How to Book Reward Hotel Nights and Resort Stays

Lesson 8: How to Book Reward Hotel Nights and Resort Stays

Free hotel stays usually have better availability than business or first class airline tickets.

One thing I try to do is always get at least 1 cent per point. So if the hotel stay is $100 I’d like to redeem 10,000 points.

Many people in the travel reward community value Hilton and IHG points much lower, at around 0.5 cents per point. So if they can redeem a $100 hotel stay for 20,000 points, they will view that as a fair value.

You will have to decide for yourself what you value points at. There are many point valuation guides available on the web, just give it a Google.

How to Book Free Nights at Hilton

The website and app are both very useful for making bookings. I actually like the app more since it’s a pretty seemeless experience.

Here’s my booking of 5 nights at the Queenstown Hilton Resort in Queenstown, New Zealand through the Hilton Android app, which I think is fantastic:

Make sure you select “Use Points”
I picked the Resort
Don't be distracted by the rooms that are 3x the price. You should get upgraded anyways since you are a Diamond Member with the Aspire card
Again, select the Points rate, not the cash rate. You'll get free breakfast as well as a Diamond member
Notice that since this was a 5 night stay, I was only charged for 4 nights. Pretty awesome!
On the website you can see the green banner that says “When paying with all Points, every Fifth night is FREE!”

Note that I’m staying for five nights but only being charged for four. Remember that Hilton offers a fifth night free when redeeming four nights.

On this example redemption above, a King Hilton Guestroom would have been NZD$2,967.77 at the Hilton Honors Flexible rate for 5 nights. $2967.77 NZD = $2026 USD / 240,000 points = .8 cents per point.

.8 cents is much better than the .5 cents many people value Hilton points at, but not quite the 1 cent per point I look for. Regardless, this is a great booking and when I head to Queenstown I will definitely book this resort on Hilton points.

If you can manage a fifth night and it fits your travel plans, turn any four night stay into a fifth night for no additional points.

Do not book booking the higher level rooms. If you have a AMEX Hilton Honors Aspire card (with the annual fee waived, of course) you’ll be Diamond Elite and likely to be upgraded to a suite or at least

You’ll also get a free annual weekend night with the Hilton Honors Aspire card. Make sure you use this as it expires after a year! This can be a tremendous value as it’s a free night at any Hilton in the world, including some of the $1000+/night properties.

How to Book Free Nights at Marriott, SPG, and Ritz Carlton

Again, you have the option to book on the website or app. Both offer good search options. On the website you can search by month which is great to see availability and points required for your flexible travel plans.

Marriott Spg Flexible Dates
Click “Flexible dates?” to see a calendar of availability
Marriott SPG availability calendar points redemption
The calendar should look like this

How to Book Free Nights at IHG

Make a booking for through the app or the website. Both are pretty easy to use and find the property you want.

Continue to the best credit card offers this month or the optimal order to open military credit cards in.