intercontinental hotel's "big win" first quarter promo is up

IHG (intercontinental, crowne plaza, holiday inn, indigo, etc.) released their first quarter promo a few days ago. you can log in to their website for details. they ran a similar promo this year as well, which i didn't really participate in as i was gunning for platinum status with starwood.

all hotel programs have varying bonuses throughout the different quarters, and IHG has an interesting one for the first quarter. it gives you various tasks to complete (which typically involve staying at their hotels), and then collecting bonus points. what makes this offer neat is that it appears to be customized depending on your previous stay patterns. it could be that your offers are completely different than mine.

the promo runs from january 1, 2014 to april 30, 2014. the offers that i received were:

• stay more and earn: stay a total of 4 nights and earn 8,000 points
• explore our brands: stay at 2 different IHG brands and earn 16,000 points
• win in a weekend: stay 2 saturday nights and earn 8,000 points
• IHG mobile app booking: book 2 separate stays through our IHG app and earn 8,000 points
• stay smart: stay at 2 holiday inn hotels and earn 8,000 points
• survey the win: complete a simple survey and earn 100 points
• win big: complete 6 of your offers and earn 48,000 points

at the very least, everyone should do the simple 5-minute survey for the 100 points. if you are in a rush, the survey can be done in less than a minute by pushing random buttons. i don't think it cares.

for myself, i've already booked a stay at the crowne plaza changi airport for my 11-hour stay in february while i'm on transit in singapore. so in order to take advantage of this offer to its maximum, i'd simply need to:

• book 2 separate saturday nights via the mobile booking app for holiday inn properties -- luckily, i live 100 meters away from one
• book 1 other IHG hotel ... whichever one is the cheapest/most convenient.

in doing so, i'll earn 96,000 points. in my own experience, each individual point is worth roughly 0.5 cents (most major cities) to 1 cent (edmonton, alberta). sometimes they're worth more if you can catch their 5,000 point break specials. remember that when paying by points, it takes care of both the base cost of the hotel and the taxes.

at 96,000 points, that's worth anywhere from $480 to $960, all by booking 3 hotel nights. also, remember that you will earn points themselves for the stays themselves, usually at a rate of 10 points (5-10c) per dollar spent. it's something to consider.