Free hotel rooms with miles & points:Best hotel points!

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This guide covers how hotel points work, our favorite rewards programs, all-inclusive hotels for free, and our favorite credit cards to earn free hotel rooms. 

We used miles & points for flights long before we started using them for hotels. But now that we’ve started learning how to get free hotel rooms, too — we’re hooked! Using points, we’ve stayed at 5 star resorts in Cancun and Malaysia, but have also stayed at independent hotels in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and more! I also use hotel points for mini “retreats” where I go to get a quick kid-free night nearby where we live.

New to my site and miles and points? Start here to learn how we use credit card deals to travel  the world for (almost) free with our family.

How do hotel points work?

Almost every hotel chain has their own rewards program. The important thing to remember is that points are essentially worthless if that hotel chain doesn’t have any hotels where you want to go. Or if the hotel’s point value is so high that it will take you years to get enough points to stay there!

Keep in mind, unless you travel for work very regularly, it is hard to accrue enough points to get many free hotel rooms — that’s why we use credit card bonuses to jump start our points accounts.

Most hotel chains divide their properties into categories. Each category will cost a progressively higher amount than the previous category. Hotel costs in points vary widely depending on the chain. And it is important to keep in mind that the cost with points is not always tied directly to the cash price, so there can be some great values, as well as horrible values.

To give an idea of points costs: A Category 1 Marriott Property will cost 7,500 points to book a free hotel room, a Category 2 Marriott Property will cost 12,500 points, etc — all the way up to Category 8 which costs 85,000 points per night. Or Hyatt Category 1 Properties are 5,000 points per night, up to 40,000 points for Category 8.

Some hotel chains like Hilton and IHG vary their award pricing based on supply and demand so there are no fixed rates for free hotel rooms booked with points.

Marriott and Hyatt have “peak” and “off-peak” pricing with no set rules so properties can cost more or less than their standard rates.

Where do you want to stay in your free hotel room?

The first thing you want to do is scope out where you will want to stay before you start collecting points. A great tool for this is AwardMapper which shows you hotels available with points in a certain destination. It is not always 100% accurate but a good starting place. 

Once I find a few hotels that I really like, I always go to its website and enter in some test dates to get an idea of what award availability is like.

TIP: If you’re a family of 4+ — search for hotels for 2 adults and 1 child. Many hotels set official occupancy limits to 3 so if you search for 4, it will come up as unavailable. But when I email (or direct message on Instagram) to ask if 2 adults/2 children can stay, they often say that’s fine. Same goes for families of 5+

If you identify a hotel with a major chain you love, there is probably a credit card that can get you a few free hotel rooms (or nights) there.

What if I don’t like chain hotels?

You can use credit card points to book almost any hotel with points — if you have the right card.? If you?re only going to get 1 or 2 cards per year and want something easy, I often recommend the Capitol One Venture Card or Bank of America Premium Travel Rewards.?

The Capital One Venture (usually 50,000 points after spending $3000 in 3 months, $95 annual fee) is an example of an easy flexible card for hotel expenses. Those 50,000 points will give you $500 back on travel expenses. Be aware, though, charges have to code as travel AND the expenses have to be at least $25 for you to be able to request statement credit. You don’t have to have enough points to cover your whole expense. You could book a $600 hotel stay that covers 5 days and reimburse yourself $500 if that’s how many points you have. This will also work for Airbnb stays!

Most of the flexible points programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, and American Express Membership Rewards also have booking portals on their websites that allow you to book other hotels directly. 

The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, for instance, is currently powered by Expedia, so almost any hotel you see on Expedia will be bookable with Chase Ultimate Rewards. On a trip to Gili Air, Indonesia (a tiny island with no motorized vehicles), we used 4,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards a night to book a villa at Villa Bulan Madu – a small hotel with only 5 rooms. Many HomeAway/VRBO properties are also bookable with Chase Ultimate Rewards points (we booked this apartment in Paris with our Chase Ultimate Rewards through the portal — just make sure you read the fine print on fees clearly!)

Want Chase Ultimate Rewards? The Sapphire Preferred card is a great place to start and my favorite card for beginners!

We’ve used Citi ThankYou points to stay at Coco Beach Island Resort in Puerto Galera, Philippines — another family-owned hotel. We were able to book direct through their portal (and the 4th night was free thanks to our Citi Prestige Card). Citi ThankYou points are easy to earn with the Citi Premier.

Our favorite hotel rewards programs for free hotel rooms

Our top 3 hotel rewards programs are Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), Marriott, and Hyatt. We have kept cards from all of these programs for a many years now because even though they have an annual fee, you get a “free” night at their properties once a year. I saw “free” because if you pay the annual fee, it is not truly free. We look at it like a reduced rate, prepaid vacation. Here’s what we love about each of these programs:

Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG)

• 4th Night Free: If you hold the IHG credit card (except the older version), you get the 4th night free on award bookings.
• Free Breakfast: Holiday Inn Express, Avid Hotels, and Staybridge Suites all offer free hot breakfast.
• Annual “Free” Night with credit card:?This can be used at hotels up to 40,000 points per night. We often use ours for a staycation in Chicago and have enjoyed the Intercontinental Chicago and also some Holiday Inn Properties.
• In Europe, IHG has the largest number of hotels where a family of 4 can stay in a room and great value on award pricing.?

