Worldhotels launches a loyalty scheme – Peakpoints – and 3,000 Avios per stay

Worldhotels is a marketing group that represents 500 hotels across 250 different locations in 65 countries.   Rather like Leading Hotels of the World, it allows properties to remain independent whilst still benefitting from marketing synergies.

Until the end of 2014, Worldhotels is offering 3,000 Avios points per stay.   Only 160 hotels are participating, and a 2-night stay is required at the ‘Triple Miles’ rate, but this is still a very decent deal if you can find a property in a location you need to be.

(The text mentions ‘1,500 miles per stay’ with a * next to it.  Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the * and you will see that Avios is an exception to this, earning 3,000 per stay.)

Oddly, despite having 26 airline partners, British Airways is not amongst them.  You will need to credit your stay to an Iberia Plus account, and then move the Avios across to BA or avios.com via ‘Combine My Avios’ online.

Peakpoints – from April 24th

In late April, Worldhotels is also launching its first loyalty scheme – Peakpoints.  This is NOT compatible with earning airline miles, unfortunately, so if you wanted to take advantage of the Avios promotion above then you will need to give Peakpoints a miss.

Rather like iprefer, the loyalty scheme of the Preferred Hotels marketing group, the benefits are fixed as a percentage of your spend.  In this case, you will receive 2 points per €1 of your spend, which each point getting you 1.25 Eurocents back.

The upside of this model is that you can redeem at any hotel at any time for any room.  Redemptions must be made in chunks of 2,000 points, ie €25.

One interesting thing is that the scheme will not be issuing membership cards.  The programme is entirely online, with members encouraged to use an app to show their credentials at a property.

So far, there is absolutely nothing about Peakpoints that jumps out at me, especially as a £1,000 spend would only generate £25 of credit.  The rules even imply that you can only use the vouchers when staying as a guest, which would rule out taking your partner for a free meal at your nearest property.

The expiry rule for your points also seems incredibly strict, with points earned expiring at the end of the next calendar year.  Points from a stay in December 2014 would need to be used or forfeited by 31st December 2015.

Upside comes from talk in the terms and conditions of ‘Double Points’ and ‘Triple Points’ promotions, which may well be worth a look.  I will keep you updated with the scheme as it develops.

(To see our complete list of all current hotel promotions for the major chains, click here to visit our ‘Hotel Promos’ page or use the link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)