The first quarter of the year is usually slow business for hotels in Europe and North America – it’s winter, fewer people travel after the big holidays and business travel is slow to kick off. That often results in good hotel promotions to fill all those rooms and a chance to get some good deals or collect some extra reward points in your favorite hotel program. This year is a mixed bag of promotions, so read on to find the best promotions you can participate in!
IHG Accelerate: IHG Rewards Club runs a promotion for the InterContinental Hotel Group pretty much every quarter. They are customized to each customer, usually based on your previous travel patterns. They tend to be better for people who have not recently stayed much at IHG Hotels, so if you haven’t stayed with them at all or little, it should be great. After not staying much with them during recent promotions that were unattractive to me, my offer was much better and I signed up: Based on my current plans, 5 nights at inexpensive hotels will net me a total of almost 50,000 points. That’s worth about $300 and roughly what I spent on the 5 nights! It runs through April 30, 2016 and you can find what your offer is and sign up here!
Marriott Mega Bonus: Marriott Hotels is also running one of their frequent promotions, called Marriott Mega Bonus. They also are customized and vary in value of the offer. This quarter, it’s a good one, offering one free night at a category 1-5 hotel after two stays – that’s worth up to 25,000 points or $200! That’s pretty easy to accomplish, especially with travel in the US where there are plenty of Marriott hotels in all price categories. There are additional bonuses to be won, after you have achieved the free night. This is also a great offer and worth adjusting your travel plans to Marriott for! You can sign up here!
These kinds of promotions give you a chance to earn points for a certain number of nights or stays, giving you a chance to stay at inexpensive hotels and earn outsize awards – the best kind of promotions. The next two promotions are good and work best when you have big (business) hotel bills anyway – they offer double points on your stays:
Hilton HHonors offers double points for all stays at Hilton Group Hotels through April 30, 2016. You can sign up for the offer here.
Starwood Group has a similar offer, with double points for any stay of two or more nights through April 30, 2016. In each case, I’d sign up for the offer in any case, so you don’t loose a point opportunity for any of your stays. It’s not quite good enough for me to redirect my hotel spend though. You can sign up for that offer here!
Good luck and I hope you earn some extra points for a free night on a future trip!