If you’re a regular here at Travel Is Free, you know that my wife and I are full time travelers. This is basically for no other reasons than; 1) we like to travel, and 2) it’s cheaper for us to live out of hotels than it is to pay rent.

This was all a theory at one point, but now it’s proven true. For the last year and half, Carrie and I have kept track of every dime we spend and posted our expenses publicly (although the monthly summaries are easier to read). Thus, we know exactly what we spend on hotels, and even what programs are profitable.

Just for comparison, our rent in downtown Charlottesville, VA ended up being over $1,000 a month.

Here’s the funny thing now: Our average hotel is a 4.1 star hotel, and we don’t use credit card points for hotels. We need too many hotels to generate points from credit cards, so we go a different direction.

Basically, the backbone of our hotel strategy is hotel promotions. When they are big, we go big.

So how much do we spend a night actually paying for 4+ star hotels every night for the last year? To be exact, we spend an average of $19.59 per night. Or what would be $588 a month on hotels.

Now the other half of the theory that we can travel cheaper is that all our expenses would be lower. No car, no phone, no bills. Just travel. But that’s another post, and I’ll stick to hotels for this one.

So I’ll give some more stats.

In the last 338 recorded hotels (on my hotel spreadsheet):

• $6,623 on hotels total
• 1,890,000 points
• 42 stays (out of 150) with breakfast
• 40 stays with lounge access (which would also include breakfast)
• 253 award nights (out of 338)
• An average of 7,470 points per redemption
• 85 paid nights
• An average of $77.91 on a paid night
• An average of $19.59 per night cost total

Per paid night I’m getting 3 free nights.

This is not credit cards, not manufactured spend, not voodoo… it’s just promotion-chasing.

I can go over all the tactics to maximize but believe me, the thing that has worked for us is big promotions. The IHG Big Win, Radisson/Club Carlson had given 50,000 points on one stay, etc…

I don’t know how to stress this enough, but promotions are so key to my strategy. This is why I’ve talked about the Into The Nights so much

Read: IHG’s Into The Nights for Beginners

Read: I Promise To Rock IHG’s Into The Nights: Best Promo Ever

And if Radisson does the 50,000 point thing again, I’ll go big again. I remember one time taking my parents to a hotel and getting us all accounts and rooms. I found a hotel that was $55 a night, and generated 220,000 points for ~$220.

Then on the other side, I really maximized Club Carlson because the credit card gives a buy one get one free on award stays, and the Radisson Blu in Budapest was 9,000 points a night (now 15,000). So I took my 220,000 points and was using 9,000 points for 2 nights. My average nightly redemption there was 4,500 points.

At that rate I could have spent 48 nights in Budapest, just from the $220 I spent. Why I didn’t just stay in that beautiful town for an average of $4.5 a night? I have no idea… If I could go back I would. Please Radisson! Run that promo again!

So while it may seem crazy on the front end to get 4 rooms, when you’re a town away from your parents’ house, it can pay off.

 

When a big promo comes out:

You need to first, figure out how to maximize. Cheaper hotels, add on more earning, better redemptions, rebates, etc…

Then, you need to calculate a realistic redemption rate. It’s easy to say, “I’ll spend them all on PointBreaks for 5,000 a night“, but the question is “will you”. If not, then don’t calculate 5,000, and pick a more realistic average, like 18,000. For IHG, I do a few high priced points hotels, then a lot of sales (like PointBreaks) and my average is near 10,000.

Then based on the average redemption, what is your cost per night?

Now there are two ways to calculate this. If you spend $100 on a hotel that will generate 2 free nights, how do you calculate? Well, did you need the $100 hotel in the first place? If you wouldn’t have gotten a hotel anyways, you spend $50 a night on hotels. But if you were going to stay somewhere that night anyways, you really got 3 nights out of that hotel… the one you paid for and the 2 eventual nights from the points generated. Then it’s more like $33 a night.

My rule of thumb is that if I can get a good free night for $20 or less, I should go all out. Now “good” free night means, one that I’ll actually be able to use. So no timeshare thing where I have to stay in odd Mexican hotels for $20 a night… I mean $20 will be used in my desired travels for a desirable hotel.

We’re not divas. We’ve slept on beaches, busses, couches, and the crappiest hotels in Peru. But my standard goes up if only for work reasons. I work online, which is why we can travel. However, I have to work, and I work better from nicer hotels. Not the nicest, but ones with a desk, good internet, etc..

Based on that, $20 is my go all out price.

 

Non-Promotion Strategies

None of the following will be my go to, but rather ways to maximize what’s already happening. The problem for me is scale. I need a year of hotels and “regular” things can be done at scale cheaply. Unless you’re really patient.

Best Rate Guarantees

Best Rate Guarantees can be a great way to get a free one night stay on a layover or stopover. Especially in an expensive place, that free night could be worth the periodic search.

Read: The Complete Guide to Best Rate Guarantees

 

IHG Steroids

IHG has a bunch of promo codes I add to my account and they magically give me a ton of points on my next stay. However, once you use the promo codes, they’re done, so they’re better on new accounts and ones new to these promo codes.

Read: Earning IHG Rewards Points on Steroids

Read: The Complete Guide to IHG Rewards

 

Best Western BRGs

I already mentioned BRGs, but one that in theory could be a source of continually free nights that earn points is Best Western’s Best Rate Guarantee. If you find a lower rate you get a $100 BW gift card.

The crazy thing is that the next hotel, you could also BRG and get a $100 giftcard, and then pay for the hotel with a gift card as well. And so on and so on.

Read: Best Westerns Best Rate Guarantee

 

Hyatt

This is small time stuff but if you’re a Diamond member with Hyatt they have a guarantee that the lounge will be opened, or you get 2,500 Hyatt points. Now I think there’s is a list on FlyerTalk of hotels with lounges closed for whatever reason. Pick a hotel that’s 5,000 points a night and get 2,500 back.

And if they don’t get your bed type right, it’s 5,000 points. This happened to us once. We requested a king, but being a family resort/destination we got two twins. Well worth the 5,000 points. Business hotels have kings usually, and family hotels have two beds usually. If you can maximize that, go for it.

 

Conclusion

Well, hopefully this knocks out another question on the FAQ page. The question was about Europe based strategies, and while all these apply to Europe, my guess is that there’s a question behind the question. How do you generate hotel points without credit card bonuses?

Promotions. Big promotions like IHG’s current one, Radisson’s old 50k are great examples. Maximize earnings. Then maximize with “best uses” for each redemption.