The ULTIMATE Guide to Hotel Rewards
That’s right! It’s not just air miles and points that you can earn when travelling with your family! There are a whole host of hotel reward schemes too. Knowing which ones to use could bag you a free stay in a luxury hotel once you’ve earned enough points! Here’s our handy guide on how to earn hotel rewards and get yourself a free luxury hotel stay…
Nectar Hotels
Starting off quite simple with this one! You may remember how useful Nectar can be for boosting your Avios points, but it’s actually also got its own Nectar Hotels scheme where you can earn generally 1,000 but sometimes up to 2,000 points per night of your hotel stay, and, usually, a few hundred bonus points too!
You’re not likely to bag a free stay with Nectar Hotels, as a 7 night stay earning you 7,000 points actually only equates to £35 in cash value, but don’t forget that however many points you earn, you can spend those again through various Nectar partners, like Avios (and those same 7,000 Nectar points would give you 4,250 Avios with some Nectar points to spare)!
Accor Live Limitless
Accor Live Limitless gives you the opportunity to earn points not only through hotel stays but through flights, villa stays, train journeys and safaris! You often will have access to member discounts on selected hotels, and Accor Live Limitless also sometimes run deals to give you 3x the amount of points you would usually get on a stay!
You can also link up your Flying Blue account, which gives you 5 ways to earn or spend your points…
Earn Flying Blue miles when you spend at Accor Hotels
That’s right! You can earn an extra 1 mile per 1 euro spent at the hotel.
Earn Accor Rewards Points when you book a flight
It also works the other way! For every 2 euros spent on a flight with KLM or Air France, you also earn 1 Accor Reward Point for use at hotels!
You get a welcome bonus!
The welcome bonus gives you 10 XP points on your Flying Blue account and 2 status nights in your Accor account when you have your first flight and first night through the reward schemes.
Convert Reward Points to Flying Blue Miles
You can convert 4,000 Flying Blue Miles to 1,000 Reward Points to spend on your hotel stays! Convert your flying blue miles here
Convert Flying Blue Miles to Reward Points
And finally, yes you can convert them the other way too! 2,000 Reward Points will give you 1,000 Flying Blue Miles. Convert your reward points here
World of Hyatt
The World of Hyatt reward scheme gives you exclusive member discounts up to 10% off, and you don’t necessarily need to book direct! You can continue to earn these points even if you book through a travel agent.
World of Hyatt rewards programme overview
You also have the ability to earn Milestone Rewards which start after you stay for 20 qualifying nights, and then every 10 nights after that up to 100 nights! Your Milestone Rewards can bag you bonus points, free nights, suite upgrades, club lounge access, or gift cards. If you’re a frequent traveller or a long-stay traveller, this is a really great reward scheme to join!
Flying Blue are also connected with Hyatt Hotels meaning that you can convert 1,250 e-Rewards Points from your World of Hyatt account into 500 Flying Blue Miles.
Hotels.com
Hotels.com has a really simple rewards system - you collect stamps for each night that you stay when you have booked through their website! 10 stamps = 1 free night, and you can spend up to the average per night spend that you used collecting the stamps! As you move up the tiers, you also unlock additional discounts when booking your stays and have access to exclusive member discounts just by signing up!
Hotels.com reward system
Radisson Rewards
Radisson appear to have some of the best money off deals for members! You can ‘Plan & Save’ up to 25% off selected hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and additionally they have ‘Deals of the Day’ with up to 40% off on hotel stays!
Radisson Rewards member deals
Similarly to Accor Live Limitless, with Radisson Rewards you can also convert any rewards points you’ve accumulated into Flying Blue Miles! 2,000 points will bag you 200 Flying Blue Miles
IHG Rewards
IHG Rewards have both a rewards points and tier system. As you move up through the ‘memberships’, from Club Member to Diamond Elite Member, you unlock various different benefits. Right from the beginning, you have access to discounts, no blackout dates for reward nights, and late check-outs if available.
IHG Rewards table by membership
What makes IHG stand out from the crowd, though, is that if you are a business owner or sole trader, you can sign up to their IHG Business Rewards scheme meaning that you can earn points on not only your own stays but purchases made for others too, for example, conference rooms for meetings or employees’ hotel stays!
Again, with IHG you can also convert Rewards Points into Flying Blue Miles - 10,000 Rewards Points gets you 2,000 miles to use on flights!
Hilton Honors
Last but not least, one of my favourites - Hilton Honors!
As a new member, you earn 1,500 Bonus points on your first stay and 3,000 bonus points on your second stay! Great incentives to join and at least get 2 stays under your belt in a fabulous hotel. You can also save up to 17% off by booking in advance on their website or app.
Hilton Honors membership page and bonus points
Hilton Honors have so many offers available including their own American Express Rewards credit card which gives you 70,000 points and a free night if you sign up and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months, a great deal for any US readers!
On top of the rewards that Hilton offers, you can also benefit from up to 4% cashback on any purchases through TopCashback.com (<— click the link for a £10 sign up bonus!), which is a real game changer! I love this site and have installed the browser extension so that any time I am looking to shop online or book a flight, hotel, transfer or airport parking, it automatically tells me if I can get cashback. And, as you’ll know if you’ve read my earlier post about earning Avios, you can withdraw any cashback you earn as Avios points for use on British Airways.
