Why Spend Money On A Hotel?: How I Spent $0 On A Marriott Category 6 Hotel Without Points

Save cash on hotels.

Recently, I had a trip to Nashville, Tennessee.

I will do a trip report if people are interested.

As most people know, I want to resell to cover my travel budget and spend $0 on travel.

Everyone knows I like to spend nothing (or as close as possible to it) on travel.

Why spend money on travel if you don’t have to?

Reselling is popular in the points and miles community.

Like all things, I have not gotten to reselling though.

We are in a pandemic.

I also work full time and have two other businesses, so I have not yet had time for the learning curve of reselling.

I hear it is very easy to get started though.

For those that don’t know, reselling is a manufactured technique that will get you more points and miles as well as a profit.

You can google reselling for points.

When you say you don’t spend money on travel, people think you are out staying at Motel 6.

My preferred chains are Hilton and Marriott.

I will start choosing more Hyatts soon too.

I don’t choose budget Marriotts or Hiltons either.

I mostly stay at full service Hilton and Marriott hotels.

I even get in a luxury hotel like the Waldorf Astoria, Ritz, or Intercontinental.

This is the beauty of points and miles (or before the pandemic it was).

People are really out flying first class suites for pennies (or before borders were closed they were).

So, reselling was supposed to cover the cash portion of my budget.

Thus far, my travel budget is only road trips because of the pandemic though.

I would love to fly too though.

After taking advantage of hotels being dirt cheap during the pandemic, I used “spare change” from various activities to pay $0 for my Marriott hotel.

I think this will be my alternative travel budget until I get to reselling.

Here is how I ended up paying $0 for a $250+ hotel.

How did This Turn Into a Free Category 6 Marriott hotel that is Usually Priced At $250

Again, this was my recent trip to Nashville.

I like to stay in the center of the city in most places.

A long time ago, I used my suburb tactic a little too much.

I think that tactic is great to save money on hotels though.

I will still use it when location does not matter too.

You don’t have to choose just suburbs either, you can choose location within a city.

For example, after the pandemic, you could choose Wall Street or the Village instead of Times Square or Midtown in New York City to save money.

In the present, I generally like to stay in the center of most cities again though.

The center of the city is fun and an important part of any trip.

I think this is not as hard to do with points, miles, and other budget tactics.

You can use my suburb trick if this still looks pricey though.

You can stay in upscale or even luxury hotels and not spend a lot of money on travel.

Not everyone knows that though.

Save Cash On Hotels, First decision: Which location in Nashville to choose?

In Nashville, prime location is either downtown or Vanderbilt/Midtown.

I have stayed in both areas.

I was leaning toward downtown where you can walk outside your hotel to everything.

Nashville is a $200+ hotel market plus taxes.

It is not as expensive as markets like New York and Boston, but it is more expensive than markets like Atlanta and Dallas.

This usually comes out to at least $250 after taxes.

Again, I was leaning toward downtown because I could just walk out my hotel to all the action.

Vanderbilt/Midtown requires that you get in your car though everything is five minutes away.

I searched the Hilton and Marriott sites (my preferred chains again).

I discovered that though other cities were cheaper in the center of the city during the pandemic, this was not true in Nashville.

The full service Hilton, Marriotts, and Hyatts were still in the $200+ range.

The limited service Marriott and Hiltons were around $80+ plus taxes though.

That is cheaper than normal for limited service hotels in that area.

Honestly, I usually choose full service hotels.

My goal was around $100 ($130 after taxes for a hotel).

We are in a pandemic.

Hotels are dirt cheap during the pandemic.

I had no intention of not getting a pandemic hotel price.

So, either I would settle for a limited service hotel in Downtown Nashville or choose a full service hotel in Midtown.

Next, I checked the Vanderbilt location.

I could get the Embassy Suites or Marriott for around $100.

The Marriott is popular for the Vanderbilt area and very nice.

I have stayed here in the past.

I could have chosen the Embassy Suites and earned more points though.

Marriott’s promotion does not start until the middle of February, and you need to stay two consecutive nights.

My stay was only overnight.

I would get 2000 points from Hilton’s latest promotion if I choose the Embassy Suites.

Then, I would get 800 points for being Hilton Gold for a total of almost 4000 points for one stay (1000 base points, 2000 Hilton promotion points, and 800 points for Hilton Gold).

I lost my Marriott elite status in the past when I took time off travel.

I was Marriott Gold for years and had also been Silver.

Gold used to be the sweet spot with free breakfast before the merger with SPG.

I will try to go for Platinum this year.

Maybe, I can even manufacture Titanium status.

So, I would only get around 1000 Marriott points.

Usually I am all about points but after looking at the pictures of the Embassy Suites, the hotel looked dated.

I always closely look at pictures of each hotel I stay at.

You will be surprised by how they can help you avoid a dated hotel.

I checked Trip Advisor, and there it was, many reviewers commented on the Embassy Suites hotel being dated.

Sometimes, hotels have looked better than the picture though.

I knew the Marriott was nice and newer than other hotels.

Again, I had stayed here before.

I was not taking a chance on a hotel that could be dated, so I choose the Marriott for the Vanderbilt area.

Hotel points are easy to acquire.

It was only an overnight stay after all.

I choose the AC for my downtown location simply because AC is one of the Marriott brands I have not tried.

I have tried almost every Marriott brand.

I was going to look at the limited service Hiltons downtown too, but had already made my decision.

Save Cash On Hotels, Which hotel did I choose? Hint: Read The Title

In the end, I wanted my full service Marriott for the same price as limited service hotels downtown just minutes away.

It was happy with my choice, but maybe this would not have been everyone’s choice.

People may have preferred downtown location although Vanderbilt is still prime location.

