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HfP EXCLUSIVE: Get an extra Hotels.com Rewards free night credit with your next stay

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Hotels.com has offered Head for Points readers an exclusive promotion code.

And, unlike many Hotels.com promotions, this one is valid on virtually every hotel on their site – including all branded hotels.

When you make a booking at Hotels.com by 8th September, you will receive one free extra credit in Hotels.com Rewards.  The minimum stay required is 2 nights, the maximum stay 28 days.

If you book a stay of two nights, it will count as three nights towards the ten you need for a free night.  A stay of three nights will earn four credits etc.

If you are working your way towards a free night but are a little short, this offer could push you over the line quickly and release the ‘locked in’ value you have built up.

Why we like Hotels.com Rewards

A lot of people end up, by choice or by default, splitting their stays across a number of different hotel chains. They do a lot of nights, but never enough to build up status or a decent number of points.

For these people, Hotels.com Rewards is a better way to go.

Hotels com Rewards Review

Hotels.com will be familiar to most readers. It is a huge hotel booking portal covering pretty much every corner of the planet.

You won’t find Hotels.com much cheaper than booking a hotel directly. When a property is part of a bigger chain with a ‘Best Rate Guarantee’, you can be certain it won’t be cheaper. However, the majority of the properties on the site count for ‘Hotels.com Rewards’ (285,000 hotels, which is about 10 times more than all of the ‘big seven’ loyalty schemes combined.)

Hotels.com Rewards (their home page is here) – previously known as Welcome Rewards – is an idiot-proof loyalty scheme:

You earn 1 credit for every night you book, whatever the chain

When you have got 10 credits, you get a free night

The value of the free night is the average price you paid for those 10 nights

Your credits don’t expire as long as you have one stay every 12 months

There aren’t any catches when you redeem.  You can pick any property on Hotels.com that takes part in Hotels.com Rewards (ie most of them) and you can pay the difference if you want to book a hotel which is more expensive than the value of your free night voucher.

There is a lot of upside here:

ALL of your stays (assuming the hotels you book are in Hotels.com Rewards and most are) will count towards free nights. No more ‘wasted’ stays.

Your free night can be used to book any room on Hotels.com. Most reward schemes restrict the ability to book club rooms, suites, family room etc. That is not a problem with Hotels.com Rewards.

When travelling, you are free to stay at the hotel which is most convenient for where you need to be – no need to mess around with badly reviewed properties or out of the way hotels purely to find one in your favourite chain.

The only snag is that Hotels.com bookings do not count for points or stay credit in the loyalty scheme of the chain where you are staying.  You may get your status benefits but it is down to the goodwill of the hotel.  If you are booking independent hotels, or hotels chains where you do not collect their points, Hotels.com could make sense.

How do you get your extra Hotels.com Rewards free night credit?

The good news is that this special Head for Points code can be used at virtually any hotel that can be booked on the Hotels.com website.  There are no restrictions on what chains can be used.

Here is the process:

Stage 1:

Visit Hotels.com via this link, or any other link on this page.  The code will only work if you visit the Hotels.com UK site via a link on Head for Points.

Stage 2:

You must log into your Hotels.com Rewards account before booking.

Stage 3:

Select your room, which must be:

  • a pre-paid one
  • for a TWO-NIGHT or longer stay
  • completed before 31st December

Stage 4:

Enter the code RWD1H4PA17 when booking.

If you don’t see the price breakdown with the bonus free night highlighted, as in the picture below, it hasn’t been applied properly.  This could mean that you’ve visited Hotels.com via a third party and not via a link on Head For Points.

Hotels.com rewards night coupon

The last day to book is 8th September.

You can only claim one free night credit per Hotels.com Rewards account.

What is the small print?

You can find the full T&C’s on this page of the Hotels.com website.  There are no major exclusions or issues, however.

The last word ….

