You don't want them to look like Club Carlson, which could double its award chart at any minute and still have
cheaper award nights than Hilton.
Hilton has some of
the cheapest award nights of any hotel loyalty program considered here!
Not exact matches
Make sure you try to find a
night where the
award cost is
cheaper.
For points enthusiasts, Arrival is still great for
cheap cash fares like this one and for taking care of taxes, fees and other auxiliary expenses that come along with many
award flights and
nights.
By taking this
cheap cash flight to Seattle and spending a
night at the affordable Doubletree Seattle Airport, open
award options skyrocket, most appealing of which are a number of routes on Southwest heading from Seattle to Orlando via Albuquerque.
Here's a real - life example of decision making using this chart: I'm planning a 2 -
night stay at the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice this January, when the
cheapest standard room
award is 50,000 HHonors points.
Award stays can be as
cheap as 5,000 points per
night for a Category 1 property and as expensive as 30,000 points for a Category 7 property.
Unfortunately, that's not possible, but booking
cheap premium
night awards is a good next - best alternative (unless you're booking 5 consecutive
nights, in which case the nightly rate drops to 40,000 HHonors points)!
The
cheapest free
night awards are just 2,000 to 3,000 points a
night depending on the day of the week.
For example, Hyatt has
cheaper awards on average and especially at the higher end, but Starwood offers the fifth
night free.
In some cases, buying points for an
award night can provide a
cheaper room than what can be achieved by paying the cash rate for a room.
As a SPG Category 4 hotel
award nights cost 10,000 Starpoints per
night and, clearly, these would probably be put to better use in the summer months rather then in the
cheap winter period.
What makes this promotion even more attractive is that not only are
award night rates reduced by 35 % but the «5th
night fee» offer can be used here too — that makes it even «
cheaper».
The key is to getting
cheap IHG Rewards points is to select a hotel that allows you to use cash in lieu of 10,000 points and you'll usually find this option where an
award night costs 20,000 points (category 3 properties).
The rate I got was SG$ 355 (US$ 280) per room per
night, which wasn't
cheap, but I didn't have enough Priority Club points to shell out the 40,000 a
night needed for a free room (plus you don't get many of the Royal Ambassador benefits on
award stays).
In some cases, Hilton explained, an
award night might even be
cheaper with this dynamic pricing model.