Get A Free Hotel Stay: My Favorite Sweet Spots in The Major Hotel Loyalty Programs

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Sweet spots in the major hotel loyalty programs can get you your next free hotel stay.

I love free travel.

It seems controversial to talk about free travel, but it really isn’t.

People follow points and miles blogs to get their next free trip.

One of my favorite things in free travel is free hotels.

I love hotels, and I love free hotels even more.

Although I think people should definitely save their points for aspirational properties like a Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, or Waldorf Astoria, there are other uses of your points.

All your hotel redemptions do not have to be aspirational.

In my five years in the points and miles hobby, I have had over thirty free hotels.

That is not as good as I can do either.

Two of those years were technically taken off travel.

I only stayed at a couple of hotels per year during this time.

I am used to staying at fifty hotels a year.

I am a blogger.

I stay at mostly Hilton or Marriott upscale chains too.

So, it was really more like thirty hotels in three years.

I know more today, so I definitely can do better than that again.

Sweet spots in hotel loyalty programs helped me easily get some of these thirty free stays.

There are only so many hotel credit card sign up bonuses you can get.

After that, how do you get your next free hotel?

Sweet spots in hotel loyalty programs are the answer again.

Here are some of my favorite sweet spots in hotel loyalty programs that will easily get you your next free hotel stay.

My Favorite Sweet Spots In Hotel Loyalty Programs That Will Easily Get You Your Next Free Hotel Stay

1. Hilton Points + Cash

Hilton points and cash is one of my favorite ways to use Hilton points.

Although Hilton points are easy to acquire, they can cost a lot to redeem.

Their most aspirational properties like the Waldorf Astoria are usually around 95,000 points.

That is for one night.

Although the chart says Hilton hotels start at 5000 points, there are very few of those and the sweet spot to get the most value for your Hilton points is the 40,000-50,000 point range.

You might not get as much value for less than 40,000 points.

So, cash and points has got me some great redemptions.

For instance, a couple of years ago, I had an aspirational Waldorf-Astoria stay in Chicago with points + cash.

The usual cost for that is around $350-500 plus taxes.

I redeemed 35,000 points & paid $150 cash.

That was a $500+ hotel stay with taxes for $150.

The normal redemption for that with points is 95,000 points.

I used the Hilton advance calendar to find a better deal though.

Using the calendar, I was able to find the lowest redemption of 70,000 points.

I just needed 35,000 points and $150 cash for the points + cash redemption.

Make sure to use hotel calendars that show the prices on different days and months to find the cheapest rates.

They have those at Hilton and Marriott.

Another great points and cash redemption I did was in San Francisco.

I got the Hilton San Francisco Union Square in the middle of everything for $85 + 20,000 Hilton points a day for two nights.

Again, like the Waldorf-Astoria Chicago, the cash rates for that start at $350 plus taxes.

I have done several other cash + point redemptions, but those were two of my favorites.

Basically, cash and points requires half points and half cash again.

This helps your points go further.

Hilton is the only chain that has a sliding scale with points and cash instead of fixed scale.

As long as you have at least 5000 points, you can pay with cash and points.

At other chains, you are required to have half the points of a full point’s redemption.

2. Marriott Category 1 and 2 hotels

Marriott category 1 and 2 hotels are some of my favorite redemptions when staying in smaller cities or suburbs.

If you are traveling to one of these markets, they might not have your flagship Hilton or Marriott.

You will be staying at a mid-range hotel like a Courtyard or Hilton Garden Inn.

Most of my stays with Hilton and Marriott are at their flagship upscale properties in larger cities.

Marriott category 1 hotels start at 7500 points and 5000 points off peak.

Their category 2 hotels start at 12,000 points.

I have gotten a Marriott category 1 hotel after a couple of stays.

Here is the math to see how this works.

If you had a Marriott stay for the average of $150, you would get 1500 points (10 points x 150=1500 assuming no Residence Inn, Element, or Towneplace stay).

With elite status and promotions that could easily turn into 2000 points per stay.

After a couple of stays, you would have a category 1 hotel.

Category one hotels in small towns can be $150 plus taxes, so that is almost $200 saved.

So, after every 3-4 stays you could have a free hotel.

That is like buy three or four and get one free.

That is a good deal.

That is 20%-25% saved on three of four stays

This will depend on your travel habits and the places you travel though.

Some people like to get as many free lower category hotels as possible.

Others want to save all their points for a big vacation with higher category hotels.

3. Chase Ultimate Transfer to Hyatt hotels

The Chase transfer to Hyatt is one of the best deals in points to get free hotels, especially in expensive markets like most major cities.

You must first have a Chase Ultimate card though.

This transfer from Chase Ultimate credit cards gives outsized value.

For example, to stay in the heart of Boston will usually cost you $350 plus taxes.

Nothing is normal now during a pandemic, so you can get hotels that would usually start at $350+ for $100 in Boston and other cities now.

Hotels are still operating at smaller capacity during the pandemic.

