointBreaks® Reward Nights reservations per hotel during the special offer time period.
Seriously, when not a single desirable property makes it into your list, this tough talk sounds kind of funny. Good luck on filling them up!
P.S. Amazingly, I’ve checked the latest IHG PointBreaks list offerings just a few minutes ago, and some of these ridiculous “deals” are gone.
Gone is HIE in Bangkok (really?) and Crown Plaza in Hanoi, gone are two Crown Plazas in Japan, gone is Batam—Batam that, while a decent hotel, costs around $55 per night! I have three plausible explanations why.
- Some were traveling there anyway.
- Some are nuts.
- Some did so because they can and have no intention of traveling. Yeah, very mature!
Oh, and if you booked Batam to explore Singapore, good luck with that. The travel time that the hotel website lists as 15 minutes needs to be multiplied by 3 or 4, and that’s for the ferry crossing only.
Anyway… Pass.
