swingaling

Looking to get some insights here from fellow travelers about the issue of hotel free agency and how you handle the loyalty aspect of it.

Specifically, I'm a 100% leisure traveler, so I pay for all my own travel expenses. I travel to various disparate international destinations every year and probably spend around 30 nights in hotels each year (sometimes more, sometimes less). In general, I choose hotels based on a combination of location, price and reviews. I typically try to stay in large chains (Hyatt, SPG, Marriott, Hilton, etc) to take advantage of points accumulation (and redemptions down the line). The primary goal being accumulating points toward free nights. I really don't care about free upgrades.

That said, I'm not overly loyal to any one brand and I'm not going to stay at a hotel in a bad location simply to earn elite status credit. The upside is I have a lot of freedom to choose what I feel best suits my needs for a particular trip without being hostage to any specific brand.

The downside is I end up with an eclectic collection of points across numerous award programs, which is not ideal from a redemption standpoint. I currently have points with Hilton, Hyatt, One Harmony, Shangri La, Marriott, SPG, GHA and IHG. Despite that, I don't currently have elite status with any hotel chain (which I'm ok with). My stays are too spread out among different brands to earn status (at this point).

For those in a similar situation, what's your strategy for hotel free agency? I've looked into hotels.com, but it's not such a great deal. Same with the other OTAs (Expedia, etc). I find booking with hotels directly often (but not always) yields the best overall deal (rate, terms, amenities, etc). Am I approaching this from the correct angle?

Allan38103

Forget miles/points if you're paying for the room yourself. Instead, start with the minimum requirements that you will accept (location, quality, amenities, etc.), then pick the lowest price that meets your needs regardless of program. You will save money with this approach. Save the money and use it to fund the next time you travel. If you happen to get miles, consider it a bonus.

swingaling

That's more or less what I've been doing. I'm just ending up with a bunch of useless points across a number of chains. I was hoping there was a way to avoid this. Oh well.

sbm12

I'm over 100 nights per year and similarly flexible. I ignore the points and stay where I want. If I have enough redeem them but don't really focus on it at all.

I dunno..the relatively steady 15-17% return is solid for me, particularly when I'm booking random, non-branded hotels outside the USA. I usually find that the rates match or are close enough when accounting for that rebate. But if the direct booking is sufficiently better I have no problems booking direct. Much like all the other programs I collect in Hotels.com where it makes sense, not just because it is a program.

:D!

The only thing you can really do is try and group your trips together by chain, for example if you were planning to stay in 2 Hiltons and 2 Hyatts for one (set of) trip and then again on a later trip, see if you can reorganise the trips to 4 Hiltons then 4 Hyatts, so you get the points more quickly.

Yoshi212

I'm anywhere from 10 nights a year up to 100+ but have had hotel status for years with particular programs I used to be Hyatt focused and then brought in Starwood (and now Marriott) when my travel increased. If booking a Hyatt or Starwood/Marriott property I book directly. For almost all other stays I use hotels.com to get the buy 10 get 1 night free redemption. That way I am at least working towards something rather obtainable. Your 30 nights a year would get you 3 free nights. The program works by averaging the rate (not rate+taxes) over the 10 nights and gives you a credit up to that for 1 night.

AsiaTraveler

There may be circumstances where it makes sense to.earn airline miles instead of hotel points. I recently was staying one night at a Quality inn, and I don't expect to stay at their chain again any time soon. Combine that with the fact that the Choice Hotel points have a hard expiration date (at least, i think that is still true) and it made more sense to get 600 miles on my preferred airline. If it had been a longer stay, i might have made a different choice.

Tino

I am a 100% leisure traveler as well (50-60 nights a year) and the only time I booked on a hotel chain's website in years was for international hotels that were not adequately served by the sites below. Regardless of what claims they make, you ARE paying a premium to them to receive points, and they will not match the rates from the sites below. Trivago is equally worthless, since they have a list of exceptions to the "best price" quotes (all of the examples below are not qualified to be listed at Trivago).

This is my strategy, which has yet to fail to produce a double digit % reduction in price from the hotel chain's site, but you have to be flexible on your hotel of choice. You can still check in with a hotel rewards card for incidentals and usually get the amenities that come with them and points for incidentals. It takes some work, but the savings are well worth it.

In order of savings:
1a. Determine the star level of every hotel in that city's Priceline neighborhood you are interested in. If they are all acceptable at the level you want, bid VERY aggressively and use free re-bids. Purchase through eBates to get another 5-8% back in cash. Savings of 75% from hotel site rates are very common.
1b. Use Priceline Express on a laptop (not mobile) to determine the exact hotel that is offering the "opaque" discounted rate. Use a 10% off Priceline discount code if you can. Open additional Priceline accounts to get additional coupons. Purchase through eBates to get another 5-8% back in cash (can be used with the discount code). Expect up to a 50% reduction from hotel site rates.
1c. Priceline mobile discounted rates. They are often only available that way and can be significant.
2. Alternate site: id90travel.com, hotel discounts now open to the public, not just travel professionals. Usually 10-25% reductions.
3. Alternate site: AAA.com, using a AAA account number. Sometimes you will get points, but sometimes the rates are just too good to pass up. Also, many rates are cancellable until day-of or day-before travel. Rates may be more, may be less, but good for smaller boutique hotels that market to AAA customers.
4. Compare your rate to Trivago's "best rates" to see what your real savings are.

I use the rates from 1b, 1c, 2 and 3 as my benchmark, then bid very aggressively up to the lowest rate. If there are no takers, I choose the lowest of the benchmarks. I almost always bid for 4* and above, but if I know the quality of the hotels, I may go lower.

Also, be nice and put your winning bid on betterbidding.com for others to take advantage of.