How to use hotel gift cards
 

I've never used these. if i book something on hotels.com or the hotels own website how do i go about using them if i have to provide a credit card for the booking? If the hotel offers express checkout will they refund me if i show the gift card after i get the bill/charged?

Make the arrangements when you check in so they don't charge your credit card.

If you book via the hotel's own site, it's no problem at all: just provide the gift card when it's time to pay. (If you owe more than the gift card, the overage will hit your original credit card.) I do this all the time with Marriott. The only CC number Marriott.com ever has is my usual Marriott Visa.

Regarding "express" checkout, you can simply hand them the gift card the night before you leave, and the bill under your door in the morning should be correct. But even if you forget to do that and they shove a bill under your bill charging the CC for the full amount, just go to the front desk before you leave and they will fix it and print another final bill.

Unfortunately, with most hotel gift cards, it won't work with a prepaid third-party booking. I've never used Hotels.com, but if they require the payment directly, you're probably out of luck on the gift card. Same goes with Priceline, Hotwire, etc.

Thanks, i saw a special rate for the Hyatt at hotels.com and united.com that would immediately charge my card. I guess those won't work. I also think i saw the same thing are hyatt.com - would it work if i booked thru the hotel?

Beware of those special rates that may not be so special. They come with heavy restrictions (no changes, no cancelations, etc) and they can't be swapped if the rate drops before your stay like a regular reservation.

Many times the special rate is not the best rate you can get, or it's just a few dollars less then the AAA rate or whatever.

If your plans are rock solid, and the rates don't drop you can save a few dollars, but most of the time the savings is pittiful for the restrictions.

This might vary by chain: I know they all now have prepaid rates on their own sites, although to date I've never seen enough of a variance in the rate to cause me to actually book one, so I don't know. (For example, Hilton will frequently have a prepaid rate that is $5 or so lower than the AAA rate for a $200/nt. property. Clearly not worth it...)

I would first look at the site itself: of course most e-commerce sites support gift card entries, but I don't know about hotel sites. Second, if the site itself doesn't provide instructions, look at the gift card. If it's one of these cards that processes as a Visa (or perhaps Amex), you could try inputting the card number and seeing if the site will accept it. For example, Marriott's cards process through the Visa network - but you'd need to add a '4' to the beginning of your card number. I don't know about Hyatt's.

Finally, you could call Hyatt's 1-800 line and tell them what you intend to do. They might say "that's a Net-only rate" - in which case ask to get transferred to the website helpdesk.

Just make the deal when you book. By that you'd know what gets in and not.