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Marriott

• 5th Night Free: Every award booking of 5 nights qualifies for 1 night free. They will deduct the lowest night.
• Free Breakfast:?Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn & Suites, SpringHill Suites, Element by Westin, and TownePlace Suites. A lot of these properties also have larger rooms and suites for families that are bookable with points, too.
• Elite Status: If you can earn elite status, it comes with some great benefits like more properties with free breakfast and free upgrades to club levels that include more free food.
• Annual “Free” Night with credit card:?Depending on the card you hold, you will either get an annual night certificate for a property worth 35,000 points or 50,000 points.?

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Hyatt

Hyatt has a smaller number of properties worldwide than either of the above chains so you are less likely to find a Hyatt where you want to go. But the properties they do have offer can have a great value.

• All-Inclusive Resorts: Hyatt has a number of Ziva and Zilara properties that are 5 star all-inclusive resorts that are bookable with points. We have stayed at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun twice and had an amazing experience. Great spot for a relaxing couple’s getaway–rooms are 20,000-25,000 points per night. Not as realistic for a family as they charge 10,000-12,500 points extra for anyone over 2 years old after 2 people.?
• Low points redemptions: Hyatt redemptions start at just 5,000 points per night and many hotels are between 5,000 and 12,500 points per night to book.
• Free Breakfast: Hyatt House, Hyatt Place
• Annual “Free” Night with credit card: We have used ours at the Hyatt Place by LAX for overnight stopovers and also at the amazing Chicago Athletic Association Hotel in Chicago.

One of the best ways to get even more Hyatt points is by opening a card that earns Ultimate Rewards from Chase and then transferring them over to Hyatt.

Hilton

• 5th Night Free: Every award booking of 5 nights qualifies for 1 night free. They will average the cost of 5 nights and deduct that amount from the total. 
• Free weekend night: The Hilton Aspire (annual fee $450) gives an annual free night at almost any Hilton property in the world. This can be a great redemption for really luxurious hotels. The Hilton Business card and Surpass card also give you an option to earn an annual free night if you spend $15,000 per year on the card. 
• Free Breakfast: The Hilton Aspire, Surpass, and Business card will all give you a level of elite status that provides free breakfast at almost any Hilton! Hilton offers free breakfast at Canopy, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Home2 Suites, Homewood Suites, and Tru. 

Choice

• Great value in Europe: Choice has a large number of properties in Europe where you can book for a family of 4, and some great values. 
• Free Breakfast: Comfort Inn, Comfort Suits, EconoLodge, MainStay Suites, Quality Inn and Sleep Inn all offer free breakfast. 

Wyndham

• Suite Upgrades: The Wyndham Earner+ card gives you Diamond status which gives your family access to Suite upgrades! 
• 7,500 points per year: You will also receive 7,500 points per year when you keep the card. This is enough for a free night at a low end property. 
• Free Breakfast: Baymont Inn & Suites, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, La Quinta, Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham, Super 8, Travelodge, and Wingate by Wyndham all offer free breakfast. 
• Vacasa vacation rentals: A great value with Wyndham is too book Vacasa vacation rentals — cost is 15,000 per bedroom. So if you find a large one bedroom place, there can be some great options!

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All-inclusive hotels with points & DIY all-inclusive 

We have stayed at both the Hyatt Ziva Cancun and Holiday Inn Montego Bay Resort on points with our kids and had a great time at both resorts. Particularly in the first 2 years after our son was adopted, it worked really well for us to stay at one site for the a whole trip. Unfortunately, the deals we used to stay at those hotels are no longer as easy to get. But there are still ways to stay at all-inclusive resorts for free with points!

Here’s a list of some of the all-inclusive hotels that can be booked with points. With the IHG Premier card, for instance, if you can get 150,000 points (standard sign up bonus is 130,000+), you can stay 4 nights at the Holiday Inn Montego Bay Resort. The hotel is 50,000 points/night but the 4th night is free if you hold a IHG Premier or Traveler card. It isn’t a super fancy resort, but still a lot of fun! Two kids under 13 stay free, too. 

You can also combine a few cards to make almost any hotel “all-inclusive.”

For instance, when we flew to the Philippines to adopt our son, we used Citi Thank You points to book a standard hotel room at Coco Beach Resort for a week of low key family bonding time.  What we wanted, though, was a different room. We then called Coco Beach and paid the difference to upgrade to a higher level room. When we were there, we ate all our meals at the hotel restaurants.

We used the the Barclaycard Arrival+ (currently unavailable, but comparable to the Capital One Venture) to pay our bill at checkout, including our upgrade fee and all our other fees from meals. Since they were paid for at the hotel, they coded as a “travel expenses” and we were able to use our points to request a statement credit for the whole balance.

You could do the same thing by booking a hotel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal — or by booking any hotel with points and then charging all your meals to your room and paying at the end!

Questions about how to get started booking hotel stays for free? Email me!

Editorial Disclosure – Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.