We've all been seduced by the promise of a rebate—only to have that unmailed rebate form wither away on the to-do pile until the promotion expires. But here's a vacation rebate offer worth making a priority: The InterContinental Hotels Group—which includes InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites—is offering a “Vacation Pay” promotion that rewards guests for weekend stays. Here's how it works: You stay at any of the 4,400 partipating hotels for two consecutive weekend nights (Friday, Saturday or Sunday). Afterward, you fill out a rebate form and Hoilday Inn will send you a $75 MasterCard gift card. You can use the two-night deal up to four times, to receive a max of $300 in rebates.
The nice thing about a big-brand promo like this: The options are massive, running the gamut from the luxurious to the super-budget, and when searching destinations you can add sorting features such as hotels with pools, free meals for kids, or the company's family-friendly Kid Suites.
And while a $75 rebate for two nights only works out to a theoretical $37.50 discount each night, that can make a decent dent, depending where you stay. In Boston, for instance, the Intercontinental goes for about $360 a night in summer but we also found a Holiday Inn Express with easy access to downtown and Fenway Park, for $153 a night—where $37.50 amounts to a 25% discount. In Los Angeles we found the retro-hip-looking Holday Inn Universal Studios - Hollywood—near the theme park, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater—with a rate of $239 a night for a Kids Suite, which features a partitioned area with bunk beds, games and a DVD/CD player (regualr room rates start at $204 a night).
The rebate is available for weekend stays through August 31, 2011. You can book online or call hotels individually, after completing the registration page; next, you you download a rebate form from IHG’s online rebate center, and mail it in after your stay.
