Bits: get a 100% bonus buying IHG hotel points, Hilton Nottingham adds a pool charge

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News in brief:

Get a 100% bonus buying IHG One Rewards points

IHG One Rewards is offering a new 100% bonus for buying points.

This offer runs to 2nd February.

The maximum number of points you can buy is 300,000 (ie 150,000 plus the 150,000 bonus). The minimum purchase to trigger the bonus is 30,000 points on my account but this could vary.

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With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy up to 300,000 IHG One Rewards points for (at current exchange rates for $1,500) £1,175.

I usually value IHG One Rewards points at 0.4p. You are paying 0.39p here so it is not necessarily a slam dunk unless you are just topping up your account. The skill is to use them at hotels where you can get substantially more than 0.4p per point of value, although this got a little harder since IHG moved towards revenue-based redemption pricing.

You can buy points via this link. You have until 2nd February to jump in.

Our full review of IHG One Rewards is here if you want to know more about how it works.

Get a 100% bonus buying IHG One Rewards points

Hilton Nottingham joins the list of hotels charging for pool use

A recurring theme on Head for Points over the last couple of years has been hotels which try to sneak though a charge for using their swimming pool.

Hilton appears to be the biggest culprit, and it is getting to the point where you need to be actively on the look out for small print when booking a UK Hilton with a pool.

Hilton Nottingham is the latest to jump on the bandwagon.

From 1st February, you will need to pay £10 per adult and £5 per child, although there is a £20 cap per family. This is confirmed on the hotel website here.

This gets you a 90-minute session for the hotel pool, sauna and steam room.

The hotel has confirmed that there will be no discount for Hilton Honors elite members.

The hotel is blaming ‘rising energy costs’, although this makes little sense as the health club is run as a standalone Livingwell facility with the majority of its users presumably being external paying members.

Category

Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards

Kev says:

27 Jan27 January 06:04

Many years ago access to a hotel gym pool and thermal area was granted as an elite (complimentary) benefit at SPG. It seems that some hotels are unmoved that they potentially lose elite members who want to use the pool and who can access similar elsewhere in town. Interesting that Q hotels (that have some Hilton & Marriott hotels in their portfolio) allow free access to leisure facilities at all their hotels as well as free dog stays.

Reply
Matt says:

27 Jan27 January 07:01

Cheap and nasty tactic that will run annoy many of the guests, who will hopefully leave a negative review…

Reply
CheshirePete says:

27 Jan27 January 07:01

At the Sofitel in Heathrow we refused to pay the charge they wanted as it’s a condition of being a 5* hotel to provide a Pool.

Reply
- Susan says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 07:22
  
  Where did you find that? It’s not in the UK Common Quality Standards.
  
  Reply
- JDB says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 07:35
  
  @CheshirePete – ‘Five Star’ is a very loose term used by many hotels of relatively modest standards. What ‘condition’ are you saying has been breached for you to refuse to pay a charge imposed on all guests?
  
  In principle it seems right and fair to have a charge such that the relatively small number of users contribute towards the huge cost of a pool as well as rationing use to make it a better experience for those users.
  
  Reply
  - Erico1875 says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 07:49
    
    Im not against this as long as its made clear at booking
    It would be helpfull to have an included and excluded rate
    Works with airlines to strip out every benefit but the bare flight and add on extras like luggage, seat selection, meals, ie Ryanair, Wizz Easyjet etc.
    
    Reply
  - BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 08:35
    
    On the spa page of the Sofitel LHR website it does say “additional charge”
    
    https://all.accor.com/hotel/6214/index.en.shtml#section-facilities
    
    And you can get room rates with spa access included under the “packages” tab
    
    Reply
    - meta says:
      
      27 Jan27 January 09:06
      
      @BA Flyer IHG Stayer There is nothing about the additional charge on the app. Most people nowadays book via app.
      
      Reply
  - CheshirePete says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 08:36
    
    It worked anyhow, for just a 10 minute dip, they are kidding it’s £30 for that on top of the high cost of the room rates.
    
    Reply
  - meta says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 09:05
    
    Not in this country, but in many countries by law you can’t have a five-star rating unless you have a pool free of charge for guests.
    
    Reply
    - Paul says:
      
      27 Jan27 January 09:27
      
      More evidence of the Wild West culture consumers face in the U.K. there are some consumer protections for some things but business either ignore them, procrastinate, or move heaven and earth not to comply. A hotel can cancel you booking without fear they have to relocate you, TFL don’t provide delay repay like other train operators, cruise companies can cancel on the day and you have no recourse.
      
      Reply
      - Roy says:
        
        28 Jan28 January 01:06
        
        TfL have delay repay on everything as far as I know. Certainly they do on the tube.
  - Swifty says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 10:24
    
    Umm no. It’s not a good or fair principle to me. I always choose a pool because I have a spinal cord injury and it’s the one exercise that I can tolerate pain-wise. It’s not fair or principled to charge me extra to use a facility (that I have already budgeted for when selecting my accomodation). Just take it one step further and say these are low cost carriers and pay extra to choose your room, thread count, pillow materials, want an extra towel? that’ll be another tenner, want to use lobby, extra fiver on your stay, need an alarm call, another fiver please. Service standards should be improving not declining!!
    
    Reply
  - Chrisasaurus says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 11:35
    
    Not saying you are right or wrong but sill wager that view doesn’t really work in practice.
    
    Given – as you say – the cost is pretty significant, it makes sense to distribute it across all guests as a means of incrementally increasing the value of the property in the market. (The challenge in a OTA-dominated world is how to do that effectively but that’s another discussion.)
    
    To actually have the pool funded entirely by pool users would mean no pool. You could then move to other parts of the hotel – many of those are used by a small subset but have significant costs too and then we’re individually paying for parking, gyms, concierge desk, night-time reception cover, and so forth and I don’t know as that’s where we want to go.
    
