“Maximize Your Hotel Points Value: Tips for Booking Low-End or Luxury Rooms – The Points Guy”

After accumulating points and miles for your dream vacation, you want to ensure you’re getting the best value. At TPG, we’ve developed points and miles valuations to help you understand the average value of your rewards.

There are several ways to maximize the value of your points when booking a hotel room, such as:

– Redeeming your points for a certain number of consecutive award nights to get a “bonus” free night (five nights with Marriott and Hilton, and four nights with IHG when you also have an IHG credit card)
– Using your hotel points to book rooms at events like the Super Bowl and the Indy 500 when rates are extremely high
– Booking locations specific to certain activities during peak dates, like ski resorts in January or Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day

However, there’s a strategy you can follow to almost always get a great deal. Keep reading to find out the best ways to use hotel points to get great value.

TPG valuations for the most popular hotel chains are as follows:

– Marriott: 0.84 cents per point, on average
– Hilton: 0.6 cents per point, on average
– Hyatt: 1.7 cents per point, on average
– IHG: 0.5 cents per point, on average

All but Hyatt have abandoned an award chart, as loyalty programs have moved towards “dynamic award pricing.” This means hotels will charge you whatever they want, with cash prices and demand likely contributing to the award price.

Generally, you’ll get more value than the figures listed above by redeeming your points for either the cheapest or the most expensive hotels you can find.

For example, in the Dallas area, there are almost 200 Marriott hotels. The cheapest rate is at the Courtyard Dallas-Fort Worth/Bedford. You’ll pay 12,000 points per night for a room selling for $131. That’s a value of 1.09 cents per Marriott point.

On the other hand, the JW Marriott Dallas Arts District costs 43,000 points for a night that otherwise costs $564 — providing a value per point of 1.31 cents. The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas costs 87,000 points for a $1,042 night, yielding a value of 1.2 cents per point. As you can see, the best value for redeeming your points for hotel stays tends to be when booking super-cheap or luxury hotels.

To book hotel award stays, go to the hotel website where you plan to book and enter your location and travel dates. Make sure to click the “Use Points” box located below the dates. Then, on the results page, use the filter menu to sort available hotels by award price.

In conclusion, to get the most value from your hotel points, try to stick to either the cheapest award prices at unremarkable hotels or the most luxurious resorts you can find. The middle-of-the-road hotels are where there is generally less value. This is largely because it’s hard to find a hotel priced under $100 these days — but award prices can be as low as 5,000 points. Any hotel you find for 5,000 points is almost guaranteed to be a bargain. Likewise, the most luxurious resorts can easily cost $1,000 per night, making even a high award price likely to yield good value.

Source: thepointsguy.com

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