Bottom Line

The IHG One Rewards Premier Business card is a long-term keeper for one simple reason: The free anniversary night (worth up to 40,000 points) more than offsets the $99 annual fee.

• A high sign-up bonus, currently 140,000 points (sometimes as high as 175,000).
• 4th night free on award stays, meaning if you book 4 consecutive nights with points, the 4th night is free.
• No impact on Chase 5/24 status, making it a great business card for those nearing their limit.

Why You Might Want This Card

If you’re looking to diversify beyond Chase, Amex, and Capital One, and want a hotel-specific card, IHG is a solid choice.

• 140,000-point sign-up bonus (we’ve seen it as high as 175,000) with a reasonable $4,000 spend in the first 3 months.
• $99 annual fee, easily offset by the free anniversary night (worth up to 40,000 points).
• 4th night free on award stays — unlimited use and stackable, meaning an 8-night stay would get you 2 free nights.
• Platinum Elite status, as long as you hold the card.
• Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS statement credit.
• 5x points on travel, gas, dining, social media/search engine advertising, and office supply stores.

Exceptions To The Rule

About IHG Rewards

The IHG Rewards Club offers points toward a substantial network of hotels, including Holiday Inn, StayBridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental and Hotel Indigo. It’s one of our personal favorite cards because you have options in more than 5,400 properties in approximately 100 countries, including hotels in major cities like New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris and London.

Once you pick your stay, there are 4 membership levels to benefit from, each with its own perks: Club, Gold Elite, Platinum (which comes with the IHG Chase Visa) and Spire Elite. Earning is super easy through hotel stays within the IHG network, and on everyday purchases with partner vendors like GrubHub, OpenTable and Hertz.

Points can be transferred to more than 200 partner airlines -- but you'll lose 30% of their value. It's an option if you need to get that last-minute flight or if you're desperate to use your account to ensure that your points won't expire after 12 months of inactivity.

But the best redemption will be for hotel stays. When it comes time to book, make sure to check out the IHG PointBreak list that comes out every few months, where you can book hotels starting at just 5,000 points per night and extend your stay with your anniversary night and your fourth night free bonuses that come with the IHG Chase card.

(WRITER’S NOTE: While traveling through France, we were able to use our complimentary anniversary night in the beautiful city of Lyon. We stocked up on stinky cheese, delicious local wine and warm, fresh bread -- and took it all back to our beautiful hotel room. The room was exceptional: a loft layout with plenty of room for 4 more people, even though it was just the 2 of us. Everything was great. But upon check out, they actually charged us the extremely high one-night hotel rate, claiming they didn’t have any record of it being my anniversary night booking. We paid it with our card and when we got back to the States, we called the card company. Here is where a potentially extremely frustrating situation turns to our favor... It was a total of a 5-minute phone call and with a very apologetic tone the IHG rep sent out a check with the total amount of the hotel stay. So, not only did we walk away with 10x points per $1 from “paying” the nightly rate with our IHG card, but we also got completely reimbursed with no hassle. We’re all human and no system works flawlessly, but it sure is nice when customer service actually caters to … customers).

Where IHG One Rewards Premier Business Fits In This Point Ecosystem

The IHG One Rewards Premier Business card, which has the exact same benefits as the personal Premier card but won’t count against your 5/24 status, is great for those looking for a hotel specific card but don’t have the bandwidth for a personal card. If you don’t have a side hustle or small business that qualifies for obtaining this card, and you are below the 5/24 threshold, there are two personal card options. The first is the IHG One Rewards Club Premier, which has (almost) the exact same benefits as this card, along with the same sign-up bonus and $99 annual fee. The IHG One Rewards Travel card is the other option. It does not have an annual fee but also does not have the one night free perk that both the Premier personal and business cards have. The sign-up bonus of 80k points (on $2k in spending in the first 3 months) is significantly lower than both Premier’s current sign-up bonuses of 140k. The only reason to get the no fee Travel card is if you don’t plan on keeping the card long term and don’t generally stay at IHG properties but would take advantage of the sign-up bonus for a few free nights at some point.

Personal Experience