How IHG Auctions Work: Bid Now, Redeem Now, Rules
IHG auctions are IHG One Rewards' own bidding marketplace, where members spend points rather than cash on one-off experiences: a dinner up the Eiffel Tower, a tea ceremony in Tokyo, suite tickets at golf and football matches, hotel-anchored getaways in Mexico. IHG has run them since 2015 on a dedicated site, officially branded IHG One Rewards Access (auctions.ihg.com), and a free IHG One Rewards account is the only thing you need to bid. If you came for the current slate rather than the rules, our live IHG One Rewards Auctions page carries every live IHG auction we track, refreshed through the day. This guide is the explainer that sits behind it.
IHG has 22 auction lots on the board today. What follows is the newcomer's walkthrough: the two listing formats, the bidding rules that catch people out, what the slate actually looks like, and what lots close at. If the whole idea of bidding points is new, start with how point auctions work, then come back for the IHG specifics.
What IHG auctions are, and who can bid
The short version: IHG One Rewards members can spend points on one-off experiences through a dedicated auction site, separate from ordinary hotel redemptions. Membership is the only entry requirement, IHG One Rewards is free to join, and you sign in with your regular IHG account.
A slice of the slate goes further and is reserved for IHG One Rewards Credit Card holders. You will see it in the title, as "IHG Cardmember Event" or "Mastercard Cardholder Exclusive", and the card is a real gate rather than a soft preference. We cover that tier separately in IHG Cardmember Events, explained.
Under the hood, IHG runs on the same iSynApp auction engine as several other hotel programs, including Hilton Honors Experiences and Wyndham Rewards Experiences. That matters for one practical reason: proxy-style bidding, the closing extension and the points-balance requirement behave the same way across all of them, so if you have bid one, IHG will feel familiar.
Bid Now and Redeem Now: the two buttons
IHG offers experiences in two formats, and telling them apart is the first skill to learn.
| Format | How it works | What you pay | In our data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bid Now | Auction: you bid points against other members over a set window, and the highest bid when the clock finally stops wins | Whatever the auction clears at | Auction |
| Redeem Now | Fixed price: set points cost, visible quantity, claimed first come first served, no bidding | The stated points cost, deducted right away | Buy It Now (BIN) |
We classify Redeem Now lots as Buy It Now (BIN) listings in our data, the same way we treat any non-auction listing. The mix rotates: some weeks IHG leans on auctions, others on fixed-price drops. Either way the discipline is the same, because on this platform both buttons are commitments. For the full side-by-side, including which one to pick when the same experience appears as both, see Redeem Now vs Bid Now.
How IHG auction bidding works
The load-bearing rules, from IHG's own auction FAQ and terms (verified as of July 2026 at auctions.ihg.com):
- Bids move in set increments, stated on each lot. The increment is the minimum number of points required to top the current high bid, and IHG states it on the item description. Treat the number on the specific listing as authoritative; it is not one flat figure across the platform.
- You can set a maximum bid and let the system work. The platform accepts a maximum and bids on your behalf in increments, only as high as needed to keep you in front. Set your true ceiling once, early, and stop watching.
- You need the points in your account. IHG requires enough points to cover your bids, and if you are bidding on several lots at once, enough to cover all of them. You cannot bid against points you plan to earn later.
- The five-minute extension means sniping does not work. IHG's Auto Bid Extend rule: a bid placed in the final five minutes extends the close by another five minutes, and the auction only ends once bidding has been quiet for a full five minutes. Swooping in at the buzzer just buys everyone else more time.
Winning is automatic and binding. If you are the winning bidder, the points come out of your IHG One Rewards account automatically. Per IHG's terms, rewards redeemed or won on the platform cannot be exchanged, modified, cancelled or refunded, and there are no refunds on winning Bid Now bids or Redeem Now redemptions. The one carve-out: if a component of an experience becomes unavailable, IHG reserves the right to substitute something similar or refund points partially or fully, at its discretion.
That last rule is the one to sit with. A maximum bid entered "just to see" is a real commitment if it wins, so decide what the experience is genuinely worth to you first. Our guide to running the cents-per-point math before you bid is the five-minute version of that homework.
What is actually on the block
Here is what makes IHG's slate distinctive among the programs we track: it is genuinely worldwide, and most of it is accessibly priced. Where some programs anchor on seven-figure marquee lots, IHG's typical page is city experiences across four continents, usually alongside a few hotel-anchored packages (InterContinental getaways, voco stay bundles) and sports hospitality.
In the first week of September 2026 the 14 live auctions sat in the US and UK, running from 45,000 to 135,000 points while bidding was still open: a Thames sightseeing cruise in London, a French Quarter food walk in New Orleans, a Red Rock Canyon horseback ride and barbecue in Las Vegas, an Edinburgh castle walk. The live block below is the current version of that list.