We’d like to thank Hotels.com for making this offer available to Head for Points readers.  If you collect Hotels.com Rewards free night credits, or you think that this is a good time to start, an extra credit will give you a good push towards your next free night.

Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.
Category

General

Comments (80)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Doug M says:
    26 Aug26 August 15:30

    OT – Amex SPG. Trying to activate and it says can’t be added to existing Amex account. Glitch or the way it works?

    • Alan says:
      26 Aug26 August 15:38

      What route & you trying to use to activate? I’ve found the app sometimes mucks up. I always go to americanexpress.co.uk/activate then enter card details and then login to online a/c. Seems to work OK (just did so again today for another card!)

    • Genghis says:
      26 Aug26 August 15:47

      It happens for me too but I don’t mind just creating another online account. Not sure why it does it. I even clear out old closed accounts.

      • Alan says:
        26 Aug26 August 15:52

        Haha I still haven’t removed old cards from my sole online a/c (well apart from the separate one you get for the Plat ICC) – I like seeing how many of each type I’ve had previously 😛

    • Rob says:
      26 Aug26 August 16:07

      Happened to my wife, ended up with 2 accounts

    • Phillip says:
      26 Aug26 August 16:23

      I had the same issue. Called and it was sorted without having a separate account. Apparently with the SPG card, there is a lag between the card being sent out and being able to add it alongside your other cards.

      • Alan says:
        26 Aug26 August 16:25

        Hmm, not sure I believe that explanation from Amex! I think their system is just a bit flakey – esp if trying to activate via app. Never had an issue via website (and this is my 5th SPG card :P)

    • Doug M says:
      26 Aug26 August 16:29

      Thanks all. I’ll try again tomorrow. Was using the americanexpress.co.uk/activate route in Firefox. Enter card details, DOB year and then existing credentials, then failure message.

      • Alan says:
        26 Aug26 August 16:55

        Hmm weird. That was what I used this afternoon myself. I had already logged into my account though to check on another card, then went to the activation page and didn’t have to re-login. Wonder if it might be worth a shot trying that?

      • Graham Walsh says:
        26 Aug26 August 20:17

        I’ve had this before. Had to call them several times to get it added manually by “IT”.

        • Sam Goss says:
          29 Aug29 August 07:56

          I’ve actually found the app more robust for activation than the website weirdly – can never get that to work!

  • Matt says:
    26 Aug26 August 15:44

    Thanks Rob. People should be able to get value from this offer. It’s come a day or two late for me – I’m flying home today (Lloyds upgrade voucher) from a 32 night stay in the US. 28 nights booked via hotels.com … yes they do seem to generate an extraordinary number of emails but the sheer number and variety of properties available and the effective 10% rebate via the rewards scheme make them my go-to scheme when travelling. In order to get full value from a reward night it’s worth noting that your voucher can’t be set against taxes so you will be wasting some of your voucher value if you use it for a booking where it covers the room+taxes. Tax will still be payable.

    OT – further thanks to Rob and all the HFP contributors. I’ve had a fantastic holiday and it’s been way better because of you 🙂

  • Anna says:
    26 Aug26 August 20:24

    OT but on the subject of hotels.com. I have just checked into a hotel booked via them, as they are usually excellent, and been stung with a load of taxes which do not appear anywhere on my booking. I am sure they are legally obliged to display any additional fees on top of the room price?

    • Anna says:
      26 Aug26 August 20:39

      I checked my booking form very carefully as I’ve been staying at this place for years as a timeshare owner and am very familiar with all the extras they charge for – it clearly states “the total price payable to the hotel is $xyz.” No mention of any extra fees.

      • Alan says:
        26 Aug26 August 21:57

        Sounds like worth taking up with property at checkout and failing that going back to Hotels.com for the difference in cost if they didn’t forewarn you.

    • Genghis says:
      26 Aug26 August 20:57

      That’s the case for sure in the UK. Not sure about elsewhere. Not “resort fees” are they?

