How to maximize a longer hotel stay by using the free night benefit

There are many ways to use your points to book hotels for your next vacation. Whether you are redeem points for an aspirational hotel or something more realistic, three main loyalty program will give you a free Wednesday or Thursday night.

That’s right: Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton title and IHG One Rewards allows you to get a free Wednesday or Thursday night when redeeming your stay points. This is a great opportunity to stay longer and maximize your points.

There are caveats to this benefit, as we’ll discuss in this guide. Be aware in advance, though, that you must stay at a hotel for your entire stay — you can’t use the free night on another stay. Now, let’s take a closer look at these three perks.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott’s Bonvoy loyalty program has undergone many changes over the past few years, including Marriott removes award rankings in early 2022.

One of the most useful perks of the Marriott Bonvoy program are stay five, pay for four preferential treatment when staying at the prize. When you redeem your Marriott points for rewards for staying five or more consecutive nights at any Marriott property — including Marriott’s all-inclusive resort — you get the lowest point value free night.

You don’t need to do anything special when redeem Marriott points. You’ll see the discount automatically reflected when you book rewards-eligible vacations using the Marriott website or mobile app.

You can use your free night rewards certificate for some of your stays. As long as you redeem your points during your four-night stay, you’ll still get the free night of the lowest point value.

Best of all, you can get more nights for free if you stay longer. If you exchange it for a longer stay, Marriott will consider the entire stay when determining which night is the night with the lowest point value and thereby determine which nights you get free. For example, consider this 15-night stay, where you’ll get three free nights:

You can use your stay for the year, paying for a four with Marriott’s Point Enhancement Feature. Doing so may allow you to lock award availability at properties that are hard to book when you’re short on points, but keep in mind that the points for your reservation won’t be booked until the points are deducted. your account. As a result, the reward rate may increase between the time you book and complete your reservation.

if you exchange Marriott points for premium rooms, the five-person, pay-for-four offer will only apply to the standard bonus rate. As a result, you’ll need to use additional points or pay a cash copay for a higher class room each night of your stay (including free nights).

Finally, if you want to use awards night for a five-person stay, you can pay for four stays, but you’ll need to use one prize per night, including the free night.

Related: Are you eligible for a new Marriott Bonvoy card? This chart tells you whether or not

The Hilton title the program uses dynamic pricing for its awards. But, if you keep Hilton honors elite statusyou’ll automatically get a free Thursday night when you stay in a standard room bonus of five nights or more.

Hilton will not charge you points on the 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th nights of a 20-night stay. You’ll need to pay the full standard room rate for all of your other nights’ stays. However, you can only get up to four free nights per stay. Here’s an example of a 20-night stay:

You cannot cash out or redeem Points & Bonuses if you want a free Thursday night. Also, you won’t get a free Thursday night when redeem Hilton points for a superior room.

You must have at least Hilton Honors Silver status to receive a free Thursday night per stay with the standard room bonus. You can won the title of Hilton Honors by meeting the requirements set for the number of nights, length of stay or points. However, it is much easier to gain Hilton Honors elite status as a privilege of one of the following cards:

Information about the Hilton Aspire card has been independently collected by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: Last Minute Strategies to Achieve Elite Status by Hilton Honors

inside IHG One Rewards Program, the ability to get a free night when redeeming points is more limited compared to Marriott and Hilton. In particular, IHG’s Wednesday night bonus privilege is only available to members with the following cards:

If you hold any of these IHG Rewards credit cards and book a standard room for a stay of four nights or more, no points will be awarded every Wednesday.

You’ll automatically see this discount when you log into your IHG account linked to an eligible IHG Rewards card and search for an award-winning stay of four nights or more. You can even get more nights at no charge when you book longer stays by using IHG points.

You can use this privilege an unlimited number of times per year. It does not apply to paid stays or Points & Cash bookings; you have to exchange IHG points Stay four or more consecutive nights at the same property to get the fourth night free.

Related: Super easy way to redeem IHG 4th night rewards

If you redeem points with Hilton or IHG for a longer stay, it might be worth the extra hotel credit card into your wallet to unlock this valuable privilege. Wednesday night rewards are one of many reasons TPG’s Katie Genter happily paying the annual fee on her IHG Premier card.

Additional reporting by Ehsan Haque, Katie Genter and Chris Dong.