IHG Ambassador status is a paid program that offers exclusive benefits when staying at InterContinental hotels. Members also receive automatic IHG Rewards Club Platinum status for perks when staying at other IHG hotels. One of my favorite benefits of IHG Ambassador status is the complimentary weekend night that you receive each year when paying for the first night at an InterContinental hotel. The IHG Ambassador BOGO now includes Kimpton Hotels, making the benefit even better.
In This Post
Benefits of IHG Ambassador status
When you sign up to become an IHG Ambassador, you’ll receive several fantastic benefits to make your InterContinental hotel stays even better. These benefits include:
- Guaranteed one category room upgrade
- Dedicated check-in area
- Enjoy 4 pm late checkout
- Up to $20 credit towards restaurants and bars
- Complimentary mineral water
- Free internet service
- Automatic IHG Rewards Club Platinum status
- Complimentary weekend night valid on 2nd night of a paid stay
In Greater China, members receive the following benefits:
- Complimentary breakfast for one for each night you stay (Mainland China only)
- 15% discount at restaurants and bars
- RMB120 credit for restaurants and bars (Spire Elite members only)
- Welcome fruit platter
Keep in mind that a majority of these benefits are applicable only when staying at InterContinental hotels and resorts. When staying at other IHG properties, your automatic IHG Rewards Club Platinum benefits will apply.
How much does IHG Ambassador status cost?
To become an IHG Ambassador, it is $200 per year. Alternatively, you may redeem 40,000 IHG Rewards Club points to become a member. This is a poor redemption value, however, because you’re only getting 0.5 cents per point.
Unlike other elite status programs, you cannot earn IHG Ambassador status through credit card spending or hotel stays.
If you’re interested in signing up for IHG Ambassador status, click here for all of the details from IHG Rewards Club.
IHG Ambassador signup promo coming in August 2020
Before you sign up for IHG Ambassador status, I’d recommend holding off until August. I’ve heard rumors that there will be a lucrative promotion to encourage travelers to sign up or renew IHG Ambassador status.
As soon as I know more, I’ll be sure to share the details.
Which hotels are included in the IHG Ambassador BOGO offer?
There are over 200 InterContinental Hotels and Resorts around the world. However, there are only 25 InterContinental hotels in the U.S. This makes it harder to redeem the IHG Ambassador complimentary weekend night benefit if you aren’t traveling internationally.
These are the InterContinental hotels and resorts in the U.S.:
- InterContinental Alliance Resorts Palazzo at The Venetian Resort
- InterContinental Alliance Resorts The Venetian Resort
- InterContinental At Doral Miami
- InterContinental Boston
- InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta
- InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile
- InterContinental Cleveland
- InterContinental Houston – Medical Center
- InterContinental Kansas City At The Plaza
- InterContinental Los Angeles Century City
- InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown
- InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco
- InterContinental Miami
- InterContinental Minneapolis – St. Paul Airport
- InterContinental New Orleans
- InterContinental New York Barclay
- InterContinental New York Times Square
- InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront
- InterContinental San Diego
- InterContinental San Francisco
- InterContinental Stephen F. Austin
- InterContinental Suites Hotel Cleveland
- InterContinental The Clement Monterey
- InterContinental The Willard Washington D.C.
- InterContinental Washington D.C. – The Wharf
Now that you can redeem your IHG Ambassador BOGO free weekend night at Kimpton Hotels, you have many more choices available. Kimpton has over 70 hotels in the U.S. with even more scheduled to open this year. This means that there are almost 100 hotels located in the U.S. where you can redeem your complimentary free weekend night.
How do you book Kimpton hotels using the IHG Ambassador complimentary weekend night?
To book your IHG Ambassador BOGO free weekend night, first, you must go to the IHG Ambassador portal and log into your IHG Rewards Club account.
1. Click on “Check Availability” to start the booking process.
2. Enter your destination, travel dates, and other travel details. I’m using Nashville for this summer since I’m always looking to support my local Kimpton Aertson Hotel. The people are awesome and they have a great rooftop deck and pool.
3. View hotel options. Notice that non-InterContinental and non-Kimpton locations have a grey bar advising that you cannot use the Ambassador complimentary weekend night at that hotel.
4. Click on “Select Hotel” to see room options and nightly rates.
5. Select your room and price. Notice that the website lists the full price for the reservation. Due to a system issue (that is being worked on), the reservation starts out at full price. The hotel will manually update your reservation to apply the Ambassador complimentary weekend night to reduce your final bill.
Which weekend nights count for the IHG Ambassador BOGO?
It seems that everyone has a different definition of the “weekend.” When redeeming the IHG Ambassador BOGO free weekend night, the weekend is defined as Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
In the Middle East, the definition changes a little. There, the weekend is defined as Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
To made this an even better deal, I just learned that you can use the IHG Ambassador complimentary weekend night benefit at Kimpton hotels any night of the week. That flexibility is huge!
How I’m going to use my IHG Ambassador BOGO free weekend night
I’m going to combine my IHG Ambassador BOGO free weekend night with points for an even longer stay. Since I have the Chase IHG Rewards credit card, the 4th night is free when redeeming points for your stay.
Once we can start traveling more again, I’ll take Anna on a nice getaway to the Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa in the Cayman Islands.
A 7-day, 6-night vacation will go something like this:
- Paid night
- Free weekend night
- Points
- Points
- Points
- Free
The actual order will depend on the dates that we travel. But, we’ll be able to get a 7-day, 6-night vacation for the price of one paid night and three nights on points. It will be an incredible redemption.
The Bald Thoughts
I’ve been an IHG Ambassador member for a couple of years now. Admittedly, I messed up and didn’t use the complimentary weekend night the first year since we were transitioning into our new home in Nashville. And now COVID has prevented me from using it so far this year. Now that Kimpton hotels and resorts are included in the available hotels, I’m even more glad that I’m an IHG Ambassador member.
With the addition of Kimpton hotels as a redemption option, does this make you want to sign up for IHG Ambassador status?
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I turned this into a huge weekend labor day staycation and double-birthday party.
I scored the Kimpton Shorebreak 2-bedroom waterfront suite for labor day with the ambassador certificate. On top of that, I booked a Reward Night room, which was upgraded to another oceanfront suite as part of platinum elite. Basically IHG Points + Ambassador Weekend Certificate = 2 best Kimpton waterfront beach suites. Sleeps 10, and one suite is over 1125 square feet! Savings was over $1000 considering the normal rate for a labor day Kimpton staycation/birthday party. I recommend calling IHG support to coordinate this, because they can do things we cannot through the booking app.
Yes, Ambassador is very worth it when applied to Kimpton. If you want to add in some friends, use reward night points to get an upgraded Suite via Platinum Elite status. Now that’s a staycation.
That is awesome, Phil. Kudos to you for booking such a great reservation. We used to go to the Shorebreak all the time when I lived in California. They were always so nice. Enjoy your stay! Thanks for sharing.