Last month my in-laws took my daughter with them to visit some relatives in North Florida. My son stayed with us at home for the weekend. Well, momma didn’t raise no fool! He figured out pretty quickly that he got left behind and started complaining that it’s not fair.
We were already planning to do something fun with him but I was shocked when my husband said that maybe we could take him to a hotel for just 1 night. Why not? We have hotel points coming out of our ears, so we may as well use them. Speaking of, did anyone get any confirmation emails for IHG “Priceless surprises” promo? It’s been over a month for me and nothing. Looks like IHG is just being IHG, as usual.
Anyway, I wanted a place nearby, so we settled on Holiday Inn Express Bradenton West It runs at 20,000 IHG points per night (or $140 during that particular weekend) and includes breakfast. I won’t post a review because to be honest, there isn’t much reason to stay here unless the hotel ends up on PointBreaks list. It’s not on the beach and the area is a bit dingy.
But since it was Christmas time, other nearby hotels were not available on points, so we took what we could get, considering it was a last-minute thing. And the place did have a huge heated pool my son absolutely loved. But this is what I loved:
We took him to Bradenton beach where he could dig in the sand. It was too cold to swim, though we did see some brave souls splashing in the waves. Probably Germans. When my daughter got home, my son ran up to her and started bragging about his weekend. He said it was better than hers! It looks like we are using hotel points to promote sibling rivalry.
Have a nice weekend, y’all! How about doing your own impromptu local getaway with the help of hotel points?
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Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
I sent all 94 the 2nd week of the promotion. I received 94 emails all the same day 2 days ago! I ended up getting 50,500 IHG points. None of the points have posted to my account yet, so technically I haven’t gotten any points yet until they post. I have no idea when that will be?
@Rich Nice! So glad you finally got them. If you received the emails, I’m sure the points will post soon. What a ridiculous amount of waiting, but a good deal in the end.
Yes, I got some of mine – first batch of 20 went out on November 16 and I have received 15 emails from that – It took 5-6 weeks to get those and then I sent out a more spaced out a few days apart, around 70 more and have received no emails from the mail in entries since the beginning of December. They are incredibly slow, but the ones I did get posted already…so just waiting now…
@HML That’s good to know! Gives me hope that maybe mine will register too at some point.
Re: IHG Priceless Surprises entries. It took about 4 weeks for the first email to me. Now I get a few entries about 7 days apart. at this rate it will be fall before I get all my entries. Hope you hear from them soon.
@Hilde Thank you so much for the data point. It’s ridiculous how slow this process is. I really hope it doesn’t stretch into fall, LOL It rhymes!
I hate to hear the IHG thing is a bust so far. I was finally about to commit and start filling out those cards. Maybe I’ll hold off a little while longer and see if yours post.
It’s so nice to get to spend time one-on-one with your kids. I bet he loved getting all the attention for a day or two. Nice impromptu trip. I wish the west coast had a little more options with points and places right on the beach. It seems like the better deals are on the other coast. Considering an impromptu trip this weekend for our anniversary.
@Jennifer Yeah, I don’t know what to tell you on this IHG thing. I’ll update you if I finally get confirmations. It does look like they eventually come through, but the process is as slow as molasses.
My son definitely loved getting all the attention! I’m thinking about doing something like this with my daughter. I hope you do get to go for a getaway with your husband. One place you may want to look into is this Holiday Inn in Sarasota https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/reservation There is a good chance you’ll get upgraded to “lake view” room, which is very nice. It costs 20K points, not too bad. You also may want to consider looking at some cheap places in order to hit Accelerate promo for 2016, depending on how lucrative your offer is.
@Jennifer Sorry, wrong link! Check it out here https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/sarasota/srqlo/hoteldetail?qRef=sr&qDest=Sarasota%2C+FL%2C+United+States&qRpn=1&qChld=0&qSrt=sDD&qSHp=1&qSmP=3&qGRM=0&qLng=-82.5308&qRdU=1&qRms=1&srb_u=1&qAdlt=2&qPSt=0&qFRA=1&qRtP=6CBARC&qCiMy=002016&qCoD=10&qLat=27.3361&qCiD=08&qCoMy=002016&qRRSrt=rt&qRad=30&qRpp=12&qBrs=ic.cp.in.vn.hi.ex.rs.cv.sb.cw.ul.6c&qWch=0&icdv=99634975