Priority Club - loyalty program for InterContinental Hotels

...as a free lunch: With Priority Club, you earn points that will give you free hotel nights and maybe a free breakfast, so that is better than nothing! Is it really free? Well, this is a loyalty card scheme, so yes and no is the answer. If you get points for something you were going to do anyway, then its free - if your behaviour is changed in order to get the points, then that is the price!

**What is Priority Club?**

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**Signing Up To Priority Club**

Signing up to the Priority Club is very simple and is free. There are several ways in which you can do this:

In the hotel: Available on the check-in desk in all IChotels Group properties, you can simply complete a short application form, seal it up and send it in or hand it in. You will also find them usually in the hotel bedrooms.

Tip: Get signed up on your first ... more

**Priority Club**

It is said that there is no such thing as a free lunch: With Priority Club, you earn points that will give you free hotel nights and maybe a free breakfast, so that is better than nothing! Is it really free? Well, this is a loyalty card scheme, so yes and no is the answer. If you get points for something you were going to do anyway, then its free - if your behaviour is changed in order to get the points, then that is the price!

**What is Priority Club?**

Priority Club is the loyalty program/travel rewards club for the InterContinental Hotels Group, also known as 6C or Six Continents. In the UK, we know best the Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, but this group also includes the InterContinental Hotels, Indigo Hotels, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites Hotel & Resorts. For most of your spend in the hotel (on food, accommodation and so on) you earn 10 points for each US$ spent. You can earn points for booking meetings (it does not have to be accommodation).

IChotels Group has more than 3700 hotels worldwide - that's a lot of points earning opportunity.

To give some idea (more detail later) you might need 10,000 points for a night in an Express by Holiday Inn (the budget-end offering from this group). At 10 points per $1US spend, this means a total accumulated spend of $1000US, which is currently about £500 - you can see that you don't need to stay that many nights to earn a free night.

As an alternative to points towards stays, you can choose to earn loyalty points or 'frequent flyer' points on many airlines and a similar deal with Hertz Car Rental.

**Signing Up To Priority Club**

Signing up to the Priority Club is very simple and is free. There are several ways in which you can do this:

In the hotel: Available on the check-in desk in all IChotels Group properties, you can simply complete a short application form, seal it up and send it in or hand it in. You will also find them usually in the hotel bedrooms.

Tip: Get signed up on your first stay and start collecting points at once.

Online: Google 'Priority Club' and you will find the website. You can quickly and easily sign up on-line and a card will be sent to you.

By Telephone: You can call an 0870 number to talk to an advisor who will help (charges will apply for this call) and can also email for support, if needed. Contact information is on the web site under the 'Customer Support' button.

Use of your information: IChotels Group promise not to sell your information to any third party. It is used by them (with your permission) to contact you by mail or email, as well as you getting regular statements showing your point tally.

**Carry the card**

If you are making a booking for a stay, give your Priority Club number at that time and your points will be added to your account after you stay. I still take my card with me and show it when I check in and out, to make sure that my points have been added. Also, it means you are recognised as a regular guest which can (possibly) result in an upgrade to a better room, especially if the hotel is heavily booked.

(As you stay more and collect more points, you achieve a higher level within the Club. Any chance of an upgrade is more likely if you are at one of the elite tiers).

**Collecting Points**

In the hotel: You can earn points from purchasing most services in the hotel such as accommodation, food, spend at the bar and use of the phone. As a general rule, if you can charge it you your room and it appears on your bill, you will earn points for it.

For most of the brands in this portfolio, the earning rate is 10 points per one US $ spent (in local equivalent). With the US $ at about 2 to £1 sterling, this gives a rule of thumb of 20 points per £1.

Hertz car rental: Earn points from Hertz.

Advice: Don't panic if your points are not added after a stay. You can contact the club and supply information about the stay and they will add this information in subsequently, so your points will still go on. If you are booked through a travel agency (this happens with my work) then as soon as I have the booking confirmation number, I can go to the web site and add my own Priority Club points details.

Tips: If you are spending anything in the hotel - even a drink from the bar - charge it to your room and pay for it on check-out, because that way you will earn points on the purchase. If you just pay the bar person cash - null point!

