Since my last post about getting cashback when booking Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) and their brands Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, etc, it has now been withdrawn from the cashback sites in the USA as well. Although my cashback booked at the time is still showing as tracked.
It only seems to remain now on the ‘lower profile’ cashback sites, including one in the UK paying 3.1%…..
The best cashback site I can see for IHG remaining is the rather curious imutual.co.uk.
They are currently paying 3.1% cashback, but they also give you shares in the company. These shares are, for all intents and purposes, probably not going to be worth anything at any time. But it IS an interesting model. (Just to be clear, the cashback is paid as money NOT shares!)
Make sure you search for “InterContinental Hotels Group” when using the site. Searching for their brands individually (e.g. “Holiday Inn Express”) will not find the you the link out. when you have clicked out, you can book stays at properties under any IHG brand.
If you want to sign-up to imutual, please consider using my referral link, thanks. (All I earn is shares – which I don’t think will ever be worth anything – but thanks anyway).
Mr Rebates
Also a big thank you to those of you who used my referral link to Mr Rebates. This USA cashback site WAS paying out on IHG at 6% until recently.
All my own transactions have tracked properly, at the correct rate, so I hope yours have too. As IHG has now gone from there, I’m going to let them ALL post (up to 3 months) rather than racing to do my first cashout (via PayPal) urgently to demo the whole process.
If anyone has already cashed out via PayPal let me know how you got on. I expect to take a small hit in Paypal fees, and also a CCY conversion hit, but still to be above 4.5 or 5% at least!
Finally, as always, worth saying again: Never rely on cashback. It is not guaranteed. If you would suffer without the cashback, don’t do the deal.
iMutual were offering cashback earlier today, but it now seems to have disappeared (they are still available on the site but with zero cashback)
Hi Andrew, Thanks for pointing letting me know. Pity.
I still remain a little bit hopeful/confident that IHG will return once they have finished sorting themselves out a bit, possibly as an exclusive deal with a couple of cashback sites.
However because of the recent massive curtailing of the availability of their 2-4-1 rate (it seems to actually require the advance purchase period that it specified now), I’m giving my 241 nights to ClubCarlson (with Gold status from either the Amex plat or a status match) and cashback.
Also despite the HH points devaluation, the 12% effective cash-back has swung it for a number of single night stays.
http://www.ukpoints.com/2013/05/29/hilton-cashback-now-available-in-the-uk-at-12-percent/
Heck for cheap bed for the night, Accor are now getting business from me at airport IBIS hotels(!) which would have previously gone to IHG. This was simply due to the higher cashback rates available for Accor (higher than imutual were paying on IHG) coupled with lower room rate. Now that the IHG cashback has gone completely, IHG won’t be getting much from me I fear.