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Ricardo Zambrano.
In most cases, the two largest expenses of travel are accommodations and flights. There are exceptions (read: Disney), but these are typically the biggest opportunities for savings. Although I vary the type of accommodation I stay in regularly and try to stay in smaller, local hotels often, I also work in hotel points from major chains to reduce these costs when possible.
When I'm booking a stay that's four or more nights, I generally try to stay at Hilton, IHG, or Marriott properties in order to make use of a major money-saving benefit: free nights. It effectively knocks my overall cost down by approximately 20-25%, which adds up quickly for future travel.
I just spent two weeks in Uruguay — the most expensive country in South America — and using points plus the free night promotion at the Holiday Inn in Montevideo allowed me to stay four nights for only 40,000 points.
One of the best ways to use hotel points is to take advantage of the fourth and fifth-night free promotions offered by Hilton, IHG, and Marriott.
I'll start with the Marriott one, as it's the easiest: This perk is available to any Marriott Bonvoy member who pays with points earned from (or transferred to) Marriott credit cards and stays at least five nights. Marriott doesn't have a maximum number of free nights allowed for each reservation, so one night will be free for every five booked.
However, it limits the offer to standard room rates and excludes other types of bookings, including cash+points. The lowest-priced night will be free. Fortunately, it also includes its all-inclusive properties in this promotion.
Below, you can see that the second night is the free night, as it was the first night listed at the lowest rate.
Courtesy of Taryn Williams
IHG offers a fourth-night free reward when booking with points. The caveat with this program is that you have to hold one of its three credit cards: the IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card, IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, or IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card. The Traveler card has no annual fee, so this benefit is also relatively easy to access.
One of the benefits of IHG's promotion is that the fourth night is free regardless of the cost, so every fourth night will show up as 0 points.
Courtesy of Taryn Williams
Like Marriott, Hilton offers a fifth night free. This one also has a small caveat, which is that the rewards member needs to have elite status. Thankfully, silver status is pretty achievable: It's earned after staying a minimum of 10 nights in one year or through holding one of the chain's credit cards. Each Hilton credit card comes with a different level of status depending on the fee, but the basic Hilton Honors American Express Card has no annual fee and comes with the necessary silver status.
Hilton limits this benefit to stays of 20 nights or less — a maximum of four free nights per reservation — but states that it can be used an unlimited amount of times during the year. Similar to IHG's reward, every fifth night is free with Hilton, regardless of whether it's the most expensive, the least expensive, or somewhere in between. The benefit only applies to standard room rates and does have some exclusions, including special packages and promotions.
Due to the outstanding value of free nights, I've used this benefit nearly every time I've redeemed points to stay with one of these chains, and will continue to do so going forward.