      • Anna says:
        26 Aug26 August 23:20

        No,”government taxes”, which I’m aware of but I think still should have been displayed with the room price.

    • Rob says:
      26 Aug26 August 22:12

      They have decent customer service – if you complain I reckon they will refund you. They have got quite good recently at, for example, listing city taxes during the booking process when they are collected by the hotel.

      • Anna says:
        26 Aug26 August 23:22

        I’ve contacted them via their online form. Ironically, the Cayman Islands have more ways of squeezing taxes out of tourists than anywhere I’ve ever been!

        • Anna says:
          26 Aug26 August 23:25

          Loved my 12 hours in CW on my 2 4 1, by the way, apart from the last 90 minutes – the plane stops in Nassau where they appear to offload all the booze and goodies so on the short leg across to GCM all you get is some orange juice and a small box of nuts and raisins!

  • Ade says:
    27 Aug27 August 12:53

    O/t (but as this is the latest thread)

    I’ll be returning through T5 early am, as the little one has just signed up for heathrow rewards, so a trip to whs landside is in order.

    Can anyone tell me which gift vouchers they sell, i’ve seen mention of john lewis and waitrose, are there any others. I can’t find any mention on their website etc..

    Thanks

    • Paulm says:
      27 Aug27 August 15:03

      Went into a non airport one earlier and saw iTunes, Netflix, Uber and pizza express. There were others but can’t recall now!

  • Lee says:
    27 Aug27 August 18:11

    Rob, why do you keep deleting my posts? Very disappointing 🙁

    • Rob says:
      27 Aug27 August 22:16

      I don’t. Might be in comment spam but I can’t see spam on a mobile.

  • Doug M says:
    28 Aug28 August 09:06

    Also, sort of on topic. If you got to hotels com through a shopping portal like Avios, you get and award of say 3000 Avios. Then often some 3 months after the stay is complete it’ll magically change to 1800 Avios and post. The small print allows for this, but it’s somewhat deceitful that they don’t make it clear what rate will apply in what circumstances.

  • Cate says:
    28 Aug28 August 13:59

    Assuming we put all our spending towards travel points is this the most reasonable way of getting accommodation in non loyalty brands i.e. Mandarin Oriental?

    • Rob says:
      29 Aug29 August 15:32

      Yes, I think so – IF you are booking cheaper pre-paid rates.

      If you book Best Flexible Rates, you should use a VIrtuoso or Preferred Partner travel agent (like our Emyr / Bon Vivant, or Amex FHR) to book as the value of the extra benefits is substantial and outweighs what hotels.com would give you – and you’ll have a better stay.

      • Cate says:
        29 Aug29 August 22:10

        Thanks Rob. The MO has an offer of an extra night for 3 or 4 night bookings so with this I may get another one free as well. Will look at your preferred travel partners as it’s time for us to move up a step as normal hotel stays aren’t doing it for us anymore….

  • Paul W says:
    29 Aug29 August 21:48

    Good luck with this.

    I have twice tried to use a promotion that would give me double or extra reward nights. Despite following all the terms and conditions twice they failed to post.

    Customer service often use the call back when the 90 days have passed route and it’s possible after a few attempts to find a good agent who can credit the nights on the spot. Those that were credited were for £0.00.

    I was alarmed at this at first but if you do the maths a credit of a number of nights at £0.00 makes no difference to the average room rate for 10 nights.

    Anyway, I wish you luck with this promo. I’ve had my fair share of bad experience as a good member for 7 years already. To be fair I’ve also experienced some amazing customer care but there is a lack of consistency and a real lack of hierarchy and ownership when it comes to following things up.

    • Rob says:
      29 Aug29 August 22:15

      The good news with this one is that we know whose heads to bang together …..

    • Callum says:
      30 Aug30 August 03:08

      Yes it does…

      10 nights at £100 = £100 average
      9 nights at £100 + 1 night at £0 = £90 average

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