Priority Club Rewards Visa: As well as a bonus which you may be able to get, all spend ANYWHERE (not just in a hotel) will earn you one point per £1 spent. This takes a while to mount up (compared to the rate of 20 points per £1 in the hotel) but it is worth looking at for three reasons:
1. There is a drip-feed effect, so spending on anything can be contributing to your next weekend away or holiday
2. It is particularly satisfying to pay in an IChotel with their own branded credit card and get points every which way
3. If you apply on line, you can get a big 10,000 point bonus when you are accepted and use your card for the first time (see my review of Priority Club MBNA Visa Credit Card for more details)

**Gaining Extra Points**

As I said, there are elite levels to be reached in the club and these attract more points. They are basically arrived at by staying enough nights, although some points can be purchased.
If you stay 15 or more nights in a year, you reach Gold Elite level. You earn points slightly faster at this level, too. There is anther step, to Platinum level, but that is more than most of us will stay.
**Purchase Extra Points**

You might find that you have almost, but not quite, enough for the reward you are aiming for. In that case, you might want to consider purchasing some points, as follows:

Points are purchased in US$ currency and you can buy 1000 points for $12.50. The more you buy (up the maximum) the less you pay for them, so for 10000 to 20000 points (the maximum you can buy) the price is $10 per 1000 points.

**The good bit - spending your points!**

There are several different ways of spending your points, as well as the obvious choice of using them to book accommodation.

The spend per room per night varies with the type of hotel - reasonably - just as the price you would pay in cash varies with the facilities you want and are prepared to pay for.

Most Holiday Inn Express or Express by Holiday Inn will be 10,000 points per night, although it is more to stay in places like central London. They and Holiday Inn hotels will be up to 25,000 points per night.

Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites (which I think may only be in North America) are 15,000 and 20,000 points per night respectively.

The 'posher' brands cost more. Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts are 25,000 per night, as are Hotel Indigo. Finally, the top-notch InterContinental Hotels (I think all 5 star) are 30,000 or 40,000 per night.

Where applicable, you can buy an in-room movie to watch for 3,000 points, a breakfast for 4,000 and a 3 course buffet dinner with a glass of wine/equivalent for 8,500.

You can also choose to change your points for wines by the bottle (delivered to your home) or for vouchers for certain stores, like M&S.

There are some other choices, too: Details at the web site. You are likely to get most value, however, by spending them for hotel free nights. As an example, I have used points to stay for 5 nights in a Holiday Inn in Cyprus free, buying two additional nights in the same hotel which cumulatively gave me a week-long holiday stay for cash cost of two nights.

Tip: One of the great things about Priority Club points is that they never expire, so it does not matter how long it takes you to collect the full amount you need or how long it takes you to get around to making a booking, your points won't vanish!
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You can order your rewards on-line, including making your hotel night bookings, or you can call the local call centre to help.

**Other perks**

Other than being recognised as a regular guest, there are a couple of tangible benefits from Club membership. You get a free paper every day of your stay, you also get a later check-out time (subject to availability), which can be very useful - this helped me on a recent visit to Paris, for example, where instead of being thrown out of the room at 10am, I was able to keep it until 2pm.

**Further Information**

If you want more information then you can contact the Priority Club helpline by:

Telephone:
+44 (0) 870 607 2582 (0870 60 PCLUB) (toll charges apply)

Fax:
+44 (0) 870 400 9103 (toll charges apply)

Email:
PriorityClubEMEA@ichotelsgroup.com

**Conclusion**

I t works. I stay away perhaps one night a month and I do try to use Express by Holiday in where I can. In London, this will cost about £110 per night for room and breakfast, out of London about £65.

6 * 110 = 660 plus 6 * 65 = 390, so my hotels spend is about £1050 per annum for these trips. At $2 = £1 and 10 points per $1, that is 21,000 points per year - enough for my partner and I have to have a two-night break away in an Express by Holiday Inn somewhere, or enough for a night when visiting friends or relatives. I recommend the scheme to you. 

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