I have stayed downtown before though.

On the next Nashville trip, I will make sure to choose a downtown hotel though.

After a nice (social distanced) night out, I got to my hotel in minutes from downtown.

So, I got the Category 6 Marriott for $120 plus taxes.

Now, to make the price even better, I knew from the last Hilton stay that prices drop if you book the day of your stay.

This may only be $10, but it saves you something.

I waited until the day of my stay for the $10 drop in the price.

I ended up getting my $250+ Category 6 Marriott hotel with all the new stuff for $113 plus taxes.

This came to around $130 after taxes.

It was originally $140 after taxes without the $10 discount.

That is still a steal for a hotel I have paid $250 for in the past.

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a platform that gives people ways to make extra money.

Most things are not huge moneymakers on Swagbucks.

Honestly, people can waste hours making pennies doing something like surveys on the platform.

This is probably where the site gets a bad reputation.

Honestly, no matter which platform you use, surveys come out to pennies.

I do surveys, but I do other things that make more money.

Honestly, right now I do surveys infrequently like once or twice a week or a couple times a month.

Surveys are not for everyone, so that is up to you.

You can check out my other blog, Adding Pennies again.

It shows you how to put money back in your pocket again.

The Beginner’s Guide will get you started.

In any case, Swagbucks has something called Discover that is on every big deal site.

Big deal sites love this part of Swagbucks.

Why?

You can make easy money, like $100, for signing up to try a new product.

Last month, I made $100 for the Vuse offer.

The offer was for 10,000 SB ($100) for buying a $20 purchase at Vuse.

After my $30 item with taxes and promo codes, I came out to a $70 profit.

That was an easy $70 profit in minutes.

This offer has expired.

They tend to run this offer or similar vaping offers every month.

Vuse is a vaping product again.

I don’t smoke.

I just did it for an easy $70 profit and threw it away.

How I used Swagbucks and other activities to get this hotel completely free

Again, I don’t believe in spending money on travel.

My Swagbucks and other activities usually add up to a couple hundred a month.

Here is a list:

• Swagbucks $50-$150
• Ibotta $20
• Shopkick $60
• Other stuff $50
• Total: $180-$28

This is not everything I do either.

Other activities to get extra cash from include:

• Online shopping portals (i.e. Rakuten, TopCashBack, American Airlines, etc)
• Bank bonuses
• Amex offers

Again, check out my other blog to see how to get started putting money back in your pocket.

I have not been applying myself, so I think this will cover my travel budget in the future until I get to reselling.

Making Extra “Spare Change” Comes In Handy

Honestly, a lot of people underestimate things like this and laugh.

If you got $100 from Swagbucks., $20 from Ibotta, $60 from Shopkick, $10 from online shopping portals, $100 from an Amex offer, that would be $290 a month toward travel.

My cash travel budget is $500 per month.

This ($6000 per year) may seem big to some considering I preach not spending money on travel, but I don’t plan to spend any of my own personal money with this budget.

Honestly, this is just above the average person’s dining out budget.

Of course, people spend much more than this on travel.

The point of this blog is to spend as little as possible on travel though.

This is in addition later to free flights and hotels earned through reward points (credit cards, hotels, etc).

That was realistic with reward points for me in the past.

I still plan to resell later though.

Whether you want to use this extra money for travel is up to you.

I think travel is a good use of this spare change.

You should be earning effortless money like this even if you don’t spend it on travel.

Know that most people go wrong with stuff like this by only seeing $20 here and there instead of the cumulative $300.

In the end, my money to cover $130 hotel and $35 parking were as follows:

• Swagbucks $70
• Shopkick $60
• Ibotta $35

I just wanted to share how I spent nothing on my last Category 6 Marriott hotel stay.

Next trip, I may use other activities to cover my hotel.

A lot of people into points and miles make money from Swagbucks Discover and bank bonuses.

I think Doctor of Credit is a great Twitter page to follow for all the latest offers on Swagbucks Discover and bank bonuses.

Be careful not to abuse Swagbuck’s Discover because they will close your account.

I do an offer here and there.

My next trip may use other activities besides Swagbucks again.

I had to come up with an alternative until I start reselling.

I will post about other activities to make extra money when I get a consistent list

Maybe you want to do something else with this spare change though again.

Most blogs will tell you that there are only so many points and miles out there, and you will need to pay cash for everything else. .

That can be true.

I hope this gives people more ideas on how to spend as little as possible on travel.

Neither Swagbucks or other activities should take a lot of time.

I find that once I have a system for those activities that they take little time.

Of course, when the pandemic is over, international trips are best funded all with points and miles.

For quick domestic travel that may not be worth your hard earned points, this is a tactic you can use.

My hotel was one of the most popular hotels in the Vanderbilt areas.

It is a Marriott category 6 hotel.

In the past, I paid $250+ for this same hotel.

This is only one additional way to save money on travel again.

There are many other things you can do.

You could even cut some of these things from your budget.

For instance, you could get rid of something like dining out.

If you are not spending money on travel, you can put it to other bigger financial goals like paying off debt, retirement, kid’s college, etc.

Summary

Most other blogs will tell you there are only so many reward points out there.

They will tell you that travel is never completely free.

That is where tactics like the one used in this post come in handy.

I like to spend $0 on travel or as close to it as possible.

I don’t think spending little money on travel is as hard as people think.

Don’t forget that points and miles are the easiest way to get to your next free trip.

This can get you a big international trip for pennies or free again.

Maybe you want to use something like Swagbucks for a small trip.

I felt my chunk change was used well on this trip.

I hope this was helpful.

This is only one tactic among hundreds of things you can do to save money on travel

What are things you have done to save money on travel?

What other ways have you used to save money on travel besides points and miles?