Called to check on transferring to IHG points - current pricing is $19 + $5 per 10K with a $69 minimum.

Called to check on transferring to IHG points - current pricing is $19 + $5 per 10K with a $69 minimum.  Ratio is 5:4, so $69 and 100K HICV gets you 80K IHG points.  You can use current year points until 10/1 and future year points by prepaying maintenance.  It takes up to 3 business days to transfer, so you can't use it if you need to book right away.  

I did a cost analysis and the value is not tremendous.  Based on what I pay for my HIVC points, if you transfer 100K, I come up with around $33 per 5000 IHG points - so $66 for a 10K room and $99K for a 15K room.  No hotel taxes on hotel rewards redemptions, so the pricing is usually better than you could get by booking directly, but not as good as something like Priceline.  I just stayed in a 15K room that was out of rewards bookings for $79 including taxes via Priceline, but on Orbitz the price was $160 (~$190 with hotel taxes), so if you are scared of the uncertainty of Priceline, then it's not too bad.  

I maintain balances in Starwood, Hilton, and Club Carlson so usually I can find a much better value than IHG points provide, but a 10K room would be comparable in my cost for a 10K Hampton stay, which we do occasionally in areas that don't have Starwood or Club Carlson properties.  I value other points based on 2% credit card rewards, since I can shift spend from 2% cash back cards to points cards as needed to maintain points balances.  We regularly stay in 3K Four Points rooms ($60 at 1pt/$), 15K Country Inn & Suites rooms ($60 at 5pt/$ for 2 nights with Gold card and 2nd night free), and 10K Hampton rooms ($67 at 3pt/$).  All three programs have a category cheaper than this, but we almost never stay in places that have such rooms, so I am guessing that IHG would rarely be the best value.