Back in November I wrote about a crazy expensive Chase IHG Rewards Club Anniversary Free Night we weren’t booking.

With Kim’s anniversary free night expiring, this led us to book an unnecessary (and expensive) night at  the Intercontinental Times Square. I used my anniversary free night  recently at Holiday Inn Express Charleston Downtown.

We usually look at two criteria when booking our anniversary free night.

1. We look to stay at a nicer property than we’d typically pay for
2. Use the free night towards a trip we are planning, not plan a trip around it

I just received an e-mail from IHG. The message was something of a heads up to let me know that my Anniversary Free Night was coming my way within the next 30 days. (Each year Chase IHG credit card members get one free night at any IHG hotel. All you have to do is pay the $49 annual fee.)

This is welcome news…

I’m planning to combine my Anniversary Free Night along with the two free nights that I received for participating in the Into the Nights promotion.

The plan is to use the 3 free IHG nights that I have along with Kim’s Anniversary Free Night during our trip in August to Abu Dhabi and beyond… There seems to be a lot of decent options for some pricey hotels in the region.

How do you usually use your IHG Anniversary Free Night? Besides the locations listed above, in the past I’ve used mine at the Intercontinental Singapore and the Intercontinental ANA Tokyo.