Many emails I get are from people short on hotel points. They’ve booked flights with miles and need to figure out hotel options. Personally, I love to stay in really nice hotels (often just for a weekend getaway) so here are some tips that work for me:
- Subscribe to emails from Sniqueaway, TravelZoo, TripAlertz, Groupon, and Bloomspot. With 5 subscriptions coming in, I get great offers every single week.
- Really learn how to use Priceline. My last booking was at the Fairmont hotel in Newport Beach. Normal rates were $139/night. My price? $69. Here’s a good Flyertalk post about Priceline. Remember, Betterbidding.com is your friend.
- Start building your Hilton point balance. It grows fast. There’s all the Hilton cards I’ve talked about, the 2 Hawaiian Airline cards transfer at a 2-to-1 ratio, and the Virgin card has the same ratio. You can easily hit 500,000 points within a year.
- Chase and American Express have incredible websites to help with your hotel bookings. I don’t know why these are so rarely talked about. Most people have a Chase card that works, and the website gets you good rates, upgrades, and free breakfast. Visa has a website here, but I’ve never tried it.
- If you love a hotel stay, introduce yourself to the manager. Usually, they’ll give you their card and you can contact them directly for better rates.
- Of course, credit cards through Marriott, Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, Hilton, and Fairmont are a huge help.
- And, finally, the very popular Cash + Points bookings through Starwood
