Free Hotel Stay: Is It Possible?

Wish you could get away for a holiday but don’t want to break the bank? After all…the time you add up travel, airfare (if going abroad) and hotel costs it can set you back quite a bit of money. Particularly when you bear in mind this is before spending money! Thankfully, it is possible to get a very cheap or even a free hotel stay, here are our top tips for a free hotel stay…

How can I book a Free Hotel Stay?

There a few different ways you can earn a free hotel stay. The quickest and most cost-effective way is by using credit card sign-up bonuses. This is because you don’t have to stay anywhere AND you utilise existing spend. You do this by simply putting what you would normally spend on another card through one of the ones listed below.

This is my experience using the points system and is not a recommendation of any financial product. There are other credit cards which can earn you travel points including Miles & More, Tesco Credit Cards (by exchanging Clubcard points for avios, hotel stays and more) & Virgin Atlantic credit card. If you use one of my referral links to an American Express card upon you being accepted I will receive points, this varies between 9,000 – 18,000 depending on the card I refer you from.

The following cards are sorted in order of annual fee, with the FREE ones first! Each will include a couple of examples of where the points could get you. If a card doesn’t currently have a sign-up bonus it’s not included.

IHG Rewards Club Mastercard

Sign-up bonus –  10,000 IHG points – Spend £200 in 3 months
Annual fee – FREE
Earn rate – 1 IHG point per £1
Other Travel Benefits – Receive Gold Elite status in IHG Rewards Club
Where can I stay? – For example, 1 night in one of the following hotels Holiday Inn Berlin – City West (10,000 IHG points a night, Germany), Holiday Inn – Skopje (10,000 IHG points a night, North Macedonia) or Holiday Inn Express Madrid – Tres Cantos (10,000 IHG points a night, Spain)

The American Express Rewards Credit Card

Sign-up bonus –  5,000 Membership Reward points = 10,000 Hilton Honors points (1:2), 7,500 Marriott Bonvoy points (2:3) and 15,000 Radisson Rewards points (1:3) – Spend £2000 in 3 months
Annual fee – FREE
Earn rate – 1 Membership Reward point per £1 = 2 Hilton points/1.5 Marriott Points/3 Radisson Points per £1
Other Travel Benefits – N/A
Where can I stay – With American Express Membership Reward cards you have the flexibility to convert your points into different hotel schemes (conversion rate shown under the sign-up bonus.) You could stay 2 nights in the Hilton Hurghada Resort (5,000 Hilton points a night, Egypt), 1 night in the AC Hotel A Coruna (7,500 Marriott points a night, Spain) or 1 night in the Radisson Blu Resort, El Quseir (15,000 Radisson points a night, Egypt)

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Sign-up bonus –  10,000 Membership Reward points = 20,000 Hilton Honors points (1:2), 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (2:3) and 30,000 Radisson Rewards points (1:3) – Spend £3000 in 3 months
Annual fee – FREE for the first year (normally £140) – cancel before 1 year is up to avoid paying the annual fee
Earn rate – 1 Membership Reward point per £1 = 2 Hilton points/1.5 Marriott Points/3 Radisson Points per £1
Other Travel Benefits – 2 free airport lounge passes.
Notes – With American Express Membership Reward cards you have the flexibility to convert your points into different hotel schemes (conversion rate shown under the sign-up bonus.) You could stay for 1 night at the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt City Centre (20,000 Hilton points a night, Germany), 1 night in the AC Hotel Alicante (12,500 Marriott points a night, Spain) or 1 night in the Park Inn by Radisson Central Tallinn (28,000 Radisson points a night, Estonia)

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

Sign-up bonus –  20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points – Spend £3000 in 3 months
Annual fee – £75
Avios earn rate – 2 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1
Other Travel Benefits – Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite Status, Upgrade to Gold Elite when you spend £15,000 each year & A Free night up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
Notes – You could stay for 4 nights (off-peak) at the Courtyard Istanbul West (5,000 Marriott points a night, Turkey,) 2 nights (off-peak) at the Courtyard Belgrade City Center (10,000 Marriott points a night, Serbia) or 1 night (off-peak) at the Moxy Amsterdam Houthavens (20,000 Marriott points a night, Netherlands)

