a close-up of a logo

How to Book Holiday Inn Club Vacations Properties with IHG Points & Free Night Certificates

Share this post

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  My friend Brian just told me that it is possible to use IHG Rewards Points and IHG Free Night Certificates to book rooms at Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties (the timeshare and vacation rental wing of IHG).  I never knew this was possible, but Brian sent me a list of tips in order to book the reservation.  Long story short, you can book rooms online with IHG Points (with all points or with Cash and Points), but if you want to use a Free Night Certificate, you will need to call IHG Reservations (877-318-5890).

To see the 28 Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties, you can view the map here.  This map is not super helpful, but don’t worry, I created a list of the 28 properties below.

a map of the united states

Here are the 28 Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties, listed alphabetically by the name of the resort.  (This page is not very helpful either.)

a screenshot of a website

Since the first 2 pages are not very helpful, I created this table with the 28 Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties sorted alphabetically by state and then alphabetically by city.  Click the resort names to see more information about each resort.

State

City

Resort Name

Arizona Scottsdale Scottsdale Resort
Florida Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral Beach Resort
Florida Marco Island Sunset Cove Resort
Florida Orlando Orange Lake Resort
Florida Orlando Orlando Breeze Resort
Florida Panama City Beach Panama City Beach Resort
Georgia Clarkesville Apple Mountain Resort
Illinois Sheridan Fox River Resort
Louisiana New Orleans New Orleans Resort
Massachusetts South Lee Oak n’ Spruce Resort
Missouri Branson Holiday Hills Resort
Missouri De Soto Timber Creek Resort
Missouri Kimberling City Ozark Mountain Resort
Nevada Genoa David Walley’s Resort
Nevada Las Vegas Desert Club Resort
Nevada Stateline Tahoe Ridge Resort
South Carolina Myrtle Beach South Beach Resort
Tennessee Gatlinburg Smoky Mountain Resort
Texas Canyon Lake Hill Country Resort
Texas Conroe Piney Shores Resort
Texas Flint Lake o’ the Woods Resort
Texas Flint Villages Resort
Texas Galveston Galveston Beach Resort
Texas Galveston Galveston Seaside Resort
Texas Holly Lake Ranch Holly Lake Resort
Vermont Brownsville Mount Ascutney Resort
Virginia Williamsburg Williamsburg Resort
Wisconsin Lake Geneva Lake Geneva Resort

Brian booked the Fox River Resort in Sheridan, Illinois, which looks like a very family friendly resort.  I decided to use this property as the basis for this post.  There is a Search Availability button in the lower right corner, but I will show you why that is not the way to go.

a screenshot of a website

Under Rate Preferences, there are only 4 options available – no IHG Rewards Points or IHG Free Night Certificates checkboxes.

a screenshot of a computer

Going down this path only shows you the various paid rates available, but no IHG Rewards Points or IHG Free Night Certificates options.

a screenshot of a hotel room

The next approach you might take to book the Fox River Resort in Sheridan, Illinois, is by searching on the IHG website.  Unfortunately, that resort does not show up in the list.

a screenshot of a hotel

The correct (and only) way to book a Holiday Inn Club Vacations property with IHG Points is to go to the main Holiday Inn Club Vacations website.  From there, you must select the resort from the drop down menu, then pick your dates, and then select Rewards Nights under the Rate Preference.

a screenshot of a web page

You will then see which room types are available using IHG Points.  If the rate is 40,000 IHG Points or less, you can use a Free Night Certificate, but you will need to call IHG Reservations (877-318-5890).  If you want to book with IHG Points or with Points + Cash, you can do that online.

a screenshot of a hotel

As you can see, there is no option to book with a Free Night Certificate online, you are only able to book with points online.  Here are the various Points + Cash rates.

a screenshot of a hotel registration

As mentioned earlier, I have 3 Free Night Certificates in my account, but there is no way to use them to book a stay online.  You have to call IHG Reservations (877-318-5890).

a screenshot of a website

Brian called IHG Reservations and was able to use 3 Free Night Certificates.  Here is a copy of his confirmation details.