    Ryanair basically already do what y out describe (have users shoulder the cost and also use it as a means of impacting behaviours) and I’m fairly confident most in here are not huge advocates of it
    
    Reply
- Tom says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 14:51
  
  Lots of 5 star hotels do not have a pool. Some 3 star hotels have a pool.
  
  Reply
Michael C says:

27 Jan27 January 07:15

I mentioned on the Hilton forum that the London Waldorf webpage now says that its pool is “currently closed”, whereas the third-party operator says “permanently closed”.

Wonder if they’re looking for a new operator or/and will slap a charge on too?

Reply
- IainM says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 09:24
  
  I stayed at the London Waldorf in December. The pool is closed but I was told they have access, free of charge, to nearby pools and gyms for guests.
  
  Reply
  - Tom says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 14:54
    
    A “nearby pool” is not the same. I want to go to the pool in my robe and leave everything in my room.
    
    Reply
lcylocal says:

27 Jan27 January 07:16

It’s not the first example of this but I’m not sure why operators think people will chose a full service brand if they have removed or charge for every aspect of that service. At that point you may as well just book Premier Inn.

Reply
Nate1309 says:

27 Jan27 January 07:38

Stayed at the Hilton Nottingham many times, quirky rooms and nice breakfast. But I will be avoiding now completely. Sneaky charges like this need to be stamped out by people boycotting those hotels.

Reply
- N says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 07:55
  
  “Quirky” is very generous of you.
  
  I found their rooms tired and I was blessed with the ability of hearing everything happening in the room above AND next to me
  
  Reply
  - david says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 08:06
    
    But N, thats the quirk. All round communication.
    
    Reply
  - Paul says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 09:30
    
    I was blessed with what an attic room which has no more than 6 inches either side of the bed and a slopping roof. I recall it was described as a cosy room. Prisoners get more personal space!
    
    Reply
  - John says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 13:58
    
    They had a renovation recently
    
    Reply
Tony says:

27 Jan27 January 07:46

I’ve never used the pool/gym facilities at this Hilton but the hotel ranks up there as one of the worst in the UK. Like many uk Hiltons it’s tired and badly laid out, it doesn’t deserve to be a Hilton. The Doubletree on the edge of Nottingham is a much nicer place, although no pool.

Reply
- Nick G says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 08:19
  
  Amen to that! As someone who works in Nottingham I maybe be slightly tainted but I’ve stayed in both and the DT is way better but far out from the centre, which isn’t a bad thing….
  
  The Hilton Syon park used to be our choice and we’ve had several lovely stays there until they introduced the dumb charge for the pool. Never been back since and refuse to on principle.
  
  Reply
  - Chrisasaurus says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 08:31
    
    Even further from Nottingham too 🙂
    
    Reply
- TooPoorToBeHere says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 09:11
  
  > ranks up there as one of the worst in the UK
  
  An employer once booked me into a Comfort Inn in London which had fresh visible blood and bodily fluids on the bedding.
  
  The Grand Hotel Scarborough is still functioning.
  
  OP should check out some of the offerings of the Britannia chain, too.
  
  Reply
  - meta says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 13:20
    
    I stayed at Sheraton Grand Park Lane and upon opening the duvet, I discovered urine soaked sheets. Such occurrences are not exclusive to low end properties. It’s poor staff training and no supervision.
    
    Reply
  - Tony says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 15:58
    
    I was comparing it to other Hiltons not some crappy hotel you might have had the misfortune to stay in.
    
    Reply
Simon says:

27 Jan27 January 07:49

Rising energy costs? It’s not like they turn everything off when no one’s in there and quickly ramp it up again for those 90 minutes. I don’t know the maths but I imagine the cost of running a pool is pretty unrelated to how much it’s used.

I rarely stay at high end hotels but the one time I stayed in a fancy Marriot in Bali I felt like we were being nickel and dimed at every opportunity. Sounds like that aren’t the only brand that do it.

Reply
- david says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 08:07
  
  Which one was it as I am hoping to use some points there in Aug?
  
  Reply
  - Richard says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 08:15
    
    It’s hilton in the city centre. Not the DoubleTree on the outskirts
    
    Reply
  - Simon says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 10:34
    
    Assuming you’re asking me which Bali Marriot I was referring to it was the Renaissance Bali Uluwatu Resort. The drinks were extortionate, the restaurant menu was expensive and very limited, the place was nearly empty, the hard sold us hotel credit with a time limited deal, it’s in the middle of nowhere and transport is at a premium and the room had a view of a brick wall. We were supposed to stay 7 nights but we stayed two and checked out into some huts near the beach, much nicer.
    
    Reply
    - Tom says:
      
      27 Jan27 January 14:57
      
      All resorts are like that i.e. money traps with lots of junk fees like $25 per day for parking.
      
      Reply
      - Gordon says:
        
        27 Jan27 January 18:28
        
        Not all….I have stayed at many Hyatt properties around the world, Caribbean,Dubai,Mexico,Singapore and Bali. (Also the US which atm is expensive, but that’s the US now) to name a few, admittedly I didn’t have a car to park but I was not ripped off by fees. Believe me I’d be the first to complain if I thought the property was disproportionately charging me for a service. I am scheduled to travel in august to Kenya,Uganda and Rwanda for safaris, 3 weeks in total, and apart from the lodges in the Maasai Mara NP and Amboseli NP, have booked Hyatt properties where possible, I have checked ahead and I am confident that I will not experience any issues….

Bits: get a 100% bonus buying IHG hotel points, Hilton Nottingham adds a pool charge

Get a 100% bonus buying IHG One Rewards points

Hilton Nottingham joins the list of hotels charging for pool use

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