Two reading-the-page notes worth knowing:
- Lots sometimes appear before bidding opens. IHG lists some auctions as opening soon with no countdown running. They are real, just not biddable yet, and the number shown is a starting bid rather than a live one.
- Near-identical titles are separate lots. IHG regularly posts several packages under the same title, and our own archive shows what that costs a careless reader: two "La Paz Snorkeling Weekend Adventure" auctions each sold for 90,000 points, closing two days apart, and two "Horseback through Agave Weekend Experience" lots each sold for 70,000 points, six days apart. Four separate packages, four separate winners, not two lots counted twice. Read the description and the dates on each one.
If you hold, or are considering, InterContinental Ambassador status, the hotel-anchored lots get more interesting, because an auction win and Ambassador's benefits compound at the same property. We map that play out in the InterContinental Ambassador auction stack.
What IHG auctions close at
IHG publishes no results page for closed auctions, so a winning bid is not a number anyone can simply look up. Our own nightly runner fetches each ended lot's page and reads the winning bid off it, and that is what earns the "verified" label. Where a lot's page cannot be read after close, the best we have is the last bid we saw while it was still open, and we label those separately rather than pooling the two.
As of September 2026 we hold 32 trusted IHG closes: 40 with a verified winning bid, and two more where the best we have is the last bid we observed before the lot closed. Across the verified set the median is 67,500 points and the spread runs 6,000 to 252,000 points. The top of the archive is hospitality at the A-League Grand Final, which sold for 252,000 points on two bids; marquee travel packages and sports hospitality are what push a lot into the low six figures, while everyday city experiences settle far below that.
The accessible end is what makes IHG worth watching. A Lyon wine and gastronomy evening sold for 6,000 points against a single bid, a Singaporean cooking class for 20,000, a Bangkok dinner cruise with a dance show for 21,000, and both a Tokyo kimono tea ceremony and a Sydney Harbour sunset dinner cruise for 25,000.
Two caveats before you use any of that as a benchmark. IHG surfaces a bid count on only some lots, so we hold one for 8 of the 32 trusted closes, averaging 4.8 bids: a hint that IHG lots are quietly contested rather than a measured competition level. And two of the 32 are last-observed bids rather than confirmed finals, so those two are floors, not results.
The rest belongs on one page rather than this one. The lot-by-lot list, every close we hold a price for, and the shape of the whole distribution are in the archive: what IHG auctions closed at. For how the numbers are captured and how IHG compares with the other programs we track, see closing-price data by program.
What is live right now
A snapshot of the IHG lots closing soonest:
If the slate above is quiet, here is where IHG bidding recently landed:
You can browse the full slate on our live IHG One Rewards Auctions page, or jump straight to every live IHG lot in search.
How to place your first IHG bid
- Get the points into your IHG One Rewards account first. You cannot bid without covering the bid, and parallel bids need parallel coverage.
- Identify the format. Bid Now is an auction; Redeem Now is a fixed-price claim that deducts points immediately. Pick your lane before clicking anything.
- Check eligibility on cardmember lots. If the title says cardmember or cardholder exclusive, that is a real gate.
- Set an honest maximum and let the proxy bid for you. The five-minute extension makes last-second sniping pointless, and a win is final.
- Run the value check against the cash price of the experience before you commit.
Common questions about IHG auctions
What are IHG auctions?
IHG auctions are point auctions run by IHG One Rewards on its own site, where members bid points instead of cash on experiences: tours, dinners, sports hospitality and hotel-anchored getaways. Any IHG One Rewards member can bid, and the highest bid when the clock stops wins the lot.
Do you need an IHG credit card to bid?
Not for most lots. A free IHG One Rewards membership is the only requirement on the general slate. A separate tier of listings is reserved for IHG One Rewards Credit Card holders and says so in the title.
What do IHG auctions close at?
As of September 2026 the median across the verified IHG closes in our archive is 58,500 points, and the spread runs from 6,000 to 252,000 points. City experiences tend to settle in the low to mid five figures, while travel packages and sports hospitality reach the low six figures. The lot-by-lot detail is in the IHG closed-auction archive.
Can you cancel a winning IHG bid?
No. Per IHG's terms, a winning Bid Now bid and a Redeem Now claim are both final: rewards won on the platform cannot be exchanged, modified, cancelled or refunded. Treat your maximum bid as points you have already spent.
Does sniping work on IHG auctions?
No, and that is by design. IHG's Auto Bid Extend rule pushes the close out by another five minutes whenever a bid lands in the final five, and the lot only ends after five quiet minutes. A late raid gives everyone else time to answer it.
The bottom line
IHG's auction platform will not make headlines the way a seven-figure Formula 1 lot does, and that is arguably its charm: a rotating, worldwide slate that a normal points balance can actually win. You can watch every live point auction across the programs we track on PointAuctions.com, or see what IHG auctions closed at before you set a maximum.