There's No Single IHG Gift Card — Try One That Covers More

Try to buy one card that covers every Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental on the planet and you'll discover the odd truth: IHG doesn't sell it. There's no single, official group-wide gift card — only individual brand cards that box you into one chain, and a popular third-party "IHG" card that, funnily enough, books well beyond IHG anyway. Which rather gives the game away. The IHG gift card alternative most people actually want is a card that books any hotel, not just one group's, and we'll book you a room with that idea in a moment (sorry).

If you came here to buy a gift and leave, here's the version your recipient will thank you for: a card locked to one brand is a smaller gift than it looks, and there's a flexible option that covers IHG and roughly 1,400 other chains.

You can buy something called an IHG gift card, but it pays to know what you're actually getting.

IHG Hotels & Resorts — the group behind Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Kimpton, voco, InterContinental and Regent — does not run a single, group-wide consumer gift card you can buy on ihg.com and spend at every brand. Some individual brands have their own programmes (Kimpton, for example, sells its own IHG gift card redeemable at participating Kimpton hotels and restaurants). And IHG One Rewards members can swap loyalty points for third-party retailer gift cards (Apple, Starbucks and the like) through the rewards catalogue — useful, but that's points-for-shopping-vouchers, not a hotel card you hand to someone.

The product most people find when they search buy IHG gift card is run by a third party, Hotelgift, on an Expedia-powered platform. Here's the twist: that card is "not limited to IHG hotels." It can book IHG brands, but also more than 750,000 other properties worldwide. So the headline IHG gift voucher most shoppers buy isn't really single-brand at all — which rather makes the case for skipping the brand framing entirely.

In plain terms: there's no neat official IHG card spanning the whole group, brand-specific cards box you into one chain, and the popular third-party version is a general hotel card wearing an IHG badge.

The first thing to understand about where to buy an IHG gift card is that there isn't one official group-wide card to buy at all. IHG doesn't sell a single consumer card you can spend across every brand. What exists instead is a handful of separate routes: a few individual brands — Kimpton being the obvious example — sell their own gift cards redeemable only at their own participating hotels and restaurants, and IHG One Rewards members can convert loyalty points into third-party retailer vouchers through the rewards catalogue, which is shopping credit rather than a hotel card you can give.

The card most shoppers actually find is a third-party product, sold by Hotelgift on an Expedia-powered platform and dressed in IHG branding. It's offered online rather than through any official IHG counter, so you buy it from a reseller wherever that platform operates, with the currency and delivery options the platform supports. Tellingly, that same card isn't limited to IHG hotels — it books hundreds of thousands of properties well beyond the group — so the "IHG" label tells you far less about where you can stay than you'd assume.

Two items, three or more differences — so here's the table.

The honest version: if the person you're buying for only ever stays at Holiday Inn, a chain card is fine. For everyone else, locking the gift to one group narrows their choices before they've even unwrapped it.

When you give a hotel gift card, you're really handing someone the freedom to choose where they go — so the card shouldn't decide that for them.

The Getaway Gift Card works across 3,000,000+ properties in 190+ countries and 1,400+ hotel chains. That includes IHG brands, and it includes the roughly 1,399 chains an IHG card can't touch. The recipient picks the hotel, the city and the dates — a city overnight, a weekend break, or a longer stay if you were feeling generous.

You buy it in two minutes, send it digitally or as a premium printed card, and add a personal message. They redeem it whenever they're ready, without being funnelled into one brand's booking flow. No guessing which chain they like. No region lock surprising them at checkout. The thought, the personalisation, and a stay at a hotel they actually want — that counts more than a logo.

Yes, in a fashion. There's no single official group-wide IHG card on ihg.com; instead there are brand-specific cards (such as Kimpton), points-for-retailer-vouchers via IHG One Rewards, and a third-party IHG-branded card that actually books well beyond IHG.

Not as one unified consumer product across all brands. Individual IHG brands run their own gift cards, and IHG One Rewards lets members redeem points for other companies' gift cards. The Getaway Gift Card covers IHG brands and 1,400+ others in one card.

It depends which one. The popular third-party IHG card is valid for stays in over 170 countries via its platform, but brand-specific cards may be region-limited. The Getaway Gift Card works across 190+ countries by design.

Through the third-party hotel-gift platforms rather than a dedicated IHG shop, with the platform handling delivery and currency wherever it operates. If you'd prefer a card that isn't tied to one chain, the Getaway Gift Card is sold online and delivered digitally, so where you happen to be doesn't get in the way.

A brand-agnostic hotel gift card. The Getaway Gift Card books IHG brands plus 1,400+ other chains across 3,000,000+ properties, so the recipient chooses the hotel rather than the chain choosing for them.

It varies by issuer, which is exactly why the small print matters. Always check validity before you buy — and favour cards with a long or generous window.

If you want one card that covers IHG and almost everything else, buy a Getaway Gift Card and let them pick the hotel. New to how these work? Start with the complete guide to hotel gift cards, then see exactly how to redeem your hotel gift card. One gift, 1,400+ chains, zero brand lock.