New from IHG Rewards: Points for Takeout and Dining Out

In a first for a hotel-loyalty program, IHG Rewards Club has partnered with Grubhub, the mobile food-ordering service, and OpenTable, the provider of online restaurant reservations.

Effective immediately, IHG Rewards Club members can earn 500 points for their first completed OpenTable booking made through IHG channels, 300 points for subsequent bookings made at IHG hotel restaurants, and 150 points for other restaurant reservations.

The OpenTable tie-up initially applies to U.S. bookings, but will be extended to the U.K. and Australia by the end of 2017.

For Grubhub orders, program members will earn 500 points for the first transaction, and 250 points for subsequent orders placed via IHG channels. Note, however, that points will only be awarded for orders placed during an IHG hotel stay.

IHG channels include the IHG mobile app, the IHG website, and IHG Connect, the on-property Wi-Fi experience at IHG properties.

This is smart marketing on IHG’s part. The points are more piddling than they are prodigious. But OpenTable and Grubhub are services that travelers are likely already engaged with, and bringing them into the IHG Rewards Club fold makes good business sense.

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.