How to get free hotel nights – choose a reward program

Free hotel nights with membership

Wondering which hotel chain has the best membership program to reward your loyalty – meaning, which program will give you free nights the fastest.

Most hotel rewards work the same way : basic membership, silver status after ~25 nights, gold at ~50 nights, black at ~75 nights (also called concierge, diamond, …).

As a “black” member of three different programs, Wyndham rewards, Radisson Rewards, and LeClub Accor Hotels, and traveling often, the question always remains : which program is best to use, and which hotel will bring the most points ?

In short, here is the answer : Radisson Rewards is the best choice, with on average 1 night free every 13 nights as basic member, and 1 night free every 8 nights with the highest membership level. See below the detail.

Second best choices are Wyndham gardens as basic member, Le Club Accor / IHG / Marriott Rewards with highest membership level.

With any program, to maximize the amount of reward nights you can get, it is important to go up with the higher loyalty tier, as it always let you earn more reward points per dollar spent in their premises, and therefore reach faster a higher amount of rewards nights with points.

Plus, by doing special actions, which are often indicated in their newsletters, such as staying a given amount of nights in some specific hotels, you can get free hotel points with these special competitions!

How many points earned per night?

See below an analysis of how many points are offered per 1 $ / € spent in the hotel reward program – most of the time, not only including the nights, but also restaurant bills.

Points per 1X spent as Basic member, Silver level member, Gold member, and Black member

• Radisson Reward: 20, 23, 27, 35 US dollars,
  
• Accor ALL: 2.5, 3.1, 3.7, 4.4 Euros,
  
• LeClub Accor budget: 1.25, 1.55, 1.85, 2.2 Euros,
  
• IHG: 10, 11, 15, 20 US dollars,
  
• Hhonors: 10, 11.5, 12.5, 15 US dollars,
  
• Wyndham rewards: 10, 10, 10, 10 US dollars,
  
• Marriott rewards: 10, 12, 12.5, 15 US dollars,
  
• SPG: 2, 3, 3.5 US dollars,
  
• Best Western: 10, 11, 13, 15 US dollars.
  

How many paid nights to get one free

 

Adjusting all to Euros (1€ = 0.89$), and taking reward program participating hotels in London and Paris, here is the average nights necessary to get a free night per program, with lowest (basic) and highest (black) membership level :

• Radisson Reward 8 nights,
  
• Accor ALL 11 nights,
  
• LeClub Accor budget 23 nights,
  
• IHG 11 nights,
  
• HHonors 18 nights,
  
• Wyndham rewards 15 nights,
  
• Marriott rewards 11 nights,
  
• SPG 16 nights,
  
• Best Western 15 nights.
  

How are the Wyndam reward nights?

The Wyndham Rewards is one of the best hotel rewards programs for free nights because all hotel nights are worth the same amount of points!

Therefore, it is possible to stay for free in their most expensive hotel, for the same amount of points you would be spending to stay at their lowest tier hotel.

For example, that’s how we ended up spending an amazing weekend paid with free hotel points from corporate trips, at the Ramada Plaza Jumeirah Beach Dubai hotel, for free!

Best hotel reward program

Generally, with Radisson Rewards, you’ll get one free night every 13 paid nights as a basic member and 8 as Concierge member, against 40 with LeClub Accor budget as a basic member, and 23 as Platinum member.

These numbers being a maximum, as hotels generally offer points for money spent on services (restaurant, spa…), but also have regular offers, for example points x3 for weekend stays at a specific period, … allowing members to get free nights faster !