Get a Discounted Room Rate by Buying the Points for an Award Night

Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Using Your Points for Free Travel

You don’t need to limit yourself to just the hotel programs where you already have lots of points. Every program will sell you the points you need to make an award reservation.

If you find a good award redemption opportunity, and you don't already have the points, you can purchase the points you need and save some money on your hotel reservation. You can buy IHG and Choice points at particularly good values.

By buying points, you aren’t getting a “free” hotel night, but you can often get the room for less money than the normal rate. The number of points required, multiplied by the price per point, can be cheaper than the best alternative price.

For example, let's imagine that there is a special event, hotel rates are high, and you really want to stay in a particular Hyatt hotel that would cost $220 per night plus taxes. The hotel is a "Hyatt Category 2" hotel, meaning it would normally require 8,000 Hyatt points (which you don't have). Rather than paying over $250, you could buy the Hyatt points you need for 2.4 cents each or a total of $192.

When you book a room in this way, you don’t need to pay taxes and fees, can change or cancel your reservation up until close to your check-in date, and can sometimes even avoid resort fees; but you won't earn new points on your reservation.

Jump to

Programs where you are likely to get a good deal via point purchases
Signing up for credit cards
Topping off your account
Acquiring last-minute points

IHG and Choice let you purchase inexpensive points through the “Cash & Points” trick. IHG and Choice's normal prices are not particularly inexpensive, but there is a way to buy them at lower rates. The trick is to make a cash and points reservation and then cancel it. When you do, instead of refunding the cash and points you paid, you receive a refund of the normal amount of points required for an award reservation. This essentially allows you to purchase the difference at a low cost per point.

For example, it costs $115 plus 30,000 points to make a cash and points reservation at an IHG hotel that normally costs 50,000 points. If you cancel the reservation, instead of getting back the $115 and 30,000 points you spent, you’ll get back 50,000 points. IHG keeps your $115 and gives you back an extra 20,000 points. The cost of the extra points you wind up with is .575 cents per point. At Choice, you can use a similar trick to buy points at .80 cents each. Get Cheap IHG and Choice Points Using the Cash & Points Trick.

You can make reservations at high-end hotels that are part of the Preferred Hotel and Resorts program by purchasing Choice points. The Choice program isn’t only about Comfort and Quality Inns. You can use Choice points to book a room at most of the high-end independent hotels that are part of the Preferred Hotel and Resorts program. Book Independent Luxury Hotels with Choice Points.

If you collect Ultimate Rewards points, transferring to Hyatt is often an worthwhile use of your points. Unless you value business and first-class international award tickets at close to their “sticker prices”, Hyatt hotel rewards are one of the best uses of your Ultimate Rewards points.

At any hotel that is currently having a good point purchase promotion. Throughout the year, hotels run promotions where you can purchase points at lower prices, often 25-50% cheaper than the normal rates. During these promotions, it is much more likely that buying points would be cheaper than making a regular reservation. Acquiring More Hotel Points When They are On Sale.

Signing up for a credit card when you have more time

Of course, if you are planning a trip far enough ahead of time, you can often acquire the additional hotel points you need by signing up for a new credit card (and meeting the initial spending requirement). Credit Card Signup Bonuses: The Easiest Path to Free Airplane Tickets and Hotel Nights.

However, it takes time to receive a card, meet the spending requirement, and then receive your signup bonus. If you are under some time pressure, you can sometimes request that the credit card company overnight your new card. And for many cards, once you have made the initial spend, you can pay off your balance early and shorten the time until you receive your bonus.

Topping off your account when you need to make an award

You may already have a bunch of hotel points that you acquired from stays or that are left over from a credit card bonus, but not enough points to take advantage of a good award redemption opportunity. In this case, it can make sense to buy the extra points that you need, even at prices that would be too high to purchase all the points normally required.

For example, let’s say you are looking to book a $280 room at a Category 5 Marriott on a "standard" date. It takes 17,000 points plus $140 to get the room through a cash and points award and 35,000 points to book with a points-only award. The normal purchase price of 1.25 cents per point is normally too expensive to make sense. It would cost $352.50 ($212.50 + $140) to make the cash and points reservation (or $437.50 to make a normal award reservation). However, let say you already have 16,000 points in your account. You could buy the last 1,500 points that you need for only $20. This allows you to book the $280 room for your 16,000 points plus $160, giving you .75 cents in value for your points.

Guide to acquiring last-minute points

There are three ways to acquire additional hotel points when you need them. You can purchase them from the hotel program, you can transfer points from a credit card account, or you can transfer points from someone else’s account.

Most programs limit the amount of points that you can purchase per year. This limit doesn’t include any points you “purchase” using a cash and points reservation. If you need to exceed this limit, you can have someone else purchase the points and “gift” them to you. Usually the maximum amount that can be received through gifts is the same as the maximum amount you can purchase yourself—essentially doubling the amount of points that can be acquired.

Program	Purchase Points	Max Purchase	Transfer Between Accounts
Best Western	1.0	100,000	At same address
Choice	1.0	180,000	No
Hilton	1.0	80,000	Pool or transfer with up to ten other people
Hyatt	2.4	55,000	To anyone
IHG	1.0	150,000	To anyone at .5 cents per point
Marriott	1.25	100,000	Up to 100,000 points to any member's account for a $10 fee (waived for Gold and above).
Radisson	0.7	80,000	At same address
Wyndham	1.3	45,000	At 1.1 cents per point

Using the “Cash & Points” trick, you can purchase IHG points for .575 cents or sometimes lower (rather than 1.15 cents) and Choice points for .8 cents (rather than 1.1 cents).
If you use an IHG credit card to purchase IHG points, you'll get a 20% discount. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for the points you purchase via the Cash & Points trick. Unless IHG is running a point purchase promotion, it is still cheaper to use the Cash & Points trick, than to buy points the normal way, even with the 20% discount.
Other than transferring Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt, converting credit card points is hotel points is usually the last resort. It is "cheaper" to buy the hotel points, rather than using your valuable credit card points.

Program	Ultimate Rewards	Membership Rewards	ThankYou Points	Diners Club
Best Western	–	–	–	1250:3300
Choice	–	–	–	1250:2400
Hilton	–	1000:1000	1000:1500	1250:2000
Hyatt	1000:1000	–	–	1250:750
IHG	1000:1000	–	–	1250:1500
Marriott	1000:1000	1000:1000	–	1250:2250
Radisson	–	–	–	–
Wyndham	–	1000:500	–	1250:750