IHG One Rewards dropped its award chart for dynamic pricing. Here’s what that actually means for your points’ value in 2026, and how to turn them into cash instead.
For the complete picture — how the program earns, how to redeem, the sweet spots, and what a balance is actually worth — read the full IHG One Rewards guide.
IHG used to publish a fixed award chart — you could look up a hotel’s category and know exactly what a night would cost in points, the same way many hotel programs still work. That chart is gone. IHG now runs fully dynamic pricing: every property, every night, prices in real time against cash rates, occupancy, and demand.
That’s not automatically bad for members — it means budget properties can drop as low as 5,000 points a night when demand is soft. But it also means the ceiling has quietly moved up at the properties people actually want to redeem for. IHG had an unofficial cap of roughly 120,000 points a night at non-resort InterContinental hotels; that ceiling doesn’t hold anymore. The InterContinental London Park Lane has been observed pricing some nights at 160,000 points — a meaningful jump, and a preview of where dynamic pricing tends to drift once the chart guardrail is gone.
Averaged across how people actually redeem, IHG points work out to roughly 0.5 to 0.6 cents each in 2026. That’s on the lower end compared to major airline currencies, and it’s a number that can move against you the longer you sit on a balance without a specific redemption in mind.
IHG’s monthly Points Break promotion discounts a rotating list of hotels to below their normal dynamic price, and it remains one of the more genuinely underrated ways to get outsized value from the program. The catch is timing — Points Break properties are announced with limited notice and go fast, so it rewards members who are actively watching the promotion each month, not people who logged a points balance two years ago and haven’t thought about it since.
If that’s not you — if you don’t have the bandwidth to track a monthly promo calendar for a hotel points balance — Points Break isn’t really available to you in practice, even though it exists on paper.
IHG points build up two ways: stays at Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, and the rest of the IHG portfolio, and IHG-branded credit card welcome bonuses and everyday spend. (Our IHG One Rewards guide walks through both earning paths in detail, along with the elite tiers, the 4th-night-free cardholder perk, and the 12-month inactivity clock that can quietly wipe a balance out.) A lot of IHG balances exist because of the second path — someone opened an IHG card for a sign-up bonus or the free-night perks, used it for a while, and never quite got around to booking a redemption that made sense at the properties they’d actually want to stay at.
With dynamic pricing now the norm and premium properties trending upward in cost, that “I’ll use it eventually” balance is worth measurably less to redeem today than it was a couple of years ago — while a cash offer for the same points doesn’t move against you the longer you wait to decide.
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No — IHG moved to fully dynamic pricing years ago. Award costs move with cash rates, demand, and season at every property instead of following a published chart.
Roughly 0.5 to 0.6 cents on average, though the real number depends heavily on which property and dates you’d redeem for — dynamic pricing means the value isn’t fixed.
At premium properties, yes — IHG’s old informal ceiling of around 120,000 points a night at non-resort InterContinental hotels no longer holds; some properties now price well above that on high-demand nights.
Yes. You don’t need a redemption plan — just an IHG One Rewards balance and a few minutes to get a quote and verify.
Cash For My Miles buys IHG One Rewards points directly from members. You’re selling your own points — no fees taken from your payout. This article is general information, not financial or travel advice; IHG’s dynamic pricing and program terms can change at any time.
