The IHG One Rewards program lets travelers start earning Milestone Rewards after just 20 nights at IHG properties in a calendar year. As you reach each milestone, you can choose from various perks. The options vary based on the milestone, but one option available at each tier is food-and-beverage rewards.
So, here's what you need to know about IHG's food-and-beverage rewards, including how to earn and redeem them.
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What are IHG food-and-beverage rewards?
IHG food-and-beverage rewards are credits you can apply against food-and-beverage purchases charged to your room at most IHG hotels and resorts. The types of charges eligible for food-and-beverage rewards vary by property. Still, restaurant purchases, in-room dining, minibar food and drink items, associated gratuity charges and some taxes are typically eligible.
However, you can't use IHG's food-and-beverage rewards for purchases at vending machines and gift shops, third-party outside food deliveries, restaurants that don't allow charges to a guest room bill and taxes associated with minibar charges.
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How to earn food-and-beverage rewards
You can earn food-and-beverage rewards through the IHG One Rewards program's Milestone Rewards. You earn Milestone Rewards every 10 elite qualifying nights each calendar year, beginning at 20 and continuing through 100 nights.
The Milestone Rewards choices vary as follows:
- 20 nights: 5,000 bonus points, two $20 food-and-beverage rewards or one confirmable suite upgrade
- 30 nights: 5,000 bonus points or two $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 40 nights (choose two): 10,000 bonus points, five $20 food-and-beverage rewards, one confirmable suite upgrade (limit one) or one annual lounge membership
- 50 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 60 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 70 nights (choose two): 10,000 bonus points, five $20 food-and-beverage rewards, two confirmable suite upgrades (limit one) or one annual lounge membership
- 80 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 90 nights:10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 100 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
As you can see, you could choose food-and-beverage rewards at each milestone. However, food-and-beverage rewards expire 12 months after selection.
IHG issues food-and-beverage rewards in various currencies based on your country of residence. For example, U.S. residents get $20, and Canadian residents get 25 Canadian dollars. If your country doesn't use one of the currencies IHG issues food-and-beverage rewards in, IHG will issue your food-and-beverage rewards in U.S. dollars.
TPG's September 2025 valuations peg the value of IHG points at 0.5 cents each. If you agree with this valuation, you should get more value from food-and-beverage rewards than bonus points at each milestone. However, you may want to select a confirmable suite upgrade or an annual lounge membership at select milestones if you believe these would provide more value.
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How to use food-and-beverage rewards
Now that you know how to earn food-and-beverage rewards, let's review how to use them. You can redeem food-and-beverage rewards when checked in to most IHG brands. The primary exclusions are IHG Army Hotels, select Six Senses locations, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts and InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Macau.
If you redeem food-and-beverage rewards at a property that uses a different currency than your reward was issued in, IHG will convert your reward amount to the hotel's local currency. And if you redeem a food-and-beverage reward for less than its face value — such as redeeming a $20 reward when you only have $15 of eligible food and beverage charges on your room bill — you'll forfeit the remaining value.
To redeem food-and-beverage rewards during a stay, open your IHG One Rewards app or log in to your account on the IHG website. If you go to IHG's website to redeem, click "See rewards" under the "Stay rewards and upgrades" tile of the "Enjoy your rewards" section on your account's homepage.
You'll see food-and-beverage rewards under the "Rewards to enhance your stay" section. Click "Redeem" on one of the food-and-beverage rewards to start the redemption process.
Select your eligible stay — Villa 77 at Six Senses Laamu in this case — and click "Continue to redeem."
On the next page, you'll see your food-and-beverage reward credit, your applicable charges and your remaining charges after the credit.
After reviewing the charges before and after the credit, scroll down, read the reminders and click "Yes, apply this credit to my bill" to continue.
Next, you'll see a page reminding you that you can only use each food-and-beverage reward once. Click "Yes, redeem this reward" to use your food-and-beverage reward.
On the next page, you'll see confirmation that IHG applied your food-and-beverage reward to your bill.
It's that easy. However, remember that if you want to use any food-and-beverage rewards for your stay, you must redeem them before checking out. You'll need to apply them one by one, even if you have multiple you want to apply to your bill.
Related: Why you should get (and keep) the IHG One Rewards Premier card
Bottom line
If you incur food-and-beverage room charges on at least a few IHG stays each year, choosing food-and-beverage rewards at some tiers will usually make sense.
I appreciate how quick IHG has made the redemption process for food-and-beverage rewards. To this point, it only took us about 20 seconds per reward when my husband redeemed 14 food-and-beverage rewards during our stay at Six Senses Laamu earlier this month.
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
