Is the cost of becoming a shareholder worth the value you get?
As far as travel hacks go, this is an outlier, but it could, in some very niche cases, be a useful one. The value you get depends on your travel plans, and the benefits that come from being a shareholder will not be useful for everyone.
An important disclaimer
This article talks about buying shares, specifically the shareholder perks. The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Discussing the travel benefits of owning a specific stock is not an endorsement of that company’s financial health or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold its shares. Investing in the stock market involves risk. The value of your investments can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than your original investment. Never invest money you cannot afford to lose.
There is also the real likelihood that the perks may change, or the required amount of shares may change. Companies may get bought out, or divisions may be sold.
Get access to discounted rates with IHG
Being a shareholder in IHG (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Kimpton, to name but a few brands) gets you access to a simple perk: a shareholder website that claims to offer 15% off the best flexible rate. There is a publicly visible shareholder hotel search that allows you to search for rooms.
I had a look at room rates for a stay in Manchester, on a Friday night in November, at the Holiday Inn in the city centre. Hotels.com’s lowest price was £185 on a non-refundable rate. That did not include breakfast. The shareholder website quoted me £175, and that did include breakfast, and could be cancelled up to midnight the day before I was due to check in.
A one-night stay at the Holiday Inn at London Heathrow would save me £3 on the room rate, give me the same cancellation policy (one night before versus no cancellation on Hotels.com), but not give me free breakfast.
However, bookings on this special shareholder rate will not give you any IHG rewards points.
The cost of the IHG discount
All-in, the cost of achieving this perk is relatively low (especially when compared to the others, below). In total, I’d estimate it to be around £160. That’s the cost of one share (currently £105), broker fees, and the additional cost of getting a paper share certificate. That part is critical, as you can only access the shareholder rate if you have a paper certificate. That will require some communication with the broker.
What’s not clear is whether you actually need to be a shareholder.
The shareholder rate is only visible via the link I shared above. If you use the booking section on the IHG homepage, then that is not one of the rate options. However, as with all discounted rates, the hotel is within its rights to ask for proof when you check in. It is likely that when you check in, the staff member will be prompted by the system to check eligibility.
I am in no way endorsing the use of this rate if you are not a shareholder; it’s just odd that there is no gating on the perk.
Getting free breakfast at Premier Inn
If you own 64 (or more) shares in Whitbread plc, then you’re entitled to get a shareholder benefits card. Although that suggests a raft of perks, the reality is that there is only one, related to Premier Inn.
Shareholder benefits cardholders can get free breakfast every morning for themselves and one guest. That guest could be in your room or staying in a separate room on that booking. There is no mention in the terms around limits on the length of the stay. It simply says “…for each night of your stay…”.
You show your card at check-in (and it has to be the card itself, not a copy) and they will confirm the offer. It does state “at participating hotels” and “subject to availability”.
The actual cost of the shareholder benefit card
At the time of writing 64 Whitbread PLC shares would cost £1,671.04 at face value. Breakfast costs up to £14 per person at a Premier Inn, although it can be as cheap as £11. Let’s take £12 as the median (the highest breakfast costs tend to be at specific airport locations in London).
That means you’d need to get a whopping 139 breakfasts just to break even. If you’re getting free breakfast for a guest too, that’s 70 nights. Spread out over multiple years, and that becomes more achievable, but still a stretch. There are, of course, no guarantees that the perk will continue for multiple years, or they won’t change the terms on it.
If you happen to be staying a lot at a Premier Inn then this offer may make some sense. For most people, it’s simply too high an outlay.
Get Accor Gold for up to two years
Accor shareholders will have their status upgraded to Gold until the 31st of December the following year, meaning that if you were to purchase shares and register them with the Accor Shareholders Club in January, you would get two years of status.
The perks of being Gold are mixed. There is no free breakfast at that tier, although you do get a room upgrade to the next room category (subject, as always, to availability). You can get either early check-in or late check-out (also subject to availability), and you do get a welcome drink.
The cost of achieving Accor Gold
At the time of writing, you need 50 “bearer shares” or 1 registered share. Given that Accor is a French company, it is nearly impossible to do the latter, so you’d have to buy 50 shares via an online broker, get a formal certificate of ownership and then submit that to the Accor Shareholders Club online. 50 shares would cost around £1,750 based on the share price at the time of writing this article.
It is very difficult to find value from a two-year Gold membership. However, if you happened to be a French citizen, buying one share would cost you around £38, and one room upgrade could mean that you break even, or even profit from this.
The reality of shareholder perks
There is little above to be excited about, and virtually no reason to invest in a travel company in order to just get the perks except in very specific circumstances.
The lowest bar, in terms of cost, is the IHG perk. If you happen to travel a lot to their brands, and you don’t carte about getting IHG points, then it may be useful for you.
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