Here’s How You Can Enjoy a Free 5-Star Hotel Stay

Means five star luxury. And it comes at an exorbitant cost. But, what if you get free accommodation there, along with a complimentary breakfast and a few other perks?

During his five-day long holiday in Bali last year, Tejas Ghongadi from Mumbai stayed in a luxury 5-star hotel for free. No, he did not win the vacation in any lucky draw. Ghongdi paid 30,000 – hotel room tariff per night – through reward points that he had accumulated as part of the loyalty program of that hotel.

Ghongadi, unlike many travelers, is a member of loyalty programs of several five-star hotel chains. However, he doesn’t book rooms at these hotels on a regular basis, even though it may bring him such good rewards. Instead, he uses his credit card for most of his other regular expenses and transfers the reward points thus earned to the hotel’s loyalty program. “The rewards points I earned on my credit card got me a free stay during my Bali vacation,” said Ghongadi, co-founder of The Points Code. I have been using credit cards for regular expenses for almost a decade now and have not defaulted even once.”

Many avid credit card users like Ghongadi use their credit card reward points to buy free hotel stays and flight tickets for their annual holidays. This is a great hack to reduce your travel expenses as both accommodation and flight tickets always form a major part of the holiday budget.

If you’re not inclined to use a credit card, you can earn points with each stay by enrolling in a particular hotel’s loyalty program. in this story, Peppermint Takes you through the loyalty programs of some popular 5-star hotel chains and how to use credit card reward points to earn free-stays at luxury hotels.

loyalty program

The first step to earning a free stay is to enroll in a hotel chain’s loyalty program, such as the Marriott Bonvoy of the Marriott hotel chain, Club ITC of the ITC group of hotels, World of Hyatt and Hilton Honors of Hilton. Each program has a different reward earning rate that starts in the range of 1-4% per 100 and can go up to 8% as per the membership level.

A tiered membership structure offers accelerated rewards as you climb the tiers with increased spend or stays (see graphic), For example, Club ITC offers 2 points per 100 for beginners and this increases to 3 points when they enter the next category, Silver Elite, on a six night stay or spend 60,000, whichever is earlier. after staying or spending 30 nights 3 Lakhs, whichever is earlier, you move to the top tier, and as a Platinum Elite member, earn 5 points per 100 spent. Similarly, Taj offers 8 points per 100 to its top-tier members. Note that these points are earned only on the base tariff and not on the final amount after adding taxes. Similarly, while redeeming points, only the base tariff is covered while taxes are extra.

A membership also entitles you to additional perks – 5-20% discount on room rates, access to executive lounge, room upgrade, early check-in and late check-out, spa vouchers and more. climb the levels

For redeeming reward points, some hotels offer a 1% redemption rate, while others charge a flat rate. Accor charges 2,000 points for every €40 spent, and Marriott offers award rooms, meaning the room fee is determined by the hotel in points. In an award room, redeeming rates are difficult to ascertain because they are set by the hotel and can be dynamic.

Note that reward points are awarded only when you book a room directly with the hotel. “Even if you are a member but book a room through an OTA platform (online travel agent), you will not get the rewards. People have a tendency to book through OTAs to get instant discounts and cashbacks, but doing so can make you lose rewards,” said Ashwin, who writes desipoints.com, a blog on credit card reward points.

expenses and rewards

How much do you need to spend to get free 5-star hotel stays? PeppermintBack-of-the-envelope calculations show you’ll earn two free nights after spending roughly 7-8.5 lakhs from your pocket on staying in the hotel. Also, the time taken to reach this milestone can be quite long as most travelers do not stay at the same hotel repeatedly.

“Unlike airlines, which are a handful, there are hundreds of hotel and BnB options for a customer and they may not want to spend on a five-star property every now and then just to earn rewards. Unless you need to travel frequently, you will hardly stay in a hotel for 15 nights in a year,” Ashwin said.

“This can work well for someone who travels frequently for work. They can accumulate points faster and then use them for vacations,” Ghongdi said.

People can really get value out of these loyalty programs by transferring their credit card rewards to partner hotel programs. Most luxury hotel chains have partnerships with credit cards offered by American Express, HDFC, Citibank and Axis with transfer ratios up to 1:3. In counting for the two free nights above, your out-of-pocket expenses on hotel rooms can be deducted 1.5 -2 lakhs if you spend roughly 1 lakh via credit card and add the rewards earned on them to hotel programs.

“You also earn rewards on essential expenses like insurance premium, fuel, children’s tuition fees etc. So use the credit card for regular expenses and earn enough rewards to stay at 5-star hotels. Of course, make sure you pay the credit card bill on time and in full,” said Ghongdi.

Lastly, make sure your credit card has a partnership with the hotel chain of your choice.