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card

Sign-up bonus –  15,000 Virgin points = 15,000 IHG points (1:1) OR 22,500 Hilton points (2:3) – On first purchase within 90 days of opening account
Annual fee – £160
Earn rate – 1.5 Virgin point per £1 = 1.5 IHG point/2.25 Hilton points per £1
Other Travel Benefits – Choose from an upgrade to Premium or a Companion ticket when you spend £10,000 in a year.
Notes – Yes it’s predominately an Airline card but it has the potential to convert points into hotel schemes.

American Express Platinum Charge Card

Sign-up bonus –  30,000 Membership Reward points = 60,000 Hilton Honors points (1:2), 45,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (2:3) and 90,000 Radisson Rewards points (1:3) – Spend £4000 in 3 months
Annual fee – £575
Earn rate – 1 Membership Reward point per £1 = 2 Hilton points/1.5 Marriott Points/3 Radisson Points per £1
Other Travel Benefits – Unlimited access to over 1,200 airport lounges, travel insurance & elevated hotel status amongst others.
Notes – Once you reach the spend target you can cancel/downgrade for a pro-rata refund of the annual fee. With American Express Membership Reward cards you have the flexibility to convert your points into different hotel schemes (conversion rate shown under the sign-up bonus.) You could stay for 1 night at the DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station (60,000 Hilton points a night, Netherlands), 1 night (off-peak) in the Pine Cliffs Hotel, a Luxury Collection Resort, Algarve (40,000 Marriott points a night, Portugal) or 1 night in the Radisson Blu Style Hotel, Vienna (70,000 Radisson points a night, Austria)

These are such a few examples of the places you could go. Search for other places you may be able to stay here –

IHG

https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/content/gb/en/reward-nights

Marriott

https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/redeem/hotels/free-nights.mi

Hilton

https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/index.html

Radisson

https://www.radissonhotels.com/

I want even more points…

We also have a guide to fast track to 250,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points. Bear in mind this method isn’t ‘free’ as your outlay will be roughly £325 depending on how long you keep each card and it would also require you to utilise £14,0000 worth of existing spend over 12 months (or quicker depending on how quick you meet targets) BUT I think £325 is a good result considering where you can go with the points… Check the guide to see where you could go!

Other ways to get a Free Hotel Stay

There are other ways to ‘earn’ a free hotel stay however these mostly rely on you spending time in hotels…

1) Every major hotel chain has a loyalty program that you can sign-up for. Three main examples are Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors & IHG’s Reward Club. These are FREE to sign-up for and allow you to earn points on your bookings with them as well as additional points for spend on food and beverages. Hotel loyalty programs also have the benefit of providing additional perks. For example, just joining the loyalty program could get you things like free wi-fi! As you rack up stays/points you’ll move up through membership tiers which give you access to even more perks and upgrades.

2) Popular booking sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com have their own loyalty schemes which may make sense if you don’t stick to chain hotels or stay in a variety of hotels.

Expedia

With Expedia, you’ll earn 2 points for every £1 spent on hotels, cars, packages and things to do, and 1 point for every £5 on flights. You’ll get double points when you book on the Expedia App. You can then use the points for hotels, rental cars or things to do. 140 points = £1 towards a booking.

Hotels.com

Hotels.com’s loyalty program is a lot simpler. You collect one stamp for each night you stay in a hotel booked through them. Once you reach 10 stamps you will get a free night which will be the average value of the 10 stamps you’ve collected. You only pay taxes and fees.

Expedia’s loyalty scheme is a little more complex than Hotels.com but does allow you to earn points on more things. But for most users, we think Hotels.com loyalty scheme is the most rewarding and easiest to understand.

Conclusion

Have you booked any free hotel stays? Let us know where you’ve been in the comments below.