Best Places in the USA to use your IHG Free Nights – Beaches

TheAmericanTravelProject

TheAmericanTravelProject

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So, you** have some IHG hotel certificates (or lots of points) because of their latest Into the Nights promotion and/or because of the Chase IHG card that gives you a ‘free’ night each year (after the $49 annual fee). And you have a spouse with the same amount of nights/points in his account. You weren’t sure if you should participate in these promotions because people that you don’t even know trust have varying opinions about whether or not this is ‘worth it’. And because they seem to think their ideas of worth are always correct, you doubt yourself. You need to do some research to figure out what is right for you, because you are the one who will be laying your head on that Holiday Inn pillow on 2 different Saturday nights (or at least checking into the hotel and leaving, after going in to the room to mess up the bed and make it look lived in. Just in case the hotel police decide that no one really stayed in that room last night). You decide that this is worth it to you.

But where are you going to go with all of these ‘free’ nights you have accumulated? You could stress yourself out about it. All the cool kids are using their nights at the bazillion dollar over water bungalows in exotic far away places. I mean, it’s the best value, right? But then you have to actually get there. And have the time and energy to fly for 17 hours with 2 young kids. Okay, plan B. You could go to Europe. There are tons of expensive places to use your nights there. And IHG hotels are known for being more family friendly, especially in European countries where many other hotel rooms are the size of a small doghouse. But then you remember that you have a goal to visit all 50 US states, and Europe isn’t part of the US (yet). So where, in the United States, can you find decent places to redeem these ‘free’ hotel nights? You don’t want to be one of those people who use theirs for an $80 a night hotel in a nowhere little town (even though that’s where your travel plans are taking you). You need to be smarter than that. You need to game the system and get the best.deal.ever for fear of losing your membership in the we-are-better-smarter-trickier-than-you-travel-club (otherwise known as flyertalk).

Well, my friend, you don’t have to fret. I have done all some of the research for you. If you are looking to use your nights for family travel with the USA, these are some options. Of course, it is impossible to put a value on these & I won’t even try. Your travel dates and circumstances will be different than mine, so the value of these ‘free’ nights will vary greatly. I have stayed at some of these places (using certs or points), and the value for us has always been really good. Some of the hotels were going from $300-400 per night on the nights that we stayed. Others are less expensive, and that’s OK too. You just have to do the math for your dates to decide if using points or certs makes sense.

Truth be told, when I am looking for IHG hotels, I am mostly focusing on the location. I have stayed enough times in each of their brands to pretty much know what I’m going to get. Some hotels are better maintained, cleaner, and friendlier than others, of course. I generally weed through Tripadvisor reviews to pick out any major issues (those reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt, but you get used to reading through them after a while & they can be helpful in a general way). I also like to browse through the photos on Tripadvisor because there are often hundreds of reviewer photos, which are more helpful and accurate than the professional photos taken by the hotels themselves.

As I was doing my (hours and hours of) research, I realized that there are tons of great choices. This post is specifically focused on family-friendly, USA beach locations. My other posts will focus on other types of locations. We typically travel during high season, which means school vacations and summer. That is when the rates tend to be highest and using points/rewards can be a great value.

IHG often runs promotions to make it potentially easy to earn nights/points. In case you are unaware of ways to earn these free nights with this current promotion, here are some of my favorite posts on the topic:

Also, you can (as of this writing) get 80,000 IHG points and a ‘free’ night each year (after $49 annual fee) with the Chase IHG card using this link. On the IHG website you will find a lesser offer, for only 60,000 points. My husband and I each had gotten and 80K card with that link & it was working at the time that we got the cards (things can change though, so I suggest you check this flyertalk thread for the latest info before applying).



IHG Hotels on the Beach -

(my criteria for this is oceanfront or very close to the beach)





**when I say ‘you’, I actually mean me





The post Best Places in the USA to use your IHG Free Nights – Beaches appeared first on The American Travel Project.

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