IHG PointBreaks: Two nights for 9,000 points!

I booked two nights in the Holiday Inn Greensboro Airport for just 9,000 IHG Rewards Club points!

I have written in the past about PointBreaks, an IHG Rewards Club promotion that offers award nights at select properties for 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points. The company publishes a quarterly list of these properties. Most are fairly run-of-the-mill locations that I would not describe as "destination" properties, though there are often a few top-shelf hotels in each quarter's list. Two years ago, I was able to book two nights in the Holiday Inn Greensboro Coliseum for 5,000 points per night. 

Yesterday I was catching up on my favorite travel blog (other than mine, of course!), One Mile at a Time, and saw that the fall/winter 2017 PointBreaks list was out. Checking the IHG site, I found another Greensboro Holiday Inn! My football road trip travels this fall will have me in Greensboro two nights. These rates were available beginning yesterday, so this morning I snagged two nights at the Holiday Inn Greensboro Airport for a total of 10,000 points. At a value of 0.7 cents per point, these nights will effectively cost $70. 

I had already booked the Residence Inn Greensboro Airport for those nights in order to take advantage of Marriott's current MegaBonus promotion. Staying at the Residence Inn would have earned a free night, but being able to get two nights for the equivalent of $70 was like getting a free night since I was going to pay $103 per night at the Residence Inn. The deal is actually a little better. One of the benefits of my Chase IHG Rewards Club Select MasterCard is a 10% points rebate on points redeemed at IHG hotels. This means that my total outlay for the two nights will be only 9,000 Rewards Club points at a value of $63! That's from a credit card that also offers a free night on your cardholder anniversary, all for a $49 annual fee.

I hate to lose out on the free Marriott night as I could have potentially used that for a much more expensive night than $103, but, as they say, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. If I travel during the Christmas holidays, Marriott's MegaBonus promotion will still be active so I may still be able to score a free night.