My husband and I each own two credit cards that give us an annual free night certificate just for paying the card’s annual fee. It’s been years since we got the bonuses on those cards, and I’ve thought about cancelling them. But, every year, we get good value out of those free night certificates. So, it’s worth it to us to keep the cards.
IHG Free Night Certificates
From our Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Cards, our $99 annual fee gets us a free night certificate for an IHG hotel that’s valued up to 40,000 points per night. If we want to use our free night at a hotel that costs more than that, we can use our IHG points on top of our free night certificate.
For domestic hotels, I prefer Hyatt Place over most Holiday Inn Express locations. But, I’ve found some great hotels in Europe using our IHG free night certs. Last year, my daughter and I stayed at the Crowne Place Geneva on a free night cert. This time, I’m using our family’s free certs to stay two nights in Hamburg, Germany next summer (before my daughter and I embark on a cruise to Norway).
Holiday Inn Hamburg – HafenCity
For our two nights in Hamburg, I picked Holiday Inn Hamburg- HafenCity. The award price was 40,000 points one night and 41,000 points the second night, so I had to fork over 1000 extra IHG points on top of our free night certs. The cash price for both nights combined was $556.09, so paying $198 in fees for our two credit cards combined is a great way to stay at this hotel for a discount.
I chose this particular hotel because of its location. It’s within walking distance of many attractions including Speicherstadt (the warehouse district canals):
Elbphilharmonie concert hall:
Chocoversum chocolate experience:
And Miniataur Wunderland:
The hotel gets great reviews, and I’m looking forward to staying there. Of course, I’ll post a review of Holiday Inn Hamburg – HafenCity after my stay.
Wow! That’s incredible. For the last four years, I’ve been using to go back/forth to Georgia. LOL. My son is walking across the stage to graduate in December (even though he’s already working and received that little piece of paper over the summer) so it’ll be the last time I have to use it for an unimpressive redemption. He’s now a pilot so the world has opened up to more adventures. Hopefully, next year, I can use my nights like you do! But, it was worth it!
Sorry I didn’t proof read. It should say using mine and it wouldn’t let me edit.
@Michelle Wow, he’s graduating already! I remember when you said he was going off to college. Congratulations! Glad you found a good place to redeem your certs to visit him while he was away.