Q2 2026 Hotel Promos Ranked: Where to Shift Your UK Stays

April 2026 is already moving fast, and the major hotel chains have finally put their cards on the table for the second quarter. If you are currently locking in May Bank Holiday trips or finalising your early summer staycations, you need to pay attention to these offers. Booking the wrong chain this month means leaving thousands of points on the table.

We are looking at a clear divide in strategy this quarter. Marriott wants to lock in your loyalty with elite status shortcuts, while Hilton is throwing raw points at anyone willing to spend big. I spend a lot of time analysing these offers for Points Uncovered, and honestly, the math this quarter is quite polarising. Your strategy needs to change entirely depending on whether you are booking a cheap airport hotel or a luxury resort weekend.

Here is my honest breakdown of the Q2 2026 hotel promotions, the exact value you can extract from them, and how to stack them with current UK credit card offers to lower your real-world costs.

Marriott Bonvoy takes the lead for status hunters

Marriott Bonvoy is running a promotion that offers 1,500 bonus points per night, plus double Elite Qualifying Nights on all paid stays. This runs straight through to June 7, 2026. For anyone chasing status, this is the undisputed winner of the quarter.

We currently value Marriott points at 0.55p each. That means 1,500 bonus points gives you roughly £8.25 in value for every single night you stay. Because this is a flat bonus rather than a multiplier, the promotion heavily favours cheap, short stays. If you book a £70 night at a regional UK Moxy, getting £8.25 back in points is an excellent return. If you are paying £400 a night at The London EDITION, that flat bonus suddenly looks very weak.

The real draw here is the double Elite Qualifying Nights. Marriott requires 50 nights to hit Platinum Elite, which is the tier where you actually start getting meaningful perks like free breakfast and lounge access. Earning two night credits for every night you sleep in a bed effectively halves that requirement. If you hit Platinum status this summer, you will lock in those benefits through to early 2028.

Hilton Honors rewards the heavy spenders

Hilton Honors has launched its Double Up & Explore promotion. You earn double base points globally, and this escalates to triple points on select stays across the UK and Europe. The promotion runs all the way until September 1, 2026, giving you a massive runway for summer bookings.

Unlike Marriott, Hilton is using a multiplier. You normally earn 10 base points per US dollar spent at most Hilton properties. Under this promotion, you earn 20 points per dollar globally, or 30 points per dollar in the triple-point regions. We value Hilton points at 0.33p. This means your earning rate scales directly with your spending.

This is exactly where you should put your expensive bookings. If you are dropping a significant amount of cash on a May half-term resort stay or a luxury city break at a Conrad or Waldorf Astoria, Hilton will yield a far higher absolute points return than Marriott. The math simply works better when a multiplier meets a high room rate.

World of Hyatt and IHG One Rewards lag slightly behind

World of Hyatt is offering 3,000 bonus points every three qualifying nights, capped at 21,000 points. This runs from April 15 to June 15, 2026. We value Hyatt points highly at 1.2p each, meaning those 3,000 points are worth roughly £36. That is a solid return of £12 per night. The problem for UK travellers is always the same with Hyatt. The footprint outside of London and a few major cities is simply too sparse to make this a viable primary strategy for domestic staycations.

IHG One Rewards has rolled out a spring offer giving you 2,000 bonus points every two nights, capped at 100,000 points, running until May 31, 2026. At our valuation of 0.4p per IHG point, you are getting about £8 in value for every two nights. That equates to £4 per night. It is better than nothing if you are already booked into a Holiday Inn for work, but it is absolutely not worth shifting your leisure stays to IHG for a return this low.

Stacking your hotel stays with current Amex and Virgin offers

You should never just look at the hotel promotion in isolation. The smartest way to book travel in 2026 is to stack these quarterly offers with external credit card and loyalty bonuses.

American Express UK is currently offering up to 12,000 bonus Membership Rewards points for adding a free supplementary card to your account. You can add a partner or family member, and once they hit the required spend threshold, the bonus points post to your account. If you have May hotel stays coming up, put the supplementary card on file at the hotel desk. You will hit the Amex spend target while simultaneously earning the Q2 hotel bonus points. Those 12,000 Membership Rewards points can then be transferred to Marriott at a 2:3 ratio yielding 18,000 Bonvoy points, or to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio yielding 24,000 Honors points.

If you are travelling domestically for your hotel stay, look at the current Virgin Red rail promotion. You can earn double Virgin Points on all train tickets booked through their portal, plus a flat 2,000-point bonus if you buy a Railcard via Virgin. Taking the train to your UK city break rather than driving allows you to double-dip on Virgin Points for the journey and Marriott or Hilton points for the bed.

I also want to mention the current Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer promotion. They are running a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy until April 30, 2026. Unless you are exactly a few thousand points short of a high-value five-night Marriott redemption, do not do this. Converting airline miles into hotel points almost always destroys value, even with a 50% bonus attached.

The Moxy mattress run strategy for early 2026

Because Marriott is offering double elite nights and a flat point bonus, we are currently in prime mattress run territory. A mattress run is when you book a cheap hotel room purely to earn the points and status credits, even if you barely use the room.

If you are currently sitting a few nights short of a higher elite tier, look at the cheapest properties in the UK. Regional Moxy hotels, such as those in Aberdeen or Slough, frequently drop to around £65 a night on quiet weekends or Sunday nights. Booking a three-night stay at £65 a night will cost you £195. In return, you will earn six Elite Qualifying Nights and 4,500 bonus points worth roughly £25. If those six nights push you over the line to Platinum Elite, securing free breakfasts for the next two years, that £195 is money incredibly well spent.

Practical tips to avoid missing out on points

You must register for these promotions before your stay begins. Do not wait until you are standing at the check-in desk. Marriott’s IT system in 2026 still notoriously struggles to backdate promotional points if you register mid-stay. Open your hotel apps right now and click the register button on every single offer, even if you have no current plans to travel.

Reward nights generally do not count towards these specific Q2 targets. Both Marriott and Hyatt require a paid, qualifying cash rate to trigger the bonus points. Do not burn your point balances on a stay and expect to earn the promotional bonuses back.

If you have an Amex Offer saved to your card for a specific hotel chain, pay attention to how you settle your bill. Offers like ‘Spend £200, get £50 back’ at Hilton or Marriott often fail to trigger if you book a deeply discounted prepaid rate online. Those prepaid rates are frequently processed by a corporate headquarters rather than the individual hotel, which means the transaction does not match the Amex Offer rules. Always book a flexible rate and pay physically at the hotel desk to ensure the cashback tracks correctly.

The honest verdict on where to put your money

If you want a clear ranking of where to direct your cash this spring, Marriott Bonvoy takes first place. The double Elite Qualifying Nights offer genuine long-term value that outlasts a quick point bonus. Getting to Platinum Elite is a massive upgrade to your travel experience, and this promotion makes it highly achievable for normal leisure travellers.

Hilton Honors takes a very respectable second place. If you do not care about elite status and just want to earn as many points as possible to fund a future free night, Hilton is the better choice for expensive stays. The triple points multiplier in the UK and Europe is highly lucrative if you are booking premium rooms.

World of Hyatt and IHG sit at the bottom of the pile for UK travellers this quarter. Hyatt has a great mathematical return but too few hotels to make it practical. IHG has the hotels, but the points return is too weak to justify moving a booking away from Marriott or Hilton.

Make sure you register your accounts today, check your Amex offers, and explore more guides on Points Uncovered to ensure you are getting the maximum possible value from your travel spend this year.