Last year, an English rugby fan landed in Sydney during the British & Irish Lions Tour expecting a standard airport transfer. After 24-odd hours in the air, he would have been forgiven for thinking the jet lag was already creeping in prematurely when former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper pulled up at Arrivals in a Defender, ready to take him to InterContinental Sydney.
At check-in, Lions prop Andrew Porter took charge of Hanlen's luggage, while teammate Tommy Freeman stepped behind the reception desk to welcome him and walk him through a bespoke itinerary. Then came Finn Russell, who delivered a signed Lions jersey, a custom bathrobe, and a match tour ball, all hand-delivered to Hanlen's room by Hooper.
And whilst this bespoke experience isn’t exactly an optional add-on during the regular season (believe me, I checked), it’s certainly a crucial insight into just how far hotel loyalty has moved over the past decade, where experiential travel – the reason we get on a plane – has become as much about a look behind the rope to the world’s biggest events as it is about the quality of stay.
Formula 1 has gone furthest down track, with garage tours and paddock passes now standard currency for returning guests through loyalty schemes and premium credit cards, and with the Rugby World Cup arriving in Australia next October, IHG Hotels & Resorts – the same group that’s hosted the national team since the early 2000s – wants members to treat the hotel as a passport to the event as much as a place to sleep.
“When our partnership started with Rugby Australia more than two decades ago, the arrangement was largely an accommodation partnership – with teams and officials hosted across our portfolio of hotels,” Dean Jones, IHG’s VP Commercial for East Asia & Pacific, says.
“What’s changed is how we think about the whole partnership ecosystem, which has evolved from a logistics arrangement into a multifaceted platform for our loyalty members to get closer to the game.”
Access, it would seem, has become an increasingly important commodity for any hotel group looking to entice guests into their rooms.
After all, Jones reveals the latest Bledisloe Cup release sold out in less than 24 hours, selected Lions Tour tickets went in 30 minutes, and members redeemed more than 8.9 million points on packages over the course of the Tour.
“Guests choose a hotel for all sorts of good reasons – convenience, location, price, their loyalty points – and we want to earn that choice every time,” Jones says.
“Access and experiences add an emotional layer. Sports partnerships are one of the most powerful tools we have for building that connection, because they tap into something people already care deeply about.”
For fans, that access comes in the form of IHG One Rewards Access, which lets members spend points on Field of Play access, Captain’s Run moments, and ticket-and-stay bundles.
The fastest-selling packages are often Category A tickets, Jones reveals, rather than the more elaborate behind-the-scenes experiences. For members, the appeal may be less about an exclusive encounter than the chance to secure a good seat at an event that has otherwise sold out.
“IHG One Rewards Access has opened up experiences ranging from major cultural festivals to behind-the-scenes sporting access, and members are choosing to bid or buy on those in growing numbers, right alongside the free nights and upgrades they've always loved," Jones says.
“When you sell out a run of Wallabies tickets in under half an hour, that tells you access has become a currency of its own for a lot of our members.”
IHG is not alone in this space, however. Marriott, Hilton, and Accor have all developed their own ways of connecting members with sporting and cultural events, and where a grid walk or a stadium tour might once have felt genuinely distinctive, it’s encouraging more hotel groups to now compete for the same moments; access alone becomes a harder proposition to own.
“Our goal is to keep raising the bar on experiences that feel exclusive and culturally relevant to the moment – as opposed to growing simply in volume,” Jones says. “Looking at the entire guest journey around an event and asking where else we can add something only IHG can deliver?”
The real test will come in 2027, when IHG becomes Official Hotel Partner of the Men's Rugby World Cup in Australia.
With 24 teams, 52 matches and seven host cities from Perth to Sydney, the tournament offers something a single Test or touring series cannot: close to six weeks of supporters moving between destinations, potentially booking several stays along the way. After two decades of partnership, it’s a rare opportunity for the group to turn that history into something enduring, giving fans another reason to choose IHG long after the final whistle.