Latest update: The price for a standard room has now increased to 120,000 IHG points per night, which would cost $600 during one of the very frequent IHG 100% points sales.
The best hotel deal in the Maldives?
Did you know that you can book a fully refundable stay at the Intercontinental Maldives in an Ocean Pool Villa with breakfast and Club benefits for $500 per night! (…even though the normal price is closer to $1300 per night)
What really sets this deal apart is the fact that EVERYBODY gets an included breakfast, afternoon tea and 2 daily hours of free flowing cocktails, cheese and canapes. Not only that but the restaurants at this hotel are charging very reasonable prices for lunch and dinner too.
Having spent inordinate sums of money on food and drink at the Conrad Maldives and even more ludicrous sums at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, I can tell you that this really adds up otherwise!
When I visited in April of 2021 I found that prices at the Intercontinental were on average around 50-70% of what they charge at the two Hilton properties above.
Seaplane transfers are an additional $600++ per adult and $300++ for children. That’s an unfortunate inevitability of staying at any Maldivian resort that isn’t close to the capital (and all of its shipping tankers and long haul airplane traffic).
So how do you book this fully refundable stay in a Maldivian ocean pool villa, with tons of extras for only $500?
Step 1.
Log into your IHG account and Check reward night availability at the Intercontinental Maldives by clicking the image below. (If you don’t have an IHG account yet, you can follow the instructions on IHG.com to create one quickly for free)
Select the dates you’re interested in (maximum 5 nights) and in the Rate Preference box, select Reward Nights.
Click search to see if the nights are available. If they are, you’ll see a screen like this:
If your nights are available continue to Step 2. Otherwise search for different dates!
Step 2.
Let’s assume you have no IHG points. IHG Regularly sell their points with a 100% bonus, meaning you can buy the 100,000 points needed for each night, for $500!
Click the image below to go to the Buy Points page.
Click Pay Now to instantly purchase the points you need
Step 3.
Repeat Step 1. but this time you can complete the booking since you’ll have all the points you need!
Step 4.
Start looking forward to a trip in which you can enjoy perfect social isolation in your own little slice of paradise!
11 Comments
If you decide to go cash rate there is an offer to save 15% using MasterCard.
Great, tip! Not quite as cheap but good to know when award availability returns to normal.
There have been times in the past when the mastercard discount has gone even higher if I remember correctly. I remember getting the second weekend night at 50% off at one stage…
Just read is only applicable for European stays but still ok if you want to book using cash rate.
It was in my IHG account, should be in everyone’s by now!
What’s your gut feeling about staying at this resort after staying at the WA & Conrad Maldives?
The package is unbelievably good value.
Got our 2nd trip to Conrad Rangali next Feb booked & saving for the WA.
I’m really interested to compare this to the others and see if the value is really as good as it seems!
The Waldorf hard product is clearly going to be superior but when I was there I really missed the wild and natural feel of the Conrad.
For me what will be most interesting will be seeing how the Club concept is executed. The fact that every single guest gets breakfast afternoon tea and 2 hours of cocktails regardless of cocktails is very interesting indeed. I imagine that overcrowding will never be an issue because the number of guests enjoying the benefits is always equal to the number of guests at the hotel – unlike the Hilton resorts where there can be significant fluctuations in the number of status holdings guests.
I will definitely be buying Ambassador before this stay. $200 seems like a great price for a guaranteed villa upgrade and 4pm checkout – let alone the two free nights!
Would this offer not stack with AMB free night?
I looked up using a UK free night voucher at this resort but did not accept even though it showed available on redemption of points?
Rob from HFP didn’t know why as the UK card voucher is supposed to be applicable at all hotels worldwide.
Rules and regulations say that any reward night should be bookable using the voucher.
Two agents were unable to apply it directly despite ample reward night availability.
I convinced the second one to use a workaround: he converted my voucher into 100,000 points and booked it that way.
Heh hey, what a result, voucher turned into points, only you could manage that! 😆
So, with uk voucher used, AMB etc, what is your full itinerary Inc points used for how many nights inc cash cost outlay?
I’m hoping in 2x years time the WA Maldives will be more established, they are offering King Reef Villa with Pool for 120k a night at the moment.
Haha, where there’s a will there’s a way!
Right now I have four nights booked.
One with the certificate turned into points
Two with points I had (I pay my rent on the IHG mastercard)
One with purchased points.
Total cash outlay $500
If I get Ambassador it’ll go up to $700.
No flights or other hotels booked. That’ll come later…
Im doing AMB next year but using 40k ihg points as they come free every month! 😉