IHG is the chain you end up in without planning to: Holiday Inn Express near the airport, Crowne Plaza for the conference, an InterContinental when someone else is paying. Across Asia that adds up to many nights spread thinly, which loyalty programmes reward least and explain worst.
IHG publishes a benefit-by-tier grid rather than a brochure. Read down the column you are in and most of the marketing falls away.
The five tiers
The programme runs Club Member, Silver Elite, Gold Elite, Platinum Elite and Diamond Elite. Club Member is what you get for signing up, and IHG describes it in one sentence: “Get access to benefits from day one.”
The names say little. The grid shows where each benefit switches on, and they do not arrive evenly.
Points expire until you earn status
In IHG’s own table, the row “Points Don’t Expire” reads Not included for Club Member and Included for Silver Elite, Gold Elite, Platinum Elite and Diamond Elite.
Protection from expiry is a benefit you have to earn. If you have never reached Silver, you do not have it. That hits hardest the traveller with a scattering of Holiday Inn nights across a few years who assumes a slowly growing balance is safe.
Free breakfast is a Diamond benefit, not a Platinum one
The Welcome Amenity row in the grid:
- Club Member, Silver Elite and Gold Elite: not included
- Platinum Elite: “Points* or drink/snack”
- Diamond Elite: “Free breakfast, points* or drink/snack”
Breakfast appears once, at the top tier, and even there as one of three options. If you have picked IHG over a competitor on the assumption that Platinum gets breakfast, the table does not support it.
Where the useful benefits switch on
Three rows decide whether a tier is worth chasing, and all three switch on late.
- Complimentary upgrades are not included at Club, Silver or Gold. They begin at Platinum Elite, “subject to availability”.
- Reward Night Discounts also begin at Platinum Elite.
- Guaranteed Room Availability reads “72 hrs” at Platinum and Diamond and is not included below. It is the benefit that matters on a work trip into a city during a trade fair.
Rollover Nights toward next year’s status start at Gold Elite. Free internet and Member Rates are included at every tier including Club, so they are no reason to chase a tier.
What the points are for
IHG states that Reward Nights start “at just 10,000 points” and are available “at over 6,000 global destinations”, with no blackout dates listed at any tier: “Stay when you want, with no blackout dates on Reward Nights.”
A 10,000-point floor with no blackout dates is a firmer promise than most programmes make, and it makes IHG points worth holding even if you never reach Platinum. Without status, though, they are on a clock.
What each tier costs
The tier-benefits page gives no price. IHG publishes it in its member terms and conditions, as a table with two routes to every tier:
| Silver Elite | Gold Elite | Platinum Elite | Diamond Elite | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elite Qualifying Nights | 10 | 20 | 40 | 70 |
| Elite Qualifying Points | n/a | 40,000 | 60,000 | 120,000 |
Silver is nights-only. Above it either route works, which helps anyone whose stays are expensive rather than frequent.
Three rules attached to the table favour the member:
- Status lasts longer than the year you earn it. Once earned in a calendar year, “the status will be maintained through the end of the following Calendar Year.”
- Excess nights roll over. Qualifying nights “in excess of the number required for Gold Elite, Platinum Elite, and Diamond Elite status will rollover into the following year,” though rollover nights from a previous year do not roll again.
- Reward nights count. Nights paid with points “count as Qualifying Nights towards Elite membership qualification,” which makes a points balance a route to status as well as a reward.
One rule runs the other way. Booking two rooms for yourself does not double your credit: “Only one night per day will count as a Qualifying Night.”
For earning, IHG states the base rate: “Members earn ten (10) Points per US dollar or local currency equivalent on Qualifying Stays at most IHG branded hotels and five (5) Points per US dollar… at Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites properties.” Only Elite Qualifying Points count towards status, and IHG splits points into qualifying and non-qualifying, so a promotional balance is not automatically progress.
These are the current published thresholds, not a permanent promise. Check your own account’s status page for where you stand.
For which chain to concentrate on, see the big hotel programmes across Asia. If you already hold status elsewhere, status matching is usually a faster way in than earning from zero.
Corrections
18 September 2026. This page said IHG “does not publish what each tier costs in nights or points” and declined to state thresholds on the grounds that a guessed one is worse than none.
The caution was right and the conclusion was wrong. IHG publishes the thresholds in its member terms and conditions: 10, 20, 40 and 70 Elite Qualifying Nights, or 40,000, 60,000 and 120,000 Elite Qualifying Points above Silver. The table was on a different page of the same site.
The rules governing those numbers are now above too. Three of them favour the member: status runs through the end of the following calendar year, excess nights roll over, and reward nights count towards qualification.