Low category hotels

  Hotel Strategies

There are only a limited number of hotel points that you can easily acquire.

You’ll get more value from your hotel points, by booking multiple free nights at less expensive hotels, than you would by booking fewer nights at higher-end hotels.

For example, with Hilton, 95,000 points will get you a single night at one of their most expensive hotels, and 70-80,000 points will get you a night at most of their properties in New York City; but the same number of points can get you 14-19 nights at their least expensive hotels. With Starwood, 35,000 points will get you a single night at one of their most expensive hotels; or 17 weekend nights at their least expensive hotel; 12-20,000 Starwood points will get you a single night at most of their New York City hotels, but the same number of points could get you 6-10 nights somewhere else.

Of course, with a limited amount of vacation time, you may primarily choose to spend your nights at nicer hotels, or more expensive destinations. But, if you have an opportunity to book an award at a low category hotel, you’ll almost always get great value per point.

“Award Room Rates” at low category hotels

We like to calculate an “award room rate” that represents the cost of using your points to book a hotel room (versus using them for a different hotel or trip). The following table shows the award room rates for Category 1 and Category 2 hotels in the largest hotel programs. Even in less expensive locations, these are usually great rates (especially because they include taxes).

Program	CPP	Award "room rate" for a
		Cat 1 Room	Cat 2 Room
Hilton	.45	$22.5	$45
Hyatt	1.7	$85	$127.5
IHG	.5	$50 ($25 PointBreaks)	$75 ($25 PointBreaks)
Marriott	.7	$52.5	$70
SPG	2.1	$63 ($42 weekends)	$84 ($63 weekends)
Unified Marriott / SPG	.7	$40 - $70	$70 - $110

These are ridiculously low prices for a Category 1 Hilton, IHG 5000-point PointBreaks, SPG Category 1 weekend, or Marriott / SPG Category 1 off-peak night.

Staying on the outskirts of cities, or by the airport

One of the ways to take advantage of cheaper point redemptions is to stay at a hotel on the outskirts of town, or out by the airport, rather than a hotel in downtown. If you are sightseeing by car anyway, it may not make a big difference to your trip, and you’ll usually save even more money by avoiding expensive overnight parking.

“Cash” rates for these less expensive hotels may be only half the rate of a hotel downtown, but points-based rates are usually even a smaller fraction. For example, the Hilton Minneapolis requires 40,000 points, but the Hilton Minneapolis Bloomington gets a 4.5 rating on TripAdvisor and only requires 20,000 points. The W Minneapolis requires 12,000 Starpoints per night, but the Four Points by Sheraton Mall of America only requires 3,000 points per night, and the 4.5 rated Hyatt Place St Paul Downtown only requires 5,000 Hyatt points.

Traveling in less expensive countries

The other opportunity for low cost redemption is when you are traveling in less expensive countries. For example, the Hampton Inn Krakow is only 5,000 Marriot points, the Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi is only 10,000 Hilton points, and the Le Meridien N’Fis in Marrakech is only 2,000 Starpoints on a weekend night.

Finding redemption opportunities at low category hotels

• Use Pointimize or Award Mapper when you are looking for a specific trip. If you know your destination, you can use Pointimize or Award Mapper to see all the available options. Then you can filter the list to show just the lower-priced options. .

• Browse lists of all the low category hotels. If you are motivated, you can scan through each program’s low-end category list to see what is available in destinations near your house, or where you may be headed in the future. For example, we are based in Seattle, and can see what is available in Washington State, up by Vancouver B.C., or down in Portland.

	No Published List
	Category 1, Category 2. Map.
	Category 1, Category 2. Map.
	Category 1. Map.
	No published list. Map.
	Category 1 and 2 hotels. Map.
	Category 1, Category 2. Map.
	All hotels cost the same number of points.

At Le Club Accor, your points are redeemed for a fixed value per point—there are no hotel categories at all.

• Travel is Free’s Unbelievably Cheap Hotel List. Travelisfree.com has put together a good compilation of attractive low-category hotels around the world. It is not a great place to find super-cheap award nights in the United States, but it highlights some of the more interesting options in other countries.

Award Nights 101: Using Your Hotel Points

Hotel Loyalty Program Reference Guide

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