When things go back to normal though, you will go back to $350+ prices in expensive markets.

So, the Chase Hyatt transfer is great.

Let’s see how this works.

The Hyatt Regency Boston usually goes for 20,000 points or $350+ cash.

The Marriott Long Wharf goes for 60,000 points.

Both of these hotels are transfer partners with the Chase Utimate program.

One requires 20,000 points, and the other requires 60,000 points.

That is a difference of 40,000 Chase points.

Basically, the way the Hyatt point system is set up benefits Chase card holders who have an Ultimate Reward credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Hyatt is one of the best Chase transfer partners.

Although this is a high value transfer with Hyatt, it is not with either Marriott or IHG.

Neither is the transfer between American Express and Hilton high value.

So, except for transferring Chase points to Hyatt, transferring bank points directly to hotels is a not usually a good use of points.

Again, if you have a Chase Ultimate card and Chase points, you can use the transfer to Hyatt.

4. IHG Point’s Breaker

I don’t know if they will still offer Point’s Breaker after the pandemic, but this was a great deal (sometimes).

IHG Point Breaker hotels were lower priced points’ hotels that you could purchase.

They started at 5000 points or the equivalent of about $60.

Of course, because of the low amount of points, these were usually your mid-range hotels like Candlewood Suites.

Later, they actually increased the range to include 10,0000 and 15,000 points, so sometimes you could even find an international Intercontinental hotel.

That means that you would pay 10,0000 or 15,000 points for a hotel that is usually over 40,000 points.

Again, I don’t know if they will have Point’s Breaker hotels after the pandemic.

They usually had a new list every quarter.

5. Hotel free night certificates

Hotel free night certificates were another of my favorite ways to get a free hotel in the past.

It is not a hundred percent free though.

A lot of hotel credit cards will give you a free night each year just for having the hotel credit card.

Most of the chains charge a $95 fee for these cards, but you are getting a $150-200 hotel for the annual fee.

Maybe you get more than $200 in some markets than that though.

So, basically for $95, you get a $150-$200 hotel.

That is still a pretty good deal, and why I have most hotel credit cards.

So, if you know you will be staying at least once in these chains, you can get your $150-$200 hotel for $95.

I have had the Marriott and IHG cards for years.

I had too many cards with Chase to get a Hyatt credit card, so maybe later.

None of the Hilton cards give a free stay, instead you get valuable Gold or Diamond elite status.

Hotel loyalty programs that offer this free night certificate are:

Hyatt
Marriott Bonvoy
IHG

These cards have more value than their no fee equivalent if you stay at the chain at least once a year.

But Wait, Some Of This Is Not Completely Free Travel

Hotel loyalty programs are great and have gotten me a lot of free stays.

However, they only reward you for your stay.

Basically, you have to spend money.

As you know, I don’t believe in spending a lot of money on travel.

To do this, you must have a budget, whether yearly or monthly.

After you have a budget, you can use budget and manufactured tricks to not spend money on travel.

For instance, in the future I want to resell to cover my entire travel budget.

I have not gotten to reselling yet because of the pandemic.

Instead, I am using my money from things like Swagbuck’s to cover my travel.

You could also cut things like dining out.

The average person spends $300 a month or $3600 a year on dining out.

If that is something you don’t mind, that is great.

Here is a post with other things you can cut.

The key is to still have a budget though.

I use these other tactics to cover travel, but I first start with a realistic budget.

I make this point because hotels are really rewarding you for spending money.

If you overspend, you are not wining, so a budget is essential.

In the present I am only into small road trips because of the pandemic.

Even though I use extra money I make from things like Swagbuck’s to cover this so I spend nothing, I first start with a budget as you should too though.

You can check out my other blog Adding Pennies to see how to put some extra money in your pocket and use things like Swagbucks.

How To Calculate Your Redemption Value

Some redemptions are not worth your valuable hard earned points.

You need to do some calculations to figure this out.

You do this by doing the following formula:

cash price/points x 100

So, for instance right now, the Hilton Atlanta is $120 after taxes, and the points cost is 23,000, so the redemption would be $120/23,000 x 100 =$.52

Hilton points are worth between $.60-$.80 so this is below value.

In general, hotels that are around $100 or less are better with cash, and it is best to save your points.

Here are some point current values:

Delta 1.2
American 1.4
United 1.3
Hyatt 1.7
Hilton .6
Marriott .8

Here is an article from the Points Guy with the latest valuations.

Summary

Each hotel chain has some sweet spots.

These were my favorite sweet spots in hotel chains to get a free hotel stay.

Maybe you have used some sweet spots that I have not mentioned or used.

There are only so many hotel credit cards sign up bonuses.

After that, you are either going to be paying for a hotel or using one of my favorite sweet spots like the Hyatt Chase transfer.

Hotels reward you for spending money.

As usual, I don’t believe in spending a lot of money on travel and think you shouldn’t either.

What are your favorite sweet spots using points to get a free or partially free hotel?