Here are the tips and tricks Brian shared with me:

  • IHG may play games with availability based on check-in and check-out dates and not all rooms in a category will be available on points. Also, I looked at a few other resorts and found the room-type available on points varies from resort to resort – some places it is a 2-bedroom, but, other places, it is a 1-bedroom.
  • Some properties have a minimum stay requirement per reservation (for example, the property we booked has a 3-night minimum). So, if you search for fewer nights than the minimum, it won’t show any results and will, instead, show non-HICV properties in the area.
  • Availability to book with points is mixed – for better and worse. For better – the resort we booked had the 2-bedrooms available for 35k pts/nt (even though it has single-King and two-Queen “standard” rooms). For worse – availability on points seems more limited than some other IHG properties.
  • I’ve heard there might be a bit of sales pitch for HICV involved at the front desk at check-in.
  • Once I found a room (a 2-bedroom “villa” with a full kitchen, in our case) available on points (for 40k or less per night) for the stay I wanted, I could not find a way to use the certificates online to book.  So, I called IHG Rewards Club at 1-877-318-5890 and spoke with a very helpful rep.
  • The phone rep stated that, because of the minimum stay requirement per reservation, the rewards member needed to have the full number of certs required in their own account (so, no splitting nights between my certs and my wife’s certs because that would require separate reservations). Luckily, my wife had 4 certs (but, now we still have to deal with my cert expiring 12/31/21).
  • The phone rep also stated that one may need enough points for the entire booking to see availability in the search. However, I’m not sure this is true because it showed me points + cash rates that would require less than the full points rate.
  • In the end, booking over the phone was really smooth and took less than ten minutes.

I really appreciate Brian for sharing his tips and his experience booking a Holiday Inn Club Vacations property with me.  If you have IHG Points or Free Night Certificates, don’t forget about Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties.  It looks like you can find some great deals at some of these properties.  If you have any questions about the searching or booking process, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!


Share this post

9 thoughts on “How to Book Holiday Inn Club Vacations Properties with IHG Points & Free Night Certificates

  1. Clyn6

    Thank you for the informative article! I do have a question though. In a “normal, non-Covid affected” year, most people would have no more than 2 certs available if they had the old and the new IHG cards. So it sounds like if there was a 3 (or more) night minimum we would never be able to use certificates. (Unless we had more certificate extensions like we did for Covid.) Was there was not an option to use 1 or 2 certs and then points for the other night(s)?

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Clyn, I think the minimum number of nights depends on the resort and time of year, so it should be possible to use 1 or 2 free night certs at a resort. I haven’t called IHG to book any resorts with Free Nights Certificates so I’m not sure how strict the 3 night minimum is.

      Reply
  2. MissVacation

    I was able to search and book the Vermont resort with my free night certificate online via the normal IHG website. I guess some properties are available to be booked on IHG website.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi MissVacation, that is very interesting. I was able to check the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Mount Ascutney Resort in Vermont and it does look like you can redeem the free night certificate online. Good find! Did you see any other IHG resorts that can be booked online with free night certificates?

      Reply
      1. DJ

        I just returned from a 2 night stay at Orange Lake in Florida where i used my 2 Free Night Certificates. I booked this through the regular IHG app. Got a 2bd “bungalow” unit. Very nice stay at this expansive property. My only complaint is they make you pay for their tubes to use in the lazy river – you can’t bring your own!

        Reply
        1. Grant Post author

          Hi DJ, I’m glad you had a fun time at Orange Lakes and were able to use 2 IHG Free Night Certificates. Bummer you have to pay to use their tubes :/

          Reply
  3. Pingback: Best Fall Hikes, Gambling Traders, Bird Migration Maps, Hyatt Business Card - TravelBloggerBuzz

  4. Kerpal Singh

    It’s not true that you cannot book a night at a Holiday Inn resort online if using a Free Night Certificate. Maybe it’s dependent on the particular venue but the Holiday Hills resort in Branson, MO let me book a free night using my annual IHG night certificate online via the regular IHG booking portal.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Kerpal, thank you for the data point. I’m glad you were able to use your free night certificate at a resort property. Did you like your stay at that resort?

      Reply

Leave a Reply to GrantCancel reply