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Hotel redemption guide on London New Year’s Eve
London New Year’s Eve, thanks to the famous fireworks show, attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. If you are looking for a hotel on that night, you should act as soon as possible, especially if you want to burn some points.
[Marriott]
Marriott London County Hall is the best hotel for watching the fireworks show, and redeemable with points. The redemption price has gone up a little bit this year, from 100K to 106K, but it’s still great value compared to the £1,500 NYE package rate.
Award availability is temporarily blocked right now, but my friend did manage to grab a room a few days ago. I believe more availability will be released in the future – in fact last year it was even bookable on the day.
Marriott London County Hall is inside the Fireworks Zone. The hotel will send you the wristbands a couple of days ahead by courier, which you’ll need to travel in and out of the zone freely. You can chill in your hotel room until the firework starts, and then walk to the White Zone, which is one minute away, to enjoy the show. Fireworks can be seen from rooms with London Eye view too, but don’t expect any upgrade on that day.
I have a couple of friends who stayed here on the 2023 NYE. To be honest the viewing angle from the White Zone is far from ideal, but it is an experience nonetheless.
[Hyatt]
Hyatt “poached” two Crowne Plazas last year, which happens to be the only two London IHG hotels that I liked. The former Crowne Plaza Albert Embankment, to be re-opened as Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment, is already bookable for NYE.
It costs 20,000 points which isn’t cheap, but acceptable for a special occasion. Interestingly, Twin Room with River View (priced at £500+) is available for the same amount of points, although I don’t think you can see any fireworks from the room.
Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars has a better location, but it’s not bookable yet and we don’t know its redemption category.
[Hilton and IHG]
Somehow most Hilton hotels in central London have already sold out. The only sensible redemption right now is the Westminster, a Curio hotel. It’s a newly-renovated hotel, converted from a Doubletree, but at 60,000 points it feels a bit steep.
In terms of IHG, the only economical option left in central London is Holiday Inn Oxford Circus at 32,000 points. There were many more better options when I checked last week:
- Staybridge Suites London Vauxhall – 34,000 points
- Holiday Inn Express London Victoria – 19,000 points
- Hotel Indigo Tower Hill – 25,000 points
But the availability has gone now. Keep checking as they might come back, but I’m most certain that it’s just going to get more and more expensive.
My review of InterContinental San Francisco
Having been a software engineer for almost ten years, it’s weird that I’ve never been to San Francisco or the bay area. Now that I got laid off I finally have time to go on a pilgrimage 😛
Compared to LA, hotels in San Francisco are much more friendly priced, and you can find a pretty decent hotel for around $200. I decided to redeem my IHG BOGO voucher here, and there are two InterContinentals in the city – one in downtown for which I’m going, and the Mark Hopkins hotel at a less convenient location for tourists.
The hotel is about eight-minute walk from the Powell Street metro station, which takes you directly to the airport.
At 33 floors high, the hotel stands out in the immediate neighbourhood.
The entrance is small but elegant. The ground floor is a big open space with reception, bar and restaurant.
Like many other InterContinental hotels, or hotels in general in the States, the hotel has so many different rooms types that I lost count. I ended up booking Premium West Side View as it’s price difference from the entry-level room isn’t much. I was upgraded one-level to the corner room.
The receptionist greeted me warmly, and I didn’t have to ask about the Diamond breakfast benefit or 4pm late check-out.
Before I was let go, he went to the back office and returned with a bag of welcome gift. To my slight disappoint it’s only two bottles of water 😛 They also sent me a bottle of Evian the next day.
The corner room is quite impressive at first glance. The hues and finishes are soothing.
The highlight of course, is the 180-degree floor-to-ceiling windows and the views that come from it.
You don’t normally get a chance to be so up high in Europe. It’s a shame that San Francisco doesn’t have so much of a skyline, and the hotel isn’t close enough to the coast.
The curtains are electric and you only need to give it a pull for it to open or close by itself.
There is also a view from the bathroom. But beware of the construction workers on the crane!
One motivation for me to pick this hotel was its swimming pool and jacuzzi.
They are fine. But the hall is quite old and so small that no loungers can fit in. It’s weird that there’s not even any place to sit in!
The gym:
The club lounge:
I was given a voucher which entitles me to the breakfast buffet.
The whole buffet well, is spread across one single table.
There aren’t many choices as you can imagine, but they do offer congee which is a nice touch.
There is an a-la-carte menu but payable. According to the voucher taxes are not included, but I didn’t have to pay anything when I checked out.
InterContinental San Francisco isn’t the best hotel you can find in town, but I love the corner room and don’t miss out if you admire a view.
IHG Q1 offer: 2,000 points for every two nights
IHG has an ongoing targeted offer until the end of January. Just as expected, a global promotion will follow suit in February.
The promotion page isn’t live yet, but you can already sign up via this page. The offer details are:
- Stay between February 9th and April 14th
- Earn 2,000 bonus points for every two nights
- The nightly rate need to exceed $30
It is a bit… boring, especially when compared to the extremely rewarding offer they had at the end of last year. Don’t forget to sign up however, if you have any paid stays with IHG coming up.
IHG flash sale is back! 20% off all reward nights
Well, I just saw some very heated discussions on a Wechat group, and then realised IHG has brought back its very popular reward night sale!
From what I have gathered so far:
- 20% off all reward night bookings globally
- Book by January 20th
- Stay by March 10th
- Max. 3 consecutive nights (so not stackable with Chase’s 4-for-3 benefit)
The booking page thanks me for being a (Chase) cardmember, but I think many non-cardholders can see the discount too. It’s unclear what the selection criteria are, as I’ve seen all Diamond, Platinum and even Gold members being targeted.
The offer is only live on January 9th (hotel local time). You can already book Europe and Asia, and UK is coming soon in 15 minutes.
Accompanied with such offer there is always a good chance to buy IHG points cheaply too, and here are some examples:
- Holiday Inn Express London Stratford 06/03- 0.475c
- Holiday Inn Express Dubai Safa Park 28/01 – 0.475c
- Crowne Plaza Istanbul Florya 01/03 – 0.448c
- voco Paris Montparnasse 18/02 – 0.46c
IHG Q1 offer: 3,000 points for every two nights
IHG has revealed their Q1 offer (possibly targeted), and you can register now.
- Stay between January 1 and February 8
- Earn 3,000 bonus points for every two eligible nights
- Valid three times (i.e. maximum 9,000 bonus points)
As usual, an eligible night is a paid night that costs at least $30 booked via official IHG channels.
I received this offer via email, and the wording suggests it might be targeted. Anyway, don’t expect another global promotion from IHG until February 8.
Hurry! InterContinental Da Nang for 16,000 points
IHG’s IT has been playing up again recently. A couple of days ago InterContinental Bora Bora was up for grabs for only 16,000 points per night but when I learned about it it was too late.
InterContinental Da Nang, Vietnam is now running the same “flash sale”:
It appears that all reward nights are priced at only 16,000 points. You can find scattering dates in April and October, and scarcer availability in other months. For the last-minutes dates in December, the rate goes as low as 14,000 points.
I booked four nights to take advantage of my Chase benefit:
InterContinental Da Nang is generally regarded as one of the best InterContinental resorts in the world, and its nightly rate is usually $500+. Hurry up!!
IHG offering 3,000 birthday bonus points
I just celebrated my birthday in a quarantine hotel, for which I received a lot of spam commercial emails as usual. If I remember correctly, last year IHG offered me 1,000 straight points, but they are adding a twist this year.
I received an email inviting me to sign up to their birthday offer:
Once enrolled, I need to complete a paid weekend stay to earn 3,000 bonus points. A weekend stay is defined as a stay of minimum two nights, and at least one night is on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
If your birthday just passed or is around the corner, try signing up to the offer here. It appears that many members that should be eligible failed to go through though, so I guess IHG still needs to sort out their IT.
IHG Cyber Monday: 10k points for every two nights
As we have revealed earlier, IHG has now started their lucrative Cyber Monday offer.
The offer page is here, and you can register here.
- Book on November 28 and 29
- Stay by December 31
- Earn 10,000 bonus points for every two qualifying nights
A qualifying night is a paid reservation booked via official IHG channels and the nightly rate should exceed $30. It is a great offer, especially considering that it could stack with the current global promotion, which means you earn 30,000 bonus points for every four nights stayed.
There are two other Cyber Monday offers:
Up to 25% off select catalogue items. However it is still one of the worst ways to spend your IHG points.
25% off Points & Cash bookings:
- Book by December 2
- Say in January & February
- 25% off the cash component of Points & Cash bookings
As we’ve discussed many times, such sales present an opportunity to buy cheap IHG points. In theory it could be as low as 0.42c per point this time, but the usual suspects (InterContinental hotels in Macau) are not open for reservations.
(UPDATE: the following hotels may be available on certain dates:
- Holiday Inn Express Tianjin Airport East 0.46c
- Holiday Inn Express Preston South 0.45c Feb 27
- Holiday Inn Warsaw City Centre 0.46c Jan 21
- Holiday Inn ANA Sendai 0.43c Feb 23
Try other dates if the cheap rate isn’t available anymore